Group items tagged

My go to website for all things higher education. This website supplies great current articles on the entire higher education field. It also posts job openings. I use this website to stay current will all higher education news across the USA.

This book was written by Stephen Downes. Although it is very lengthy, there are many visual representations of connectivity and portions of the book that are very informative. It is broken into chapters that stand independently allowing the reader to pick and choose what they need information on.

Connectivism by Stephen Downes, anything you want to know about connectivism in this 600+ page pdf.

An article explaining what connectivism is, the theory behind it, its history, and criticisms.

Interview with Etienne Wenger on the learning theory behind communities of practice. He explains, CoP's are a collaboration of ideas people have an interest in.

Nice interview - I like how he differentiates the communities of practice from the technology but also doesn't diminish the technology. For some reason I had thought that Etienne would be a female so it was great to watch this!

If I am sharing a site that probably visit the most, it would probably be The Chronicle of Higher Education. I love the writing and insight this site provides, along with the colorful debates in the comments section that some of the topics ignite.

The chronicle of Higher Education website provides peer reviewed in depth discussion about all things higher ed. This website gives great insight into edtech trends, policy debate and breaking higher education news.

A good overview of the concept and theory behind Communities of Practice by Etienne Wenger one of the authors of the term. It gave me a good overview and is written clearly and concisely. It helped me to understand the what and the where, as well as learning about the 3 main characteristics.

Very straight forward introduction by Etienne Wenger. She clearly explains the meaning and importance of the terms "domain", "community" and "practice" and shows some examples of where COPs they are being applied.

This article is from Ebscohost and does require users to log into Albertson's Library before accessing. This paper looks at shared social capital and what it means for teachers. It also looks at the difference and the benefits for teachers using online vs offline professional development resources as it relates to Facebook.

This great Prezi presentation demonstrates how connectivism can be used in the classroom to helps students learn. The presentation explains the WHY of Connectivism in the classroom.

This website defines connectivism and then explores other theories of instructivism, and constructivism, and how they are different.

This site is an easily digested summary of instructivism, constructivism and connectivism.

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.

A nice slideshare about Communities of Practice. Provides a nice overview and different types of Communities of Practice.

I bookmarked this as an extra site. It does not appear to be currently updated, but is George Siemens' personal website. There is a good link to a PDF of his book, Knowing Knowledge (2006).

The site didn't seem all that informative, but the links to the PDF books make up for what the page is lacking. These two books should provide some good reference materials.

Summary: This link is to a research paper done on the implementation of a Twitter supported PLN to teacher professional development. This was a study around the ways that a Twitter PLN can support teacher's professional development. I found this paper interesting because it outlined a few realities of PLN's.

This article is a guest post by a student who describes her PLN. It is an interesting self reflection about how this student realized she had a PLN without ever actively creating it. The article goes on to discuss how she developed her PLN and the major pieces that are in it.

I love that you included a student's perspective on PLN. I particularly liked her perspective on Internet Safety. My favorite quote is one we should all remember, "Common sense is a valuable thing".

Bryan, I really appreciate this article. Maybe because I can identify with Conner Wood's journey into blogging and PLNs. His revelation of a group of people he can trust thousands of miles apart connected by the Internet and his desire to meet them resonates with me. Many times I have wanted to meet my own cohorts. Wood's reflection on the quality of his selection of progressive educators is not lost on me either. His desire to opening your PLN to a variety of fields mirrors my own. "One can have a network of the top people in one's own field, but if one cannot talk to those people about anything else, what is the point?" Pinging your PLN for the "personal" as well as "learning" seems a recurring theme.

The author of this video, George Siemens, explains how networks enable us to stay current in our field and in society as well. He goes on to explain how the more connections that are made within the network, the stronger the network becomes.

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.

I hope its ok to post a video about Communities of Practice because this is a great video that demonstrates how a community of practice can help people learn from each other. If I had to understand what a CoP is, this short 3 minute video is all you need. Take a watch!

The paper discusses whether Communities of Practice are relative today with the development of web 2.0 technologies especially when in comes to work-place learning.

Graphic Organizer Tools for Teachers and Students