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This site not only defines personal learning networks, but it also provides ten reasons educators need a PLN. It further offers links to helpful resources to illustrate each reason.

Great justification for forming PLNs for teachers! Every teacher should have a PLN so that they can continually grow as teachers.

Thanks for sharing this graphic. I love Sylvia's work. Sketchnotes are such a fun way to capture and share complex ideas. Number 7 really resonated with me. As a classroom teacher, I used my PLN to create meaningful and engaging global learning projects for my students. It was so nice to have a group of supportive, like-minded educators to connect with! Thanks for sharing!

This was a great and very informative post regarding technology integration and 21st century learning.

Welcome to my class' website! Here you will be able to find a calendar of the assignments as well as resources and other materials that will be helpful for you this year. Students often use my website to see homework assignments posted as well as a copy of notes from the lessons or answer keys for study guides.

I am biased as I am a Will Richardson fan. I went to a day with him last year and it changed so much about what I thought. As a direct result I signed up for twitter and began to try and connect with people. He wrote a book on PLN's and his last TED book 'Why School' is a must read. Here he talks through the whole topic as well as big picture issues. Focused on education and good practice. Love the way he thinks and explains. Worth a follow think he is @willrich45

Thank you for the post, It was very insightful. I like how he compares a PLN to your own bigger brain, or something along those lines. I think this is a great way to think of a PLN. There is so much information out there one person can't possibly conceptualize it all, so we create PLNs a system of more brains to consult whenever we have problems or questions.

Richardson summarizes the importance and components of PLNs for educators and students. He summarizes that PLNs are networks of like-minded people that act as a network that converse and brainstorm answers to questions. Richardson notes that PLNs act as powerful sources of professional development for teachers. He discusses the current state of PLNs in our students' lives and how they are creating their own connections through various social media platforms. Finally, he relays the responsibility of teachers to inform themselves about PLNs in order to properly and safely guide our students through the use of PLNs.

A cute powtoon video discussing the benefits of Connectivism as a learning theory. In the video she explains that an a advantage of connectivism is that the learner can connect with people around the world and understand different perspectives. Connectivism also encourages critical thinking and indepth examination of a topic.The important thing is not to know everything about a topic, but to know where to go to find the information.

This is an excellent resource! The video gives us a very nice summary and delves into the implications of a connected world and where we're living today. I am likely to use this video later on.

I appreciate the visual components of this resource and third person example of "Amy's" usage of connectivsim. Using Amy as an example this video allowed us to see the overall picture of connectivism theory as well as how it would look when being used by a student, switching our perspective of the theory from that of the teacher to that of the student.

Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Traynor provide an introduction to communities of practice in this PDF found on their website. The introduction includes a definition, examples of what communities of practice may look like, how they began, and in what sectors of the community they are used today. Myths about communities of practice are also addressed.

By Etienne and Beverly Wegner-Trayner, this is an 8 page pdf of the basics of CoPs. I really like that there are myths debunked and demystified within the content of this paper as well.

I appreciate the scope of this resource including elements such as where the concept of communities of practice comes from, where it is applied, and myths about its usage. Moreover in regards to the myths I find it helpful that the resource includes a guide to how true the assumption listed may be such as: partially true, mostly false, false and maybe. I believe this section adds value to the theory of learning communities by acknowledging the misconceptions and limitations. Additionally I found the table with dialogue examples featuring various types of learning community tasks to be quite helpful in making sense of the dynamic ways these communities can be utilized.

Crowley writes about how to effectively build a PLN, but goes much more in depth than just listing out three basic steps. She details why PLNs are so beneficial, especially to teachers. I appreciate that she covers the doubts and frustrations someone may have when establishing a PLN and offers ways to help someone from being overwhelmed.

A Professional Learning Network does not need to be a stress inducing task. A PLN should be a changing group of connections that people can join to connect with like minded people who share values, passions, and areas of expertise. When used in education, it connects teachers all across the world and gives it's members with different perspectives on education. PLNs often use technology to drive the connections. When creating or joining a PLN, there are three steps to think about. The first step is to find the professionals. This means that you need to find professional people who share an interest and value with yourself. Once you have found those people, follow them on social media or their blogs to stay connected with them. The second step is to find your niche group. A niche in a PLN is a place where people gather around similar interests or experiences. The final step is to find your PLN buddies and mentors. These are people you have really connected with and who help to expand your thinking. The best part about a PLN is that it is driven by you. You have the ability to adapt your PLN to fit you and your needs. 

As a teacher who is new to PLN and using it as a forum to learn and share ideas, I thought it was a great article to help connect the new user. Like any connection, time and effort are needed to make the relationship work. This article was precise in effective ways to build a community and sustain a PLN. Thanks for sharing.

SUMMARY: Connectivism teaches students skills that are not attached to time or space. Rather they are necessary in the fast-paced, ever-changing whirlwind we live in. The chart near the end clearly compares major educational theories and helped me see the connections and disconnects between them.

Great article. Chaos theory is so interesting. The study of pattern shifts is so real to this day and age. For example, I think the role of memes play a big part in our culture and this absolutely propels the chaos theory. Nice share Natalie!

Summary: The most useful part of this resource comes after the definition of Connectivism cited from Siemens. The author includes a graphic that compares Connectivism to other learning theories. In addition, a section is devoted to critics of Connectivism as learning theory who instead see it as a pedagogical view.

This article summarizes a study aimed at explaining collective behavior on social networking platforms through intentional social action, which is known as the We-Intention theory. The study focused on Facebook in particular, because it is widely popular among university students and could, thus, illustrate social media's impact on students' motivation to learn via virtual communities. In the article, the We-Intention theory is driven by social influence factors, social presence, and elements of the uses and gratifications (U&G) model. U&G, as defined in the article, explains why individuals gravitate toward certain digital media over others. U&G assumes individuals are both goal-directed and aware of their needs, listed as purposive value, self-discovery, entertainment, social enhancement, and maintenance of interpersonal connectivity. The study identified two U&G needs, entertainment and interpersonal connectivity, as significantly determining intentional social action under the We-Intention theory.

That article is very interesting stating that most use Facebook for instant communication and connection. The need for instant gratification. Joining too many groups or trying to connect to too many people does make it hard to have a specific connection to one group. May be the reason that people post so many random topics and photos.

Interesting perspective on Facebook from the point of view of students using the platform.Since most of my background is from K-12 education, I have not witnessed teachers using the platform with their students. I have found that most K-12 teachers use Facebook to communicate with parents. It does seem to have a similar impact on getting parents motivated and active in class activities. Most parents use Facebook and once they know they can follow their child's teacher and get updates via the social media app, parents tend to do so

Suggests that understanding how members of a learning community converse is an important component of understanding connectivism. The tone of the interactions in a forum rely on the design and management of the space. Furthermore, learning depends on sharing in conversations and interactions which themselves can be meaningful activities. During communication among learners, there is a balance of what is good for each individual and the ability to move towards a common purpose.

In this article, Andrew Ravenscroft explores a "dialogue rich view of connectivism" and how we can develop learners that can "think, reason and analyse." He takes inspiration from social constructivist theory to focus on dialogue as a vehicle for learning. Ravenscroft begins by detailing Siemens 8 principles of connectivism. He then asks 3 questions: how can we understand the dialogue processes of a networked world, what dialogue features make for quality connections and how do we design to promote quality connections. He starts to explore the questions with Socrates and the Socratic method. This method has applications for 21st century learning. He reviews Hegel's dialectic as well. Ravenscroft maps these positions to connectivism because dialectic helps refine knowledge from a diversity of opinions, supports the capacity to know more, consideration of alternative viewpoints, fosters a constant evolution of knowledge, and promotes critical and collaborative dialogue. Then he discusses dialogic processes and how they map to connectivism. Dialectic and dialogic can work, not in opposition, but together in different aspects. Dialectic focuses on the epistemic and cognitive dimensions of learning, while dialogic focuses more on emotional and interpersonal aspects. The author then details dialogue game interactions and how they can foster learning. To be successful they need to balance orchestration and openness. This article proposes that language and dialogue remain a "most powerful semiotic system."

What a fascinating article. Ravenscroft's discussion of a scaffolded system to build a learner's dialogic skills reminds me of research I did for my EdTech504 class on self-regulated learning. Roger Azevedo is developing and experimenting with a similar game, MetaTutor, which scaffolds student learning as well. I think self-regulation is complex and difficult to teach in the classroom, and am amazed that researchers are creating software to build self-efficacy!

Even though I am not a K-12 teacher, I found this simple infographic list 10 reasons why you should have a Personal Learning Network. A Personal Learning Network can help inspire you to take on a new challenge, encourage new ideas, and keep you connected with other teachers passionate about teaching.

Love this graphic! It makes the PLN concept so simple and easy to follow. I must have reviewed the same article.

The infographic included in this post is great. It helps understand the need for PLN's in a simple way.

This short journal article describes how one teacher in Louisiana uses Twitter to find and joing professional learning networks. She uses Twitter to collaborate with teachers on lessons. She also leads a weekly chat to discuss a variety of educational topics. In addition, the journal explains what Twitter is and how to use it for a complete beginner.

I appreciated the idea from this article that relationships started on Twitter can expand beyond Web 2.0: "Connections which begin online may lead to face-to-face meetings at conferences." Likewise, the river analogy helped me see how Twitter can be interpreted and integrated into an individual's personal learning network: "Consider a Tweet as an 'on-ramp' to deeper learning." Thanks for posting this link!

This article discusses the power that social media has in adult education. It discusses the ability for knowledge to be shared and discussed worldwide. The article also points out that social media is changing the way society communicates and networks, and that the world has become more interconnected than before. I appreciated the author also bringing up that consumerism, mostly in the form of advertisements, can be a downside of many free social media applications. The author argues that the ads could perpetuate harmful spending habits of users. I think this argument is one to take into account when using social media in primary and secondary education.

Thanks for posting this article, which exposed me to a brand-new term: Pedagogy 2.0. Using social network tools, Pedagogy 2.0's teaching and learning practices advocate learner choice, self-direction, and flexibility in learning activities, which are key components to adult education. I also enjoyed the article's discussion of consumerism and power structures, which are engaging in "social surveillance."

Summary: Educators from Australia uncovered that the most useful collaboration taken from a course was student-led and student generation conversations. The users were able to exponentially grow professionally with the help of their peers through social media. The collaboration in this case was not mandated by the professor, but merely a suggestion. It was the desire to learn from others that sparked the community created digitally. It was through the social media that the learners were able to share ideas, questions in a way that was organized and beneficial to all.

Very interesting article. I always sign up for MOOCs and find I always take away something but have never had that social connection experience in the course as they did in this article; maybe it was the instructor(s) and their encouragement to connect outside of the MOOC. I am going to pay more attention in the future to see if I see connectivism, PLN, and communities of practice.

Great article. I wanted to dive deeper into the MOOC's but just did not have the time. I am so glad you found and posted this article. I would really like to find a MOOC with the social interaction described in this article. I think that would be a very valuable learning opportunity.

In this article Nicole Cooke, a Reference and Instruction Librarian encourages fellow librarians to keep abreast of the latest technology and the most current ways of seeking information so that they are prepared to help satisfy the needs of today's library patrons. She suggests that librarians prepare themselves for the evolving library patron by participating in professional development activities. In particular, Cooke advocates that librarians seek out the current educational opportunities that are available through various Web 2.0 applications. Cooke then moves on to describe how librarians can incorporate new learning opportunities into their day to day functions through the use of social media platforms such as blogs and wikis. Cooke ends the article by talking about personal learning networks and how librarians should take advantage of social media platforms to form connections with others in the field for professional growth.

I think this is a great article. I agree that anyone who is in education has to stay "savvy." I especially liked the comment "Maintaining competence and learning new skills must be at the top of every professional's "To Do" list. It is an ethical responsibility, to be sure, but also one that is pragmatic and critical for career success. [...] Continuing professional education is no longer an option, it is a requirement of professional practice. "

I am glad to see you posted a link to a PLN for librarians. I think understanding PLNs purpose and framework comes easier when it is viewed from a particular perspective (i.e. Librarians). I do think PLNs are particularly useful in the digital age with some much information and professional development resources readily available.

This source is a chapter in a book by several librarians from the IUPUI library system. The librarians set out to find ways in which they could collaborate with faculty to promote a more successful information literacy program on campus. The importance of this issue gave them the impetus to form a community of practice. This group consisted of both faculty and librarians who were all dedicated to discovering best practices for teaching and assessing information literacy concepts. The authors concluded the chapter with a discussion of some of the campus initiatives that came out of the CoP activities and what they may do in the future to further the growth and retention of student information literacy skills.

Thanks for sharing this article, Kelly. I appreciated the discussion of campus initiatives, including the student pre- and post-surveys, which yielded "abysmal" results. Even with those results, though, the initiative was successful in sparking the campus to start operating as a CoP.

This is an odd resource for this diigo, but you can find lesson plans here and post lessons... while making money :-)

TeachersPayTeachers.com -- 1,000,000+ free and priced teaching resources created by teachers for instant download including lesson plans and unit plans. This is truly my favorite teaching website. There are so many incredible resources that I find here with regards to any subject and grade level. Many activities that I find here are very unique and detailed!