Group items tagged

The U.S. Copyright Office answers frequently asked questions about copyright, registration, and services.

This site is an online discussion board. A teacher can use this resource to encourage class wide discussion on a particular topic. A teacher can even use this to encourage the "back discussion" during a class. The students can make comments and ask questions via TodaysMeet while the class is going on and then the teacher can access the site and answer questions after the class is over.

This website is very popular with English Language Learner teachers. It has articles divided by level of difficulty and with comprehension questions. It also has many current and relevant articles

This project involves students using Twitter to address a calculus level problem. In this project, students are asked to define what a limit is in calculus. These are very complex ideas that can be explained in many different ways. Students need to have a solid foundation with these concepts because the rest of the course builds on them. As students were researching their definitions, they tweeted questions live using the class hashtag. This allowed the teacher and other students to answer questions that were raised. Once students had their explanation they had to tweet it out to the whole class. Doing this in 140 characters or less can be very difficult. Once students all had a definition posted, they were able to go in and comment and retweet definition posed by their peers. I like this because it can be applied to many different situations. Students can be asked to define a topic or articulate their understanding of a concept in a clear and concise way. It also allows students to see their peers thinking and expand their own. This has numerous applications for students at numerous levels. I could see myself doing something like this when wrapping up a unit to check for understanding.

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.

This page on the Wenger-Trayner website, there is an in-depth explanation of communities of practice as well as a brief history of its inception. I really appreciated the part of this site that gave examples for how to effectively use communities of practice (CoP). It was interesting to read myths about CoPs as well as to be provided with links to further reading on the topic. I also found it incredibly insightful that the site explained how CoPs are being used in a variety of forums, not only in education.

This article provides examples of where COP can exist!

I like how it emphasizes that the three components of COP are domain, community, and practice. You need each of these to have a successful COP. Thanks for sharing.

An article detailing the history and development of Connectivism as a learning theory.  Goes on to question whether or not it should be considered a learning theory in it's own right.

This article delves into connectivism and whether it can be considered a learning theory. It discusses the ability of a network to be able to not only seek out current information but also to filter out extraneous information. It narrows the definition to connections formed through actions and experience. The authors envision a paradigm shift where the student will have the power to drive their own learning without the need of a tutor.

This is an interesting article, arguing that connectivism isn't fully a learning theory, but rather a shift away from the tutor/teacher role to more autonomous learners.

This qualitative study explores the experiences of PK-12 teachers using PLNs for professional growth. The research questions focus on how P-12 teachers describe their PLNs, what teachers learn from PLNs and how they believe PLN activities affect their teaching, and how teachers perceive their participation in PLNs affect their students' learning.

In this video interview of Professor of Educational Technology, Alec Couros, he speaks to the importance of connections and connected learning. He mentions George Siemens asking the question, "What endures?" He points out that basically what it comes down to is the relationships formed as a result of the tools used. It's not about the number of connections, but the quality and meaningfulness of the connections. He also speaks to the importance of contributing to others' learning and making it visible.

Thanks for sharing this Kim! The discussion of connectionism in relation to identifying, "What endures?" is very interesting. This highlights the importance of growth through the formation and maintenance of connections.

This is a step-by-step guide to setting up and growing CoP. It defines CoP and discusses why they are important. The guide also outlines how to establish and grow the community. At the heart of any successful CoP is purpose. A rubric is given to help identify the effectiveness of the community both in terms of infrastructure and language of inquiry.

I really liked this article, it gave some great information on CoP and the bullets on the first page were a nice outline of why CoPs are important and useful.

This article provides a step-by-step guide for designing and cultivating communities of practice in higher education. The first part of the guide is for those who are considering the use of CoPs to facilitate collaboration, learning, or knowledge generation and want to know more. That last part of the guide helps CoP designers and facilitators understand the questions, issues, and options involved in planning and cultivating communities https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/nli0531.pdf

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!

The big question presented in this article is, "How do we use technology?" The online environment is present in our daily lives and our participation is key. A PLN is defined as "the people you choose to connect with and learn from." A mutual desire for learning and participation must be present.

Hi Erin! I thought this article was quite interesting. I like how the author pointed out that so many say that the use of technology and media as a way of communicating leaves us disconnected, when really, it's the complete opposite! We are absolutely connected, just not the way we are accustomed to. Thanks for sharing!

PLN: Seaman's article discusses how to use social networking, especially Twitter to develop and maintain personal learning networks. She goes on to discuss that our we feel less lonely when we are connected, even if it is virtually on a tablet, cell phone or computer.

This article provides a definition and description of communities of practice. A community of practice is a social way to learn and share a common practice/activity/topic. Three implications are identified for learning: learning occurs through relationships, educators need to facilitate these communities for their students, and experience and activity lead to knowledge.

As learners, we can learn most, if not best, through our interactions and relationships with others. Co-participation in groups and/or activities are viewed equally as valuable as content delivered in traditional methods. Educators should strive to get students to include themselves in communities to learn through doing.

This article concludes by focusing on the implications for educators. It does not provide solutions but rather questions and ideas to consider.

This professor discusses how her class was better organized using a blog to generate comments, questions and collaboration. I enjoyed this particular article because it brought to life this idea of chunking a course by adding a blog element during the class. This is particularly meaningful to block teachers that may have students for 90 minutes. It is a great way to break things up.

Rolin Moe provides explanations and skepticism about connetivism, its history and role in education. I anticipate he will help define what MOOCs are, how they are used, what they provide learners, and the outcomes of connectivism as he completes his doctorate and continues in the field.

I really like how the author questioned collectivism as a learning theory, I am not saying he is right, but that it offers other insights I hadn't been considering. Good post!

Rolin Moe discusses whether connectivism is truly a new and singularly applicable theory of learning, or if it is merely an appendage to earlier theories such as constructivism.

This is a great article about social networking in schools.

http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2010/06/16/03networking.h03.html M. Gottlieb Day School in Jacksonville, Fla. Ms. Tolisano launched her "Around the World With 80 Schools" project with a goal to introduce her school's students to peers in countries around the globe. She built a social-networking site using Ning for teachers from all countries who wanted to participate. Tolisano sets up meetings between classes using Skype, students prepare a list of questions and chat with students in Canada, Finland, New Zealand, and Spain, among a long list of others.

New Milford High School in New Jesrsey has embraced the use of social media. One example of use had students blogging daily during a field trip to Europe to visit Holocaust sites.