Group items tagged

Another website that provides the opportunity to get videos streamed live into the classroom. These are general produced by PBS and A&E.

Abstract Distance education as a primary means of instruction is expanding significantly at the college and university level. Simultaneously, the growth of social networking sites (SNS) including Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace is also rising among today's college students. An increasing number of higher education instructors are beginning to combine distance education delivery with SNSs. However, there is currently little research detailing the educational benefits associated with the use of SNSs. Non-commercial, education-based SNSs, such as Ning in Education, have been recently shown to build communities of practice and facilitate social presence for students enrolled in distance education courses. In order to evaluate the largely unexplored educational benefits of SNSs, we surveyed graduate students enrolled in distance education courses using Ning in Education, an education-based SNS, based on their attitudes toward SNSs as productive online tools for teaching and learning. The results of our study suggest that education-based SNSs can be used most effectively in distance education courses as a technological tool for improved online communications among students in higher distance education courses.

This is a really great technology integration matrix with videos and ideas.

The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, constructive, goal directed (i.e., reflective), authentic, and collaborative (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003).

This article identified a massive discrepancy between educational researchers and educational practitioners (i.e. teachers) and called for a new collaborative approach to research in which the two factions work together to build communities of practice "based on collective expertise and designed to scrutinize and improve education." CoPs are a new way to promote dialogue and inquiry on current educational issues and topics, taking the former idea of CoPs as primarily for PD to a new level.

A cognitive impairment is a condition where your child has some problems with ability to think and learn. Children with a cognitive impairment often have trouble with such school subjects as math and reading. A cognitive impairment also affects how a person will functions in everyday life, e.g., getting dressed and feeding oneself.

By: Eitenne C. Wenger and William M. Snyder Wenger, E. C., & Snyder, W. M. (2000). Communities of practice: The organizational frontier. Harvard business review, 78(1), 139-146. The first article I started with was a Harvard Business review entry regarding communities of practice within organizations. While my other articles focused on the education world and describe actions within the social environment, this article took a different approach in explaining the inner workings CofP's play in the office. The fundamental meaning communities of practice represent go unchanged, but it is interesting that this article puts a table and explanation for the differences other office groups represent, such as an informal network, project team, and formal work group. This distinction allows for other varied communities of practice to be represented. Such as the education field and social psychology. Wenger and Snyder then take the article one step further by explaining the uses of CoPs for management and how to facilitate their growth for strong company cultures.

This article is great that CoPs and PLNs (PLEs) build upon one another to drive a foundational strategy. The primary group might only be a few people but will continue to build to the point that the entire organization is involved. I also think it is important to discuss how this is utilized not only in education but also in business (or other fields). Great pick Jason!

I liked some of the real world examples for benefits of CoP's. The story of the technician who came up with the pneumatic tube idea that was ulitmately adopted because of support from his fellow technicians was really cool to hear.

http://arxiv.org/ is a social networking site that is hosted by Cornell University Library. It is used to share working papers and to actually publish academic papers. It is widely used in the quantitative sciences and is beginning to displace actual journals.

This article talks about the benefits of virtual field trips. It also talks about a specific school near Pittsburgh that took a virtual field trip through videoconferencing. The students did an e-Mission to learn about earth Science.

Discusses communities of practice and how they play a role in a time where connectivism is being introduced.

Students interact with each other around the globe, helping them become aware of other cultures and issues faced by different countries.

This cartoon demonstrates the irony in learning from an anti-technology article presented as an e-book.

In this post by Stephen Downes, he discusses the generations of technologies and how this coincides with the development of elearning. The last portion of this article brings it back to connectivism.

On this website you can create and publish an e-book. The books are small picture book style books. The graphics included are fun whimsical style graphics, but you can also add your own pictures or graphics. I saw one book created by a teacher called The Rubric Teacher. The teacher created the book as a cute reminder that the students needed to follow the rubric when working on a project. This is a great way of emphasizing something that often gets ignored in a fun way the students will remember.

This is an online eBook creator. It is free if you want to share or embed the book on a website. You can also pay if you want the book to be printed for a hard copy.