This student blog is an excellent example of active learning and sharing that learning with others. The author shares what she is learning, her reflections, and leaves a positive digital footprint that will really benefit her. Comments are enabled and she posts commenting guidelines to ensure good netiquette is followed.
This online news service brings together journalism students from around the world in a collaborative effort to report on global issues. Written "for students, by students" it encourages students to share their unique regional perspectives, as in this Election 2012 Election project.
SUMMARY: This creative explanation of the Connectivist theory makes the changing role of the student and teacher so clear. A teacher evolves into "a learning architect, modeler, learning concierge, connected learning incubator, network sherpa, synthesizer, and change agent." Wow!
Discusses the origin of the concep to PLN's and how they morphed from PLE's to PLN's. Enforces the importance of learning a variety of web based applictions to create PLN's.
Thanks Dana. I always like reading David Warlick. He has a way of getting to the heart of the matter. The "Many PLN Paths" diagram in this article is particularly useful. I like the way he constructs the relationship between the technology tools as "aggregators" and the learner who maintains the connections.
I found the diagram useful as well. I found the comparison of PLNs to ecosystem most interesting piece in this article. It provided with a valuable visual. #EdTechSN
Shirky describes social media tools as enabling "groups that previously couldn't have achieved things together, because the difficulty of doing anything in concert is high" to coordinate. His talk discusses the increase in group action as a result of these tools.
This is another example of a secondary school using Twitter effectively. This feed updates students and parents on all things related to its iPad Revolution and is a brilliant example of using Twitter to offer tech support on integrated technology.
This is our school's Facebook page. It is a good example of using Facebook to communicate with students, parents, and community members. It posts weekly newsletters, event photos, announcements, and allows for comments. 600+ people 'like' this page, which is twice the number of students who attend school.
This ePals project brings K-8 students together to explore "What's Outside My Window?" Through email interaction, students will build relationships with students in another part of the world and develop a table of similarities and differences. Using photos they have taken, students will create a collaborative presentation to demonstrate their learning.
This middle school showcases how to use Pinterest for learning. It has 40+ boards such as "Summer Reading Lists," Walls of Wisdom," "Eat SMART"," "Brainiacs!" and "Teaching and Learning." Students and teachers can learn something from this collection.
This blog post is an attempt to discover the definition of a Personal Learning Network as compared to Personal Learning Environment. Ironically, the author uses his PLN to help determine the definition. Great example of a PLN in action.
Excellent blog post in which the author ponders what a PLN really is. He asks for a definition and compares PLNs to PLEs. Worth a read and review of the comments.
In identifying the role of social networking in reference to connectivism the author identifies that among the entire population that uses the internet some 75% are are members of social networking sites. "The role of Web 2.0 technologies is to provide a network of people who connect to each other wherever and whenever they need information." states Tinmaz. Thus, when people are in need of information they have access to an abundance of resources. This had led to the passive acquisition of knowledge by students to trying to create an active and engaged student populous in constructing their own knowledge. Part of this is the connections students build through online social networks. These networks allow for students to follow the flow of information and stay current in the changing information on a day to day basis. One of the new concepts is called a "hub" which is a main center for information distribution. Those people or places who serve as hubs help disseminate information throughout to other students. These social networks allow for easy access and the streaming of information on a constant basis to all people involved. This connectivity to learning allows for all students and others to remain involved in connecting their learning.
I like this article because it directly associates social networks, connectivism, and education. This quote from the article does a good job describing how: "The Connectivist theory has demonstrated that on a connected network, learners increase their capacities, performances, and levels of knowledge while creating and reforming the
information. In that sense, social networking websites comprising already linked members in
their innate technologies have a superior potential to enrich learners' current knowledge,
skills, and abilities."
The article addresses one of the concerns I have regarding connectivism and social networking: the credibility and accuracy of information. Even in my PLN of educated people, misinformation can spread like wildfire. Unfortunately, if one of the respected members of a social network passes on information without checking the veracity of the information, misinformation can be given an air of legitimacy. In my networks, if the information is incorrect or outdated, I include a link to clear up the misinformation. However, you cannot "unring a bell", and the misinformation takes on a life of its own as "truth"
This article discusses the learning networks that have been created with the rise of so many social networking websites and how that relates to connectivism in terms of how people of this generation learn. The author asserts that today's learners are different from learners of the past because they require a social aspect to successfully acquire knowledge. This supports the proposed learning theory of connectivism, which they cite as meaning that "knowledge and cognition are distributed across networks of people and technology, and learning is the process of connecting, growing, and navigating those networks" (Siemens and Tittenberger (2009). The article identifies the need for a new perspective of integrating social networking websites using connectivism as an instructional strategy.
This website discusses using Twitter in the language classroom. The students could actually tweet or Facebook message others from Hispanic countries (or whatever country they are studying). It would be a great way to get the students communicating outside of the classroom in the language.
A brief but excellent look at the need for PLN in school. Give a good description of why teacher's need to be involved as students develop their existing PLN's and why they need to develop their own.
Everyone's network is going to look different. It is more of a process than just being in a room with those you interact with every day. It is an independent function that you need to engage in! We have to create our own PLN so that we can connect with our students who already have one.
Everyone's network is going to look different. It is more of a process than just being in a room with those you interact with every day. It is an independent function that you need to engage in! We have to create our own PLN so that we can connect with our students who already have one.
Diigo has clear advantages to the individual that needs to store and recall important information. But how can it be used in the classroom? This blog post shares a few options for using Diigo in the classroom.
One common problem of student computer use in schools is access to student work from home. Using Diigo, students can bookmark important websites and access them from school, home, the library or any internet-connected computer. Students will always have access to this data. Teachers and students can use the group and list features of Diigo to organize bookmarks on themes or topics. Classes can also collaborate and discuss information within Diigo.
This is a list of websites and project ideas that focus on connecting students from different classrooms and getting them to use social media. I have a feeling I will be using this site to find the rest of my sites for the Module 6 project.