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This article by Wenger and Snyder in the Harvard Business Review is a great reflection of a community of practice (CoP) by the creators themselves in a well-known publication. While the article is in-depth and covers every aspect of a CoP, the included chart may have been the most helpful part of this article to really break down a CoP and the difference between that and other groups.

In this article the author provides an introduction to the concept of communities of practice, describes benefits and utility for business, and strategies for implementation in that context.

The highlight of this article for me is that CoPs have to be organic in their organization and management.

This website looks at the role communities of practice has with the transfer of knowledge. It also looks at the role of the facilitator has with a CoP. This is a good source to use as an individual is looking at setting up their first CoP.

Connection between Personal Learning Network and the Constructivism theory. It explains how the members of the network are the ones that make the connection with another person with a specific intent that some type of learning will occur.

This article features an easy to digest definition of personal learning networks which includes a connection to connectivism in explanation of how PLNs work. The resource is made even more accessible in helping a reader understand the subject matter with a video and infographic examples of the authors own personal PLNs.

This article gives a brief overview of PLNs and the theories behind them. It explains connectivism and its role in the benefits of PLNs. It also gives two examples of the authors' PLNs in the form of graphics.

An article and two videos that outline the theoretical underpinnings of PLNs. It breaks down the term "PLN" into components and explains each. It also explains the link with connectivism.

A great resource on PLN from a PhD student studying "the concept of PLNs and networked and connected learning"

Very thorough source for understanding PLN's. The videos are a good option if you didn't want to read through the whole article and provide a different perspective. I was drawn to the PLN map and other graphic organizers. Great visual representations to further understanding!

Siemens explains how technology has changed the definition of knowledge and how that relates to Connectivism. The emphasis of his video is the change in learning from the individual to the network. He explains that the connection to learning is more important than the actual learning because technology continues to change knowledge; therefore, Connectivism focuses on continual learning rather than the immediate consumption of knowledge.

Thanks for sharing this resource! It is very insightful coming from Siemens. There is good emphasis on the continuous nature of learning.

This was linked via one of the sites I posted about and I'm glad to see it posted. Always interesting to hear the theory come from the creator itself- I feel like even with EdTech, we don't often get our foundational information directly from the source.

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.

I'm sure everyone is familiar with this site, but I think we may sometimes take that fact for granted as Edutopia is a great site to find information, strategies, address a problem or get idea on how to make things work better. The information is presented in an easy to understand way that makes it especially helpful when you are venturing into unknown waters.

I always appreciate the reminder that this site exists. It is wonderful, full of content, and a great source of information!

I always find myself starting with this website when asked to research. I like the articles I find here because they are relatively short and to-the-point. Also, the research is current and valid. Edutopia is a great start and resource for fresh information in education.

This article discusses how Connectivism, focuses on that people learn through connections of social and cultural interactions. Every single source is a "node" which interacts with another to become a channel of shared information. In higher education, learning is viewed as a process that continually develops. The use of Twitter is a tool which allows students to share knowledge with each other

This was an interesting article about using Twitter though the lens of Connectivism. I thought it was interesting that as first, they thought it failed. But soon they said they created "a place to test our knowledge and facts" and that the class had "formed a learning network, where each one was tweeting a chunk of information." What a great outcome and a lesson that learning is a process, not an event.

This article includes valuable information about the theory of connectivism and well as an introduction to PLNs. It discusses the need to externalize learning to make sense of it. The author goes on to explain how social media can help accomplish this. In addition, it gives the background of PLNs and explains how it gives teachers the opportunity to impact multiple communities

Summary: Connectivism often features student choice, personalization, and varied paces. Social connections and collaboration are highlighted in this theory. A librarian at Wichita State University implemented connectivist ideals in a research class to make the course more meaningful and useful in the future. She asked students to comment digitally on student created research guides that could be used in the future with other students. This professors success came with strong plans and deliberate use of collaboration among students.

Connectivism is presented as the latest theory in library education. It combines elements of cognitivism and constructivism. As librarians engage in traditional 50 minute instruction periods they often miss the individualized instruction that produces the best results. In this article a librarian at Wichita State was looking for ways to take her intruction to the next level. Fortunately she got that opportunity while working with an upper-level English course. Students made connections between sources and among each other by completing a course research guide. At the end of the article the author offered several tips for improving library instruction. Librarians must have a detailed lesson plan in place, strong faculty collaboration, and include fun active learning exercises.

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 article gives an overview of what Connectivism is and how learning happens in the digital age. Siemans describes the basic principles of how learning is a network of information sources referred to as "nodes." It doesn't describe how learning occurs within but how learners connect with the networked world of people and information.

Connectivist theorists argue that the way in which individuals acquire knowledge has changed. Academic institutions (which have historically been considered as the place in which individuals acquire knowledge and information) are being supported and/or replaced by groups of people within a learning network. The process of learning involves the creation of knowledge through these personalized networks and identifying the relationships between one's own knowledge and the knowledge of others within a network. These connections can occur in a variety of ways and with a variety of learners.

This article helped me to understand how to apply connectivism in the classroom. It also pointed out misconceptions that educators have about using social networking in the classroom.

Written by Kegan Remington, an Instructional Designer, the article discusses what connectivism is and how it can be applied in the classroom. He lays out the four simple ways of introducing connectivism in the classroom.