Group items tagged

A great starting point for finding information and educational technology related resources.

A site which gives a lot of great information on multimedia and hypermedia uses in the classroom, as well as many informational resources.

There is a clear disconnect between the media students are accustomed to using outside the classroom and the media they predominantly use within the classroom. Students spend copious amounts of their free time socializing, shopping, and even studying on the Internet, where they are flooded with text, images, video, animation, and sound in what is a complex multimedia environment.

SUMMARY: I especially appreciate this resource as it points you in several exciting directions to online CoPs to help you as a consumer of informatioin understand what constitutes a CoPs. I was pleased to see that I already belong to a few of these CoPs and I am excited to look into the others.

This was a great find. This site connects educators with communities that suit their needs. Educators can pick their interests and connect with folks on the spot. I really enjoyed viewing this resource!

First of all of course I love the name of this listing of CoP, "Online Communities of Practice in Practice". This listing is so interesting to me, I have for a long time collected from individuals blogs through feeds, but I haven't come across such a good listing of online communities. It was amazing to me as I begin to research these groups the number of educators in these networks. Of course each person is at their own level of involvement, but they are each harnessing the power of connecting in their own right, exactly how it works for them!

This last year I got tasked with teaching Psychology for the first time. I was without any textbook or real resources to use, so I looked to the web and found a couple of great blogs that really helped me out. It showed to me the power of great teachers sharing amazing resources, lesson plans, and ideas with one another to generate the best learning outcomes for our students!

A critical review of George Siemen's (2005) article "Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age". A distinct relationship is made with Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) and connectivism: The individual, and his/her abilities to create a personal learning network, is the "starting point of connectivism" (Siemens, 2005, p. 6). A great summation of the original article.

I thoroughly enjoyed this article! To some degree I have always associated Common Core with connectivism because I am seeing the ways in which Common Core is pushing students to be critical, analytical thinkers able to justify their responses. It isn't so much memorizing content as much as it is learning skills to apply to different terrains of knowledge which is similar to part of Siemen's definition that connectivism involves "determining when and what knowledge should be retired and replaced with updated knowledge." This statement prompted an "ah-ha" moment within my head as I was able to begin connecting some dots between connectivism and the practical aspects of my own teaching practice.

Is connectivism limted to Western and technologically advanced cultures? Learning theories such as behaviorism, constructivism and even cognitive and socioclultural theories can be applied to learning in various cultures. It seems that connectivsm requires a certain amount of freedom and access to technology. If this is the case, can it be considered a learning theory?

This paper gives a literature review of recent research on integrating technology in higher education. There are lots of resources here!

Article discusses the relevancy and power of social media, breaks down myths, offers concrete examples, and points out its connection to standards.

12 ways teachers are using social media in the classroom

An overview, including a quiz, about the relevance of social media in the classroom. Also delves into the myths of social media and links to resources about how to integrate social media into classroom activities.

One of the first resources I found when starting my Edtech journey and when creating curriculum for an online course in social media marketing. Rheingold has been around a long time and experimenting with social media and emerging communication tech for himself. His "crap detection 101" course is useful for faculty and students.

Another Blog I follow, Alice has tons of resources. Her specialty is spreadsheets and she dabbles with badges and gamified learning.

This is my personal website. I post a lot on using Google products, but also on educational pedagogy. I am currently getting around 11,000 to 16,000 hits a day on my blog. I think this will be a good resource for many of you who are using technology in the classroom.

Connectivism is an integration that encompasses social and individual learning, and experience. Connectivism is knowledge and the process of learning, principle of learning, technology, nature of knowledge, and the flow of information.

From the P2P Foundation (what is more Connectivist than that?), this an essential description of Connectivist Learning Theory and how it ties to knowledge networks. It includes a history and glossary of key terms.

Connectivist learning theory, by George Siemens This is the process of knowledge as well as learning. Connectivism focuses on the inclusion of technology. We must focus on our interactions with one another with connectivism.

Have you tried Mystery Skype yet? @PaulSolarz has great how-to resources @chadsmtty http://t.co/vABJiaEDEI #lusded #mysteryskype #edtechchat - Cinnamon Johnsrud (@cbjohnsrud) March 13, 2015

Video details what a CoP is and how it will work. Also talks about joining existing versus starting a new CoP for what best suits you. I think the video is short enough and to the point that it is a valuable resource for someone who is starting out and trying to find more information about a community of practice.

The authors propose seven principles that they believe will allow communities to be "alive" and connect with members.

The seven principles for designing, implementing, and evolving a community of practice is the focus of this article. It does a very good job of describing these activities in terms of promoting a growth model within the community and the members. This desire to attract and connect with more and more people will only serve to grow the communities knowledge and abilities (this is somewhat mentioned in principle #2) by opening the conversations among those who are in and outside of the community.

The results of a 2014 teacher survey regarding teacher use of social media are discussed in this brief article. Interestingly, educators are finding that much of their education news comes from social media. Additionally, Twitter appears to be a powerful tool for collaboration, access to teaching resources, etc.

Neat resource for using songs in Science

This site addresses four common myths about social media and social learning.

These are great resources!! I love the idea that social media is only for fun. I have realized that yes you can keep in touch with friends and family but in addition there are so many things you can do to better yourself or learn a new skill. In addition in the classroom you can add interaction to your classroom! Great ideas!!

In this article, Torrey Trust gives an overview of personal learning networks (PLN) and discusses their relevance in education. She identifies two different types of PLNs, information aggregation and social media, as well as their benefits. Many of the tools available for PLNs as well as examples for how teachers can use these tools are also examined. Additionally, three popular online PLNs, including Classroom 2.0, The Educator's PLN, and Edmodo are reviewed.

This is a great article that summarizes key features of PLNs in education. I particularly appreciated the section that discussed motivation regarding teacher participation in PLNs. The collective knowledge and the safe space in which teachers can share ideas and resources with one another seemed to be a powerful motivator for educators when it comes to participation.

This article clearly has a clear connection to teacher practice. The focus on teacher lifelong learning, essential to enhancing learning in schools, is critical. PLNs give teachers a place to break out of the isolation of classrooms so they can reach out to other educators with new knowledge and support so they can meet any challenges that may arise.

In this article, Whitby describes the rationale behind personal learning networks and how they may help educators deal with modern challenges. He also argues that PLNs have potential in future educational reform.

This is a nice brief article for the "what" and "why" of PLNs. As I mentioned in a previous post, it's nice to see concise articles that give a good ground work for a topic. It beats getting bogged down in pages upon pages. Thanks for the resource!