3. Multimedia ProjectsIn the upper-elementary and middle-school grades, students study content areas in greater depth and are exposed to more complex vocabulary and complicated concepts. With just a textbook, ELL students may experience enormous difficulty. Multimedia projects offer students hands-on, engaging ways to explore the scientific content and concepts presented.
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Digital Passport by Common Sense Media | Digital Passport - 0 views
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http://www.ecu.edu/cs-hhp/exss/upload/MSE%20Social%20Studies.pdf - 0 views
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Supporting English Language Learners with Technology | Scholastic.com - 2 views
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Flat Classroom Project - home - 0 views
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The Flat Classroom® Project is a global collaborative project that joins together middle and senior high school students. This project is part of the emerging tend in internationally-aware schools to embrace a holistic and constructivist educational approach to work collaboratively with others around the world in order to create students who are competitive and globally-minded.
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Communities of Practice (Lave and Wenger) CoPs - 17 views
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This is a more technical site that better describes CoPs. It talks about what a CoP is and what the requirements are. I particularly like that the it states that the learning is not necessarily the primary reason for the existence of a CoP. It also gives some sources for further study.
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Fabio, I agree, good find. Always helpful to have a firm understanding of what makes up the CoP. I keyed in on the requirement that members must not simply be interested in the topic, but needed to be practitioners as well!
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This article has an interesting take on a community of practice. With the current nation wide movement to adapt the Common Core Standards, educators are required to focus on student achievement. In order to be successful, educators will have to form Communities of Practice in order to collaborate and effectively. This means that CoPs must focus on professional development as well as learning issues.
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This site breaks down the required components of a community of practice, based on the views of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger. The site also gives some background regarding the origination of the term "communities of practice."
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SUMMARY: Communities of Practice are defined as informal social partnerships of like-minded practitioners who want to work together to improve current issues or states of learning. Three required components are proposed to constitute a CoP: "a domain of interest, a community, and practice."
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This is a "webliography" (my new word of the day) that describes the idea of communities of practice by theorists Lave and Wenger. It is a good at describing what the terms are. Wenger says that" learning is central to human identity" and people continuously create their identity by engaging in and contributing to communities.
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In this article, the author cites Ettiene Wenger (one the two theorists who coined the term 'Communities of Practice') and summarizes its definition. The quote she includes succinctly and clearly explains communities of practice as: "groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly."
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Some history on learning theories and the origins of communities of practice.
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This site gives a brief, easy-to-understand summary on the definition of Communities of Practice. It tells how COPs work and the distinctive components of a COP.
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A nice summary of the basics of CoP. Gives history of the theory, definition, descriptions, and the building blocks of a successful CoP. My biggest take-away: "The learning that takes place [in a CoP] is not always intentional. This helped me to develop a deeper understanding.
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This provides another basic overview of communities of practice. There is a brief description followed by the history of the term and the development of the theory. It continues to outline the three required components of CoPs.
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There are 3 necessary parts: 1. A group of people share an interest (high school Math) 2. All members contribute 3. All members put into practice the resources that are shared as a group.
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This is a solid description of what a Community of Practice is in reference to learning styles.
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I love how succinct this is. Sometimes less is more and I think this is an example of that. It also helped me realize that this isn't a new or complicated idea, but something that we have done in my school for years (Learning Communities). We are organized by department, meet regularly to compare data, offer up examples of work, share sources, etc. I am already a part of a CoP and did not even realize it!
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I find the term community of practice being used in professional development and having structure imposed top down. This website clearly lets you know it is not a club or a fan group but a practicing community that is formed voluntarily.
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This blog post from Learning-Theories.com explores Communities of Practice and provides a clear and concise explanation of components of Communities of Practices, and what constitutes CoP and what does not.
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This is a summary of the Communities in Practice learning theory. It is a very concise view of the theory. It covers the three required components as well as the key terms involved.
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This site speaks specifically about the three "must haves" in order to determine if something is a community of practice or not. They are: having a common interest, having a community, and practicing that specific skills/interest.
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Summary: Communities of Practice occur when people have a common interest in something. This becomes a collaboration with peers to engage in discussions as well as sharing ideas, strategies and solutions.
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This article defines what a community of practice is and the three required components of CoPs. There needs to be domain, community, and practice. The domain is a common interest where the members are committed to it. The community is where members interact and engage in shared activities. The practice is developing a shared repertoire of resources over time.
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This article describes what a CoP is and specifically what it is not. It describes three major components of a CoP and details how participants can help or hurt a CoP. The author also provides two resources to gain more knowledge about CoPs.
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This article is an outline of Communities of Practice with description of relevant terminology outlined and defined. Identifies the three components of CoPs - domain, community and practice. This article says that the central component of this learning theory is to draw participants deeper into the community through the attractiveness of developing skills relative to the domain.
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This one I didn't summarize, only because I really had a hard time grasping the three elements of the CoP, and I thought this site encapsulated it nicely. Incidentally, my creative assignment for this week was inspired by the reference to Star Trek fans in this post. Here are the three elements make up CoP, and again, this information below is taken straight from the source (long quotes), because the definition is so good: 1. There needs to be a domain. A CoP has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest (e.g. radiologists, Star Trek fans, middle school history teachers, Seahawks football fans, etc.); it's not just a network of people or club of friends. Membership implies a commitment to the domain. 2. There needs to be a community. A necessary component is that members of a specific domain interact and engage in shared activities, help each other, and share information with each other. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other. In this way, merely sharing the same job does not necessitate a CoP. A static website on hunting in itself is not a community of practice. There needs to be people who interact and learn together in order for a CoP to be formed. Note that members do not necessarily work together daily, however. Wenger points to the example of Impressionist painters who sometimes met in cafes to discuss their painting styles. He indicates that even though these men normally painted alone, these kinds of interactions were essential to making them a CoP. 3. There needs to be a practice: A CoP is not just people who have an interest in something (e.g. sports or agriculture practices). The third requirement for a CoP is that the members are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources which can include stories, helpful tools, experiences, stories, ways of handling typical problems, etc. This kind of interaction needs to be developed over time. A conversation with a random stranger who happens to be an exp
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Personal Learning Networks Are Virtual Lockers for Schoolkids | Edutopia - 14 views
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Constructing a PLN is the essential skill that moves my students into the driver's seat of their own learning. It helps them sort through and manage the proliferation of online materials that jam the information superhighway. It is also indispensable to our project-learning curriculum, which includes challenging projects such as the Flat Cl
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Edutopia writer Vicki Davis discusses how PLNs have empowered her students to guide their own learning experiences. She discusses the weaknesses of PLNs and how they work.
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Deborah, I love the idea of students guiding their own learning. It seems to be a great way to get them involved and motivated instead of just listeners in the classroom they are part of the learning network. Thanks for sharing!
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While this site leans towards the how-to aspect of a PLN, I found it illuminating simply for the fact that the students described in this article create a PLN for each project. It emphasizes the fact that a PLN is personal and not the same for everybody. PLNs are personal, can be permanent or temporary, and exist for the sake of the person to learn.
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The website title really grabbed my attention and I wanted to find out what it meant. This was very interesting because it discussed netiquette and cyber-bullying as well. It helped to relate real-world with online by explaining how with a virtual locker it would change with what courses the students are taking. This really broke down what PLNs are and how they work. It was one of the better articles I have read. Thank you!
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I'm still a little hesitant to assign the term Personal Learning Network to an assembly of RSS feeds as describe din this piece. A great part of it, but only part of it, I think. That feels a little too "one-way" to develop the interactivity that seems to be so indicative of the PLN. An interesting idea that came from this for me was that each time a student started a new project (cyberbullying, understanding the Constitution, cancer treatment research, etc.) they would develop a new PLN. This underscored the idea that a PLN is not stationary, but, rather, a dynamic network that will continue to evolve as long as one is striving to learn. It almost becomes a technological reflection of oneself.
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Written by the Cool Cat Teacher, this article states that using PLNs allow her student to connect to informational sources and become self-directed lifelong learners. It moves students into the driver's seat and helps them sort through the plethora of information.
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In this post, an educator likens student's personal learning network to virtual lockers where they store what they learn and produce academically and otherwise.
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This article explains how students (teens) are using PLNs to organize and share their school work and projects. It also discusses the pros and cons of PLNs.
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This is an interesting take on how a PLE can work in a school environment. Students can use their PLN as a collection system for information when they are doing their projects.
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I appreciate the fact that they presented both sides to the story here. They discuss the advantages of PLNs but also raise questions on issues educators may be facing with them at this current time. As an educator, I like when others bring up concerns because then it allows me to brainstorm ways to circumvent the issues. It also assures me that I'm not the only educators facing issues implementing PLNs perfectly within my classroom. The authentic touch this article displays is refreshing to me. Don't get me wrong, I really love PLNs, but at the moment, there are kinks that need to be worked out to be fully effective in an elementary classroom setting.
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I like how this article focuses on student use of PLNs. I tend to focus on their use for teacher PD, but they are certainly something we should be teaching our students! I also like how the article describes some flaws of PLNs, this will help people think of ways to make PLNs even stronger.
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Interesting is that the focus is on RSS feeds and it feels very academic while middle school students are an upcoming demographic on twitter. Their use of twitter is of course social, but I wonder about using twitter as more immediate way to share information.
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While this blog posting from Edutopia does point to some "how tos" and practical application, it does offer key theoretical practices for setting the stage for applying the PLN model for student use. Vicki Davis, the teacher and author of the blog post, states that her students are familiar with breaking news due the development of their own PLN that acts as a "virtual locker." She goes on to discuss how their research builds the content of their PLN and the content changes based upon the assignment. The big idea is that the PLN model allows students to act as the orchestrator of their own learning and allows them to analyze information via an avenue that is personalized to student's learning needs. It also teaches students to embrace connectivism where they make connections between domains in order to form a more complete understanding.
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The article goes into the role of a PLN for students. Students can create their own networks to possess information at their fingertips on any topic they could ever desire. By establishing a networking system, the students don't necessarily have to go out and scour the internet for sources when their network could bring relevant information to them.
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Emerging Education Technologies - 0 views
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Do you prefer tools that are efficient, straightforward, and get the job done? We like them, too! This month, App Ed Review has curated four of our favorite easy-to-use websites for your classroom! Each of the websites we share in this RoundUp cut across the subject areas and can be easily embedded into middle and high school teachers' lesson plans.
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shared by brianbetteridge on 11 Sep 12
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'Connectivism' and Connective Knowledge - 14 views
www.huffingtonpost.com/...ism-and-connecti_b_804653.html
Edtech543 technology resources teaching elearning connectivism
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George Siemens and Stephen Downs were offering a free course to the first 2200 people to discover connectivism and study its principals. They chose a free online course format to illustrate connectivism.
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The main idea of this article is to explain how and why he and George Seimens offer MOOCs to the world. Downes believes that all learning is about connections made among the learners, just we are the neurological connections that our brains make every second. He does not believe knowledge is acquired or transmitted, but rather experienced. One of his most telling statements is his belief that the process of taking the course is more important than what people may happen to learn from it--which is at the heart of what he believes connectivism is.
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I was very excited to find this article! In it, Stephen Downes, Canadian Education Technology Research Specialist, describes his and George Siemens,' Associate Director, Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute, free course, 'Connectivism and Connective Knowledge' -- or CCK11. It is a twelve week course of readings and online seminars, where learners are invited to read selected materials and study the content with a connectivist's approach. Downes says, "What is important about a connectivist course, after all, is not the course content. Oh, sure, there is some content -- you can't have a conversation without it -- but the content isn't the important thing. It serves merely as a catalyst, a mechanism for getting our projects, discussions and interactions off the ground. It may be useful to some people, but it isn't the end product, and goodness knows we don't want people memorizing it." I want to register for the next one!
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This is a blog post from Steven Downes about the courses on connectivism he offered with George Siemens. It offers a good argument for taking the connectivist approach to learning and explains what connectivism is. It offers an explanation for connectivist teaching and learning falling into the 4 major activities of aggregation, remixing, repurposing, and feeding forward. He stresses that connectivism is a pedagogy based on the realization that knowledge is not something you can solidify into a single perfect product to pass along because different people/communities will always interpret/learn from it differently.
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George Siemens and Stephen Downes provide online courses call 'Connectivism and Connective Knowledge' to over 2,000 educators on the philosophy of teaching and learning they instill in their learners. http://cck11.mooc.ca is a twelve week course that is free for those who register. They disclose attributes to connectivist teaching and learning. Aggregation provides a starting point. Remixing draws connections to others. Repurposing is practicing the concepts learned, not just repeating them with route memorization techniques. Feeding forward consists of sharing with others and being able to collaborate on others' projects to use them as your own.
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What I find really cool about this is that the content of the course is not what is important, but rather the fact that they are connecting and networking. The networking is more powerful than the content is what seems to be the focus.
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I found this quote interesting, "So what a connectivist course becomes is a community of educators attempting to learn how it is that they learn, with the objective of allowing them to be able to help other people learn." I like that there is no distinction between the "teacher" and the "student". Instead, everyone is seen as both learner and educator. However, I have some concerns about how this works with middle school or high school students. Are they mature enough to really take on that role and stay on task? How do you ensure the respect and authority in the class when you are putting yourself on nearly an equal foot with the students? Kids are so used to a traditional direct instruction class they they often get confused or rebel against anything different.
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This is one of the resources listed in the video I posted earlier. It is an introduction to the Connectivism and Connective Knowledge course. It explains how the core aspects of connectivism are built into the course and gives a description of each aspect.
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This article introduces the term connectivism as a "network-based pedagogy" Through the article the author makes references to a course that he will be providing. Overall though there is some really good information about connectivism from both the teacher and learner perspectives.
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Along with George Siemens, Stephen Downs is one of the intellectual leaders of connectivism, which he describes in this article. One of the things I really like about this article is the fact that it is written for a wide audience via an outlet like The Huffington Post, rather than an exclusively academic audience.
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I enjoyed this article because it identified 4 connectivist "activities." They are aggregation, remixing, repurposing, and feeding forward. It explains these concepts clearly while also giving a succinct overview of connectivism, and their relationship to connectivism.
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This article provided me with a clearer understanding of the Connectivist approach and the four activities that surround it--aggregation, remixing, re-purposing, and feeding forward. It was interesting to read under the Aggregation portion that Siemens and Downes have to tell participants to pick and choose what they read for the course. We are still very pre-conditioned to want to read and study everything that is handed to us and regurgitate it back. There is something about Connectivism that bothers me. It seems a little "loosey goosey" at times. I like the idea of people being able to gather and share ideas and make meaning from them, but I wonder if one can become a true expert in something by just solely using this approach.
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I love the explanation of connectivism at the beginning. The explicitness with which they say it's not about the content but the process is refreshing and true to my experience in the classroom as well. There are many days when I know the student will never remember the content I taught but they will remember how they found it and the way that they discussed, dissected, and applied it to their selves.
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I think out of all the articles I read about connectivism, this one was the easiest for me to understand and truly grasp the meaning of connectivism. The author gave clear examples of how learning happens through connectivism and that the course he was providing truly used this theory in helping the learners. This article helped me solidify how important I think schooling is for school aged children and the connections they make with their peers academically and socially. They are using this theory without even thinking about it, and in connecting with others ideas they are learning on their own without a teacher telling them facts, dates or formulas.
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Part of it All: The High School Musical as a Community of Practice - 3 views
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A great article on how high school musicals qualify as communities of practice. Impacts are shown beyond the "stage" and onto personal development, family, and work ethic.
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Ryan John is an elementary and middle school music and theatre teacher in New York City. In this case study, he examined how the community of practice formed in a musical theater group impacted their personal development.
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shared by Natalie Frasure on 21 Jul 12
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Project Based Learning - 1 views
www.21stcenturyschools.com/Project_Based_Learning.htm
Education technology Resources learning elearning digital teaching
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From Pre-K to Ph.D. - Project-Based Learning Many educators, faced with the demands placed on them by the NCLB, feel that projects are a luxury for which there is no time. Some educators seem to think that project-based learning is just for younger children, and by the time you get to the middle schools and high schools projects have all but disappeared.
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Teacher Discussions, Blogs, Chat, Social Networking for teachers - ProTeacher Community... - 0 views
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How to Use Excel Spreadsheet for Middle School - 0 views
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