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This has some quick ideas and directions for creating a voice thread.

The website for my favorite screen casting app. Easy to use with pupils and great opportunities to use is across the curriculum. The website has lots of support and videos my 5th graders used to learn how to use the app.

This RTNDF (Kent State University High School Broadcast Journalism) Listserv has been one of the absolute best resources I've had in my teaching career. The ability to ask questions to other teachers across the United States who are in my discipline, tackling similar problems/challenges has created, for me, my own Professional Learning Network. I LOVE this group and recommend you find a listserv if one is available in your discipline as well.

This is a podcast of a lecture that George Siemens gave at the Ann Ferren conference. He talks about connectivism, learner self-organization in online courses and social networks he has been involved with as well as his efforts to connect open free personal learning networks of our social lives with a more rigorous university setting.

This article is actually a blog on connetivism. THe author of this post focuses on "sensemaking". He defines it as, Sensemaking is an activity that individuals engage in daily in response to uncertainty, complex topics, or in changing settings. Sensemaking is not about truth or right from wrong, bu rather about making information make sense.

Here is a great blog site from George Siemens where he posts on various topics in education and their relativity to connectivism. The blog has not been updated in some time, but there is still a lot of great info on the site.

This website page is the perfect summary of what Connectivism is and what it really represents. Stephen Downes states, "Learning is the creation and removal of connections between the entities, or the adjustment of the strengths of those connections. " This is probably the best resource I have found for truly understanding what Connectivism really is.

Questions whether learning theories reflect the needs of learners of the future. Identifies that school systems haven't developed a connectivist model for curriculum instruction because educators aren't sure of all the possibilities technology is able to offer. Author feels that connectivism is an important part of developing theories but shouldn't be considered a learning theory, on its own.

Connectivism This article defines the important role of connectivism in developing of new pedagogies where power is being taken over by the autonomous student.

I love this article. The article briefly describes the learning theory of Connectivism. The article also reviews learning theories of the past. The main point this article works to answer is whether Connectivism has a place as a learning theory for today's learners. Should Connectivism be the new learning theory that replaces older theories because they no longer address the needs of today's learners.

This is a great resource for videos about different math topics. It's well organized and easy to find what you are looking for. It also has videos in Spanish for English language learners who need some extra help. It also has multiple people explaining each idea so if you don't understand it with one explanation you can look at another one.

An excellent resource for historical maps. Also, has Google Earth KML/KMZ overlays for MANY historical maps from around the world. 

This blog highlights 7 ways social media has a role in education. The author states the 7 ways and includes links to piktocharts, articles, and websites to further explain her claims.

I have integrated the use of this tool into my ESL lessons. ESL students may have difficulty identifying locations of errors in their paper. Grammarly identifies locations that there may be an issue. A student may not know how to use an online spelling and grammar checker properly. These tools only provide suggestions, not answers. Students need practice applying the principles they either know or need to learn based on recommendations from the tool. This tool has browser plugins so students can check the grammar of their emails as well. There is a free and paid version of Grammarly.

This project also has students making a Facebook account for their character and using these accounts to communicate with other students. This is similar to the remixing assignment, but it is a long-term assignment rather than a culminating activity. Students start by making a Facebook page for their character and post status updates as the class reads the book. They talk from the perspective of their character and it allows students to expand their thinking. When students are done, they use their page to have discussions about the novel as a class and out of character. This is a great way for students to step into the chose of different characters they are reading about and has students participate in multi-level writing. This is applicable to numerous different reading projects and something I could see myself using in my English class.

This blog post describes Quizlet Live feature in Quizlet. Quizlet live allows for competition among students or groups of students as long as each student or group has a device.

Survey Monkey is an internet survey and polling software which is popular. It has an educational free version which includes the ability to make simple quizzes. It is fun to write polls for students to understand their class dynamic and ungraded learning quizzes for them. While the free version does not offer explanations to incorrect questions, this can be supplemented with text on ones website for the student to read afterwards.

ISTE has compiled personalized learning tools for all students, particularly those students with diverse and adaptive learning styles. ISTE explains the highlighted tools and explains why they have included them in the article. Each tool has a link to take readers to the tool for use and/or purchase.

The presence of blockchain technology is apparent in almost every field today as it is widely adopted on a large scale by all industrial sectors. ABB, the international Electrical Engineering company, is currently undergoing a blockchain project, according to news reports. It is looking for ways to implement blockchain technology in promoting the use of solar energy in p2p energy trading and researching the role of blockchain in the smart grids market. Apparently, the international firm has collaborated with Evolvere, the Italian energy entity, for deploying a blockchain system to assist them in this venture.

Siemens introduces connectivism as a theory for the digital age. He discusses the shift in learning theory that led to the creation of connectivism due to the need to make connections between specialized communities. He emphasizes the rapidly changing foundations of learning and information transfer and suggests that "creating, preserving, and utilizing information flow should be a key organizational activity." Ultimately, he suggests that connectivism is the way that education can meet the changing environment of learning.

This 2004 article by George Siemens discusses learning theories in general--what they are and their limitations. Siemens then goes on to discuss an "alternative theory"--that of connectivism. He specifically explores the fact that connectivism is part of the digital age because of the rapidly changing technology which enables more and more information flow. Siemens then goes on to briefly discuss the implications of connectivism.

This article investigates the beneifts and downfalls of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. Then, it dives in to the idea of connectivism, and how we use it to develop new knowledge and skills. The article states that, "This cycle of knowledge development (personal to network to organization) allows learners to remain current in their field through the connections they have formed."

This is one of my favorite teacher Instagram accounts to follow! She has awesome math resources and ideas!

Great idea to put a teacher Instagram account in the group! Instagram could work as an excellent resource to support a personal learning network for educators. I currently have an Instagram, but I don't post any school-related material. I will need to alter my approach to Instagram. Thanks for the suggestion!

This speaker does an excellent job showcasing that our students are totally capable of being part of a learning network before they can even recognize what it is they're doing. Things have changed intensely since the rise of networked connections between people. School needs to adapt and use these tools that professional educators are using to improve meeting the many "standards" that Mr. Regur talks about. "We have standards just to write standards…" We need to avoid the closed off island that is being a teacher… There is no longer an excuse to be stuck in this single-player version of education.

We all create personal learning networks in everything we do. Using this in education is extremely important so that students a) know how to connect with others, and b) know how to benefit from connecting with others. I like how he called the "teacher the most important activator".

Two is a meeting, Three is a network. Steve had some great "real" advice and reasons for why we should all join PLN for a variety of different reasons to create a stronger and more educated world.