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Provides information about ADA laws

As students construct personal learning environments, teacher instruction and support is likely to be needed. PLE's must be constructed based on needs, and students may or may not be able to articulate what their learning needs are.

Today, students already have personal learning environments, but as teachers we have the ability to forge new pathways to learning by utilizing what kids already know and modeling collaboration and exploration.

Wow! What a cool article. I really enjoyed the picture of the Networked student. This article is like a how to for a teacher wanting to teach the 21st century student. It makes me wonder if our school system should provide a class on how to set up a method for each student to display their learning or their personal learning environment.

iNACOL just released this new report as a guide for K-12 districts. The report outlines best practices in collaborative content development for online courses and resources, and then making those resources available to all other districts. The idea behind open educational resources is to create a community that shares ideas and builds upon the work of each other.

A great starting point for finding information and educational technology related resources.

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.

This article addresses the many challenges of setting up a Personal Learning Environment. The article also discusses the many benefits and various modes of collaboration and online discussion forums.

This article is about how learning management systems can be set up to encourage the development of Personal Learning Environments and connectivist learning. Currently many LMS are not developing students who are reaching their potential in creativity and autonomous learning. The large limiting factor in this include lack of student or even instructor knowledge of tools within an LMS. This is creating students who are dependent on the resources available within their LMS rather than capable of finding their own resources to guide their learning. When designing an online course it is crucial that students have the opportunity to discuss their learning and to share resources among each other.

This resource is a great guide to middle school and provides advice on STEM integration in middle grades as well.

This guides educators through a STEM integrated lesson using a project-based learning approach. The lesson is broken into the PBL model components of refection, research, discovery, application, communication.

This article focuses on the novice experience in MOOCs, and how the theory may badly serve some of its participants. The author tries to explain this in relation to the theory of connectivism. It explains how technology and learning novices, and their sense of confidence interact with Connectivist theory. This article is worth the read, if you are looking at the limitations of connectivism.

Thanks for posting this article. In my job as an online teacher I see many students with low self efficacy and can definitely relate experience with the author about this.

This was really a fascinating look at the "other" side of connectivism. Having learned a bit about cMOOCs while working on this assignment, I agree that a connectivist MOOC is probably not the most suitable place for a novice learner, and it assumes that participants will enter with a certain level of prerequisite knowledge.

Offers links to Excel learning tutorials, subject-specific uses for spreadsheet software, and links to additional resources

Integrating technology in the classroom is becoming more and more prevalent in many schools across the world. Teachers need to think of creative ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. This guide provides help for teachers wanting to use the application, Microsoft Excel, for help in their classes.

Some great tutorials on Excel and ways to integrate it into multiple content areas.

Interactive, webquest style website designed to teach students about nutrition and eating well.

Click on each building to learn more about places in the community: Post Office, Fire Station, Police Station, Hospital, School, Library. For each, there is a linked page with a cartoon image (Ben Franklin dressed up as each worker), a description, and some include a link for more information.

This is the website that accompanies the TCI social studies curriculum. Online lessons, student interactive journals, Powerpoint presentations, and teacher's guide are available.

Information on technical and vocational schools for students

Great links for science and technology sources. I don't have a science text and I use this site all the time for my students.