Group items tagged

Finally found an article that focuses specifically on middle school educators and social media. The more and more I envelop myself with the Knowledge Quest journal, the more I want a subscription. I recommend taking a look at this publication and article. This article puts an emphasis on Web 2.0 apps like Ning and Wikis, and the use of webinars to help mitigate fears surrounding the usage of social media in the middle grade levels.

Sounds like a useful article. I have never heard of Ning or Knowledge Quest. I went to check in out but the link is down.

In this peer-reviewed article by researcher, Gail Dickinson, she begins by offering a anecdote about copier techicians and how in their initial practice, they did not have a network of technicians to share their craft with. The body of knowledge they observed through trial and error was vast, so they developed a network of like individuals to share and grow their knowledge beyond previously perceived capacity. Dickinson then makes a close analogy between these techicians and the current state and practice of librarians on the topic of publishing. Quick good article.

Found in this article, author, William Bauer, shares an anecdote of a teacher that is seeing the value in becoming connected via Web 2.0 tools. In these tools, Bauer discusses their importance as they relate to developing a PLN in the teaching profession. Descriptions and focus are given to RSS, blogs, Podcast, Wikis, Twitter and News sites. Bauer suggest that educators should "get started with your technology-assisted PLN by setting up a newsreader and subscribing to resources of interest. Both you and your students will be the beneficiaries."

This article really just digs in to what connectivism is and analyzes the different ways it is implemented in post secondary online courses. The author considers the use of technology in education and makes the claim that online enrollment has increased due to the recent boom in technology. The article goes on to explain how students with technology involvement in their courses tended to outperform students taking more traditional courses.

This article discuss the different ways school librarians have access to self-regulated professional development opportunities in the form of online personal learning networks. Examples include discussion lists, webinars, blogs and twitter feeds. A twitter group was researched and was found beneficial.

I didn't even consider how librarians could be brought into the PLN era. When thinking about my school librarian, the first thought is how she deals with books all day. Then you have to consider their use of online databases and the potential to converse with professionals all over the world.

This was an interesting read because my soon-to-be sister-in-law works in a university library and I had a conversation with her last summer about how technology affects her work and how she uses technology to help her, instead of librarians becoming obsolete as many think they will.

This article discusses computer-supportive collaborative learning and the learning theory of connectivism. It discusses the pros and cons of connectivism and how it supports a collaborative learning environment. It also discusses how a course should be designed when integrating collaborative technologies.

Explores how personality affects interactions and perception of interactions amongst learners. Noting that there is sometimes tension between being connected enough to benefit from plethora of choices on the internet & still experience individual, personal development. An important component of understanding connectivism is to never assume that those who do not show overt involvement are not as engaged as those who do.

This article discusses the challenge to translate evidence-based practice, an important and necessary feature in public health, to communities of practice that disseminates and applies the evidence-based practice.

This article provides an introduction and overview for personal learning environments and digital learning pedagogy.

Beth, good find I find that I very much agree with Markum in that one of the "best ways to make an impact on learners is to mentor them through project-based learning." Learning shouldn't be passive or a spectator sport. Students that are involved, hands on, through projects applying the materials that they are learning are more likely to master the concepts in my experience.

This article touches on one of the most important aspects of the discussions on personal learning environments. Students and educators have to be taught and mentored when it comes to internet usage and how to sift all of the information and resources that are available.Teachers who imagine they can just let the students lose and all will be well will have many unforeseen difficulties.

Authors present communities of practice (CoP) as groups with a common desire for change, as providing opportunities for collaboration and reflection, and as catalysts for development of societal products and tools. They note that CoP transcend traditional barriers/demographics and reach groups formed by individual selection. CoP, while also focused on collaboration and dialogue as well as the development desired outcomes, are more open to sharing with the broader community than other collaborative models. Discussion of use of CoP in context of early childhood intervention.

David Warlick discusses the advantages and uses of new social media technologies as key components of growing PLNs. He focuses on synchronous, semi-synchronous, and asynchronous platforms. Asynchronous platforms allow us to domesticate the information landscape as opposed to hunting and gathering pieces of information. "Learners become amplifiers as they engage in reflective and knowledge building activities, connect and reconnect what they learn, add value to existing knowledge and ideas, and then re-issue them back into the network to be captured by others through their PLN."

This paper points to the need to develop a more rounded picture of the relationship(s) between the social contexts that surround schools, teachers and technology use.

This was a short source but it detailed how teachers can easily create a PLN using the Independent School Educators Network. From this resource they have access to professional development opportunities ranging from Google apps, iPads, Digital Citizenship, and others.

I was reminded that Google tries to rank sites for me based upon what it thinks I want. David Loertscher addressed siloing, which means your information group is too small and possibly too like-minded. Loertscher advocates that one should open your net just a bit. He suggests seeking diverse experts to follow on the Internet and identifies some of his favorites to gain a variety of voices.

This is another resource from Albertson's Library. If you click on the link you will be prompted for your MyBoise login information before being redirected to the article. This article looks at how professional learning networks are developed and why they are successful. It describes how people use their social network to reach out and find the content they are most interested in. It also talks about networked learning being focused on the learner whether the learning is personal, collaborative or collective. It describes the importance of having a far reaching social network to facilitate the learning and how this approach is being adopted by educational institutions.

This is another resource that requires you to log into Albertson's Library using your MyBoiseState credentials. This article's focus is on middle school teachers and looks at the MSP2 Math and Science Pathways project. The project was focused on providing connected online experiences for math and science through the use of technology. It discusses how they used Ning and Wikis for collaboration and also presents some of the findings from the MSP2 project.

Research regarding the benefits of being a member of a community of practice. While the information seems a bit forced (the communities of practice used for the study were exclusively face-to-face communities), the benefits of being a member of a community of practice still seem valid. According to the study, they are (1) autonomy and freedom to think beyond, (2) sources to ideas, (3) sounding board, (4) intellectual discussion, (5) like-mindedness, (6) alternative perspective and cross-pollination of ideas, (7) overcoming intellectual isolation, (8) move towards collaborative research, (9) response to research pressure, (10) synergy and leverage, (11) time and energy saving, (12) an informal ground for learning and training, (13) fostering of tangible returns, (14) driving research, (15) opportunities to met, (16) networking, information sharing and updates, (17) support and guidance, (18) sense of belonging, (19) identity, and (20) intrinsic fulfillment. As the article is about higher education, there are certainly some benefits that are more specific to their context, but I think the findings of the article are still valid.

Technology is changing the way people can learn. With constant access to the internet, learning can take place all the time and everywhere. This is especially true with online learning. Connectivism is the theory that claims knowledge exists in the world, not in just an individual. This theory is what drives good online learning practices. The four major concepts that describe effective online teaching using connectivism are establish the feeling of the online classroom, create a social presence within the class, use activities and technology to make meaningful learning experiences and also to teach and guide your students through the learning process. These four concepts are best used within a social and learning community like Facebook or Blackboard that helps to connect the learners and the teacher. 

I thought this was an interesting because the way the classroom is constantly changing there is the opportunity to learn anywhere. A perfect example is this course! I have taken classes with people from all over the world through BSU due to the advancements in technology. The fact that the connectivism theory embraces the knowledge of the world, goes hand in hand with the effectiveness of online education. Social networking is another way that those connections can be made.