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This graduate dissertation was particularly interesting to me since it focuses on K-12 Spanish teachers. The author discusses how communities of practice can be used as professional development and ongoing language training, particularly for non-native speakers. The research includes the use of technology in that the community of practice studied was conducted online.

I can see the use of CoP being very beneficial for non-native speakers. The technologies are the tools that would help to bridge the learning gaps and support learners. Non-native speakers often feel very isolated in learning environments, as having more than one learning group would be helpful. What a great dissertation topic.

If you have never watched a TED video, you are in for such a treat! Great speakers on a range of topics! Would love to go to one of their live presentations.

The website for the speaker at Classroom 20 Live on June 29 2013. Technology and CCSS can be friends.

If you are interested in using skype in the classroom, this may be a great article to check out! The author does a great job of taking you through her first few attempts and what worked and what didn't. She uses it to have her students learn more about Antarctica but the uses for this are truly endless! We have a problem with our foreign language students getting a chance to practice with a native speaker. This may be a great idea to connect our school with a school in France or Spain.

This helps classrooms connect and collaborate via Skype! It lists possible guest speakers, lists profiles of places that want to connect via Skype, and offers lesson plan ideas.

Click on the workers to learn more about their jobs: Veterinarian, Librarian, Pizza Maker, Utility Worker, Mayor, Police Officer, Firefighter, Pediatrician. For each, a series of pages includes text and images. Students can click on speaker icons to hear page text read aloud. Optional "test" questions can be answered at the end of each workers' section.

ESL Videos is a site which allows users to make quizzes from YouTube videos. There are already a number of shared quizzes and videos made. These quizzes are put into levels. I think some teachers may find the quizzes applicable to native speaker students as well.

This is a clip from a conference in New Zealand where the speaker starts to discern the differences between the focus of a network and that of a community of practice.

Melissa, thank you for sharing! I was having a hard time differing from the two, and this clip really help the viewers understand why each is important yet a little different. I really like the idea of communities of practice and what they can do for a professional!

Hi Melissa, I had not thought about the differences between a network and a community of practice. As the author identified the differences and the key aspects of a community of practice, I was able to gain better insight and understanding of a community of practice. I noted that she specified commitment, a purpose for improvement, and co-ownership as key characteristics. Thanks for sharing! Hanna

Spanish Proficiency Exercises is a compilation of video clips in which native speakers of Spanish from various locations throughout Latin America and Spain demonstrate various language tasks.

Examples of how our students are using PLN's and how we need to be thinking the same way that our students are if we want to be effective teachers.

This video did a nice job of showing the often antiquated school system most students function within. I especially enjoyed the inclusion of focusing on student strengths and resisting holding against them what they have not yet learned.

I like the way this video explored how students are taught in school versus how they learn information outside of school. The speaker in the video called this the "learning age" as opposed to the information age because we are learning all the time in everything we do. Yet, education still remains antiquated and traditional when our technology-filled, instant information society is anything but those traditional methods. We need to help students realize that learning is a way of life, not merely a classroom activity. The connectivism ideas permeate our society even beyond education.

Mostly poses questions about learning networks, and how technology tools and context influence learning. An intriguing notion of comparing the wisdom of a crowd with the stupidity of the mob is presented, but hardly explored.

Very nice slideshow. The author touches on communities of practice, connectivism and PLNs all at once. On a slightly different note, I simultaneously find Slideshare stimulating and frustrating. It is frustrating because of its one dimensional nature. Too bad there isn't a way to hear and/or see the speaker too.

This link is to a presentation on The Educator's PLN website. The video gives an overview on learning theory from ancient Greece to the present day, concluding with Siemens' theory of connectivism. This is very easy to understand and basic reasons are given for the advent of each theory with an explanation of each. When discussing connectivism, the speaker, Dallas McPheeters, talks about online self-organizing social systems (OSOSS), which are the communities that form via social networks. MCPheeters feels that technology allows history to repeat itself, providing the very best of every theory to any and every situation.

In Dominique Chargois's Spanish III classes, students interact with native Spanish speakers on Livemocha, a social network for learners of foreign languages. Chargois has used Livemocha Active Spanish as a supplemental learning tool in all of her Spanish III sections in order to engage students and inspire them to learn ad so they could work at their own pace. It also helps expand students' horizons by 'chatting' with individuals who live outside the U.S.

A series of podcasts that look into the history and people behind the start of our nation. Listeners may also contact the speaker via twitter to ask questions from the podcast series.

Here is a Facebook page for Skype! It offers great ideas of guest speakers and tours through Skype for successful projects in the classroom.

This video funded by the EU explains why it is important for educators to look outside of their local community for their PLN. The video highlights three main reasons that a vast and diverse PLN is important: Availability, knowledge, willingness to share. The video focuses on the PLM for foreign language. The ability to connect with speakers globally has revolutionized how, when, and where we can learn from.

Rosetta Stone Shared Talk allows for real-time online chat with Spanish speakers from around the world.

LiveMocha is a powerful online language learning community that allows you to interact with native speakers of many languages. It also provides a selection of free and paid language lessons.