Group items tagged

This study delves into the formal and informal aspects of networks. It highlights the need for informal in a teachers' complex job, but the struggles with qualifying/managing the occurrence. It also speaks to administrations delicate roll as a "gate-keeper" or "barrier". Interesting read. 

Nice find Cassie. While the study is lengthy to read it is full of excellent information. I believe the ladder half of the text (discussion and key points sections) is where the most valuable information lies. I always appreciative objectivity and honesty, and the authors of this study were clear that networks aren't for everyone. Everyone is a unique and distinct learner so to blanket the idea of a network as something that is a "must" for effective professional development wouldn't be fair. Yet, it does acknowledge that from a team initiative perspective, networks are a blank canvas and platform for maintaining open communication so all parties involved grow.

This paper discusses how Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) integrate formal and informal learning and help students self-regulate learning in "higher education contexts" through social media. Connectivism has given rise to the idea that "the community is the curriculum", so institutions should foster the creation of communities among their students to allow them a more personalized education. PLEs are the tools, services and communities that learners choose to use as they pursue knowledge. PLEs are an attempt to deliberately unify formal and informal learning, especially in e-learning situations. PLEs specifically address social media use and the creation of a cultivated online identity to enhance learning in the learner's chosen arena. In order to fully leverage PLEs via social media, students must use personal knowledge management (PKM) skills. S involves "creating, organizing and sharing digital content and information" and balancing contexts, among other skills. Students cano sumo mine their PLEs, but this requires knowledge management and self-regulation.

I like how this article views PLNs from the angle as if the user already has a social networking account. Most of the article I've come across have a list of steps that a person has to follow and sites that they need to sign up for, but this article assumes the reader has these log ins (because they probably do). It shows how to take what you are probably already using and turn it into a PLE to foster and grow knowledge.

An article detailing the history and development of Connectivism as a learning theory.  Goes on to question whether or not it should be considered a learning theory in it's own right.

This article delves into connectivism and whether it can be considered a learning theory. It discusses the ability of a network to be able to not only seek out current information but also to filter out extraneous information. It narrows the definition to connections formed through actions and experience. The authors envision a paradigm shift where the student will have the power to drive their own learning without the need of a tutor.

This is an interesting article, arguing that connectivism isn't fully a learning theory, but rather a shift away from the tutor/teacher role to more autonomous learners.

The author discusses the paradigm shift of collaborative learning networks from school organized meeting to less formal communities of practices gathering through social media networks. Additionally, he discusses the need to remain connected for the benefit of the students.

This is an interesting article about how teachers used to work with one another such as going to conferences and having meeting with others in their field. Then it moves on to how they can get the same information from there PLN. This is a way to save time and money for a school district since it is all done virtual. But it also talks about how since we as teacher learned in a time without PLN we are more likely to shy away from them.

This article delivered clear and concise benefits of PLN's. These benefits included customized learning, improved online collaboration and lack of geographic barriers.

Edutopia is one of my favorite resources. This is a great article on using Twitter for professional development.

Thanks for sharing this Mary! I had never heard of Edutopia before this, I will have to look into this more as it seems to be a popular social network platform among our group.

I love reading articles from Edutopia and this was no exception. It is amazing how much knowledge can be gained by the use of Twitter. I participated in a few PD type discussions and have found them very useful. The tips provided are very helpful. Thank you for sharing this article.

In this article, the authors explore how PLEs, social media, and self regulated connect. Also introduces a pedagogical framework to for social media to support self-regulated learning

This article discusses how the use of formal and informal education can mesh. It talks about the importance of self-regulation in terms of connection to social media and how it can impact learning. It gives examples of how different media can be used in learning and enhance the PLN.

This paper is most useful for the discussion of how social media can help students develop self regulated learning skills in a PLE. A useful table is near the end of the article showing how teaches can use social media at 3 different levels of complexity for knowledge management.

Denscombe argues that a research paradigm based on communities of practice might be the flexible multi-layered approach needed for mixed methods research. The basis of communities of practice states that learning is a collective activity and knowledge is shared. Mixed methods researchers share practices in a more formal paradigm than that of communities of practice; however, those communities of practice could still create the new paradigm that mixed methods needs. More research is needed to determine this for sure.

This is a link to a PDF of a paper that supports the theory that connectivism leads to a new conception of learning in which formal, non-formal, and informal learning should all be integrated to build lifelong learning activities in a "personal learning environment".

Smith, M. K. (2003) 'Communities of practice', the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm . In this article, author, mike smith explains the beginning concepts that Jean Lave and Entienne Wenger developed for communities of practice. What I liked most about this article is it was the first reading I had that took communities of practice and put a learning centered spin on the theory. "Suppose learning is social and comes largely from our experience of participating in daily life. Their model of situated learning proposed that learning involves a process of engagement in a community of practice" (Smith, 2003). Mr. Smith defines and reiterates what Lave and Wenger argued, structure communities of practice. I also appreciated the time Mr. Smith took note the weaknesses that could be potential downfalls within their own research, such as "romanticizing communities of practice" as Mr. Smith puts it. "In their eagerness to debunk testing, formal education and formal accreditation, they do not analyze how their omission [of a range of questions and issues] affects power relations, access, public knowledge and public accountability" (Tennant 1997:79). He goes on to discuss organizational development and follows up with a conclusion that included the below phrase I really enjoyed. "Learning is in the relationships between people."(Smith, 2003) If you think about the history textbook version of what the authors and historians assumed thanksgiving was like and the weeks and days leading up to the day of thanks, you can see a great example of learning as a relationship between people.

This article takes the provocative position that a PLN is *not* the best learning situation for all learners. The authors qualify this, however, explaining "when the technology used to support learning is designed to support a specific learning model, this can often lead to a compulsory learning process that users must follow to reach the course objectives." I am not entirely sure this is a bad thing, however; in formal learning situations, I think it makes sense to have clear objectives, assessments, and learning activities. In informal settings--such as personalized professional development for practicing educators, for example--this point might hold true. The authors explain that individuals' epistemological beliefs affect their willingness to learn in an informal (PLN-based) learning situation. Further, the authors believe that beliefs about the role of technology for learning will impact the learning that can occur in a PLN. I really agree with these ideas!

This is a collection of four short essays by Etienne Wenger from April 2009. Here he explores the role of an initiative of the European Social Fund. While many projects and solutions came out of this initiative, he states that it is the invisible scenes behind the projects that may be the biggest accomplishment. Wenger reiterates that more and more people are understanding the power of the learning shift from formal to informal, but more examples need to be studied as well. Interesting read.

This article begins by addressing the changing technological innovations over time but the lack of widespread adoption of particular technologies. For example the acceptance of learning management system but apprehension towards virtual peer-to-peer interactions. Informal rather than formal learning is again highlighted as being a positive move of acceptance. The authors would like to see social media included in learning and life-long learning with a shift from virtual learning systems to personal learning environments

This blog describes some differences between social learning and communities of practice. While it is written by an instructional designer in the corporate sector, many of the details and examples are still applicable to education.

This post aims to distinguish between social learning and communities of practice. It offers an interesting take on the two sides. What I really got most out of it was actually from the first comment from another reader who offers an amazing example of a community of practice. The author of the comment uses Professional Chefs as an example of a community of practice which was one of the best real world and simple to understand explanations I have seen. "My favorite example of a community of practice is professional chefs. They are a community in every sense of the word even though no one maintains a membership list. Chefs identify with one another. They spend time together. They share their knowledge and swap secrets with one another. They enrich the practice of the profession. They nurture people entering the professional and guide their professional development. They set and maintain standards. You can even spot them by the clothes they wear. What brings them together is the "practice." That's terrible term, for it's subject to misinterpretation. We're talking practice as in legal practice or medical practice, not as in piano practice or football practice." Their goal is not making profits; it's furthering the practice.

CoPs are becoming much more popular with the use of technology. Etienne Wenger and Jean Lave are two of the most respected names when it comes to communities of practice. CoPs are groups that are focused on collaboration of common interests while having a purpose and motivation.

In this short blog post, Walker discusses the changing technology requires us to revisit classic learning theories. He continues to describe Connectivism with references from Siemans and Downes. He touches on the idea that learning is not just inside the learner, it now occurs among learners.

This website breaks down the learning theory of connectivism and how this learning theory came about. It describes how connectivism was created due to the Internet and the need for different strategies.

From this article I understand that connectivism is a way of learning through the internet, media and social networks. It discussed how learning can be formal and also informal, to which informal learning seems to be outweighing the formal learning now a days. Informal learning comes from communities of practice and personal networks which are very popular and common today.

A chapter from Carter and Nugent at VSU which has a nice phrase, "Personal learning networks are based on the premise that learning occurs through interaction with multiple people and in multiple contexts through virtual communities." Somehow I like that. It goes into more detail and explores the, 'abstract concept that is learning.' A big read which take more time to go through but has some effective descriptions. Moves on to CoP as well. A chapter to return to.

The article begins by addressing what a PLN is where a learner joins an informal, web-based communities and they create a network so they can learn whenever, wherever they would like. This article describes a PLN in the context of adult education and the role of the adult educator. The article describes what a PLN looks like. Last, it gives ways to help adults to learn in this type of culture and implications for this. As many articles do, this pushes for a change in education and change their model of teaching to fit this digital age.

Here is a book chapter that details the theoretical implications of using PNL for Self-Directed Learners. This chapter talks about the different ways that learners learn within COP/PLN and how this learning takes place formally, informally and incidentally.