This article outlines the theory and practice of communities of practice, and discusses the idea that learning is social and comes from of our experience of participating in daily life. The authors identify a variety of types of CoPs that all humans are engaged in, even if they are not formally identified as such. A CoP is defined along three dimensions: what it is about, how it functions, and what capabilities/resources it has produced. Also emphasized are the importance of the relationships formed between the people within the CoPs - hence, the community in CoP. Stemming from that, they extend the idea of CoPs to apply to the classroom culture and environment and discuss the need for educators to cultivate a similar idea to best facilitate learning among their students.

This article discusses communities of practice from a business perspective, which I found interesting because CoPs truly to exist in all professions; they aren't strictly and education trend. The merit of CoPs, according to the author, is that people share their experiences and knowledge in free-flowing, creative ways that foster new approaches to solving problems. They discuss the various benefits of CoPs and then examine why they aren't more prevalent, concluding that though the concept has been around for centuries, it hasn't been widely accepted yet and therefore companies (and education) haven't spent a long time cultivating them and helping people learn to effectively develop them. They refer to CoPs as the new frontier and predict that they will become a more and more important part of knowledge acquisition for professionals in the future.

This article identified a massive discrepancy between educational researchers and educational practitioners (i.e. teachers) and called for a new collaborative approach to research in which the two factions work together to build communities of practice "based on collective expertise and designed to scrutinize and improve education." CoPs are a new way to promote dialogue and inquiry on current educational issues and topics, taking the former idea of CoPs as primarily for PD to a new level.

This article summarizes the concept of Communities of Practice (CoPs) and examines this concept as the basis of a social theory of learning. CoPs are defined as "a collection of people who engage on an ongoing basis in some common endeavor." The primary virtue of a CoP lies in shared practice among members, which is a totally different idea then social groups based on gender, class, or physical location such as neighborhood or workplace. While this article focused particularly on the linguistic/speech field, the general theory behind the development of and discussion of benefits of CoPs was applicable to all domains.

(I accessed this one through the BSU library; it required a login) This article was geared toward technology leaders and information literacy specialists in schools and discussed the need for them to have access to the most current information. This could apply to any educator, though. They provide five reasons why librarians need PLNs: access to the thinking of colleagues, access to timely information, ability to post questions and get responses, ability to collaborate with colleagues, and to be able to communicate about events. Each of these is discussed in detail, and management tips for effective participation in a PLN are provided as well. This is a clear resource that makes a convincing argument of why educators need social-media based PLNs.

This article discusses how LMSs have become the norm for higher education, but identified limitations of the LMS and how learners are demanding a modification that gives students more control and interaction using web tools such as social networking sites to create PLNs to support their learning. Students want to create their own PLNs to manage information, create content, and connect with others. These approaches "represent a shift away from the model in which students consume information through independent channels such as the library, a textbook, or an LMS, moving instead to a model where students draw connections from a growing matrix of resources that they select and organize", emphasizing the personal aspect of PLNs.

This article defines a personal professional network as "an egocentric, personally and intentionally created network of people set up by an individual specifically in the context of her professional activities," and discusses how a PLN supports an individual's growth and learning. The authors examine the strengths and benefits of PLNs and analyze how PLNs are built, created, and maintained. Studies were conducted that resulted in the finding that there are three stages of the networking process with nine factors that influence personal professional networking, concluding in the creation of a visual model of the PLN.

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 article begins by defining constructivism as the principle that all learning starts with a connection, be it neural, conceptual, or social, and that learning is the ability to construct and traverse connections. The authors acknowledge that it is widely recognized idea but not yet accepted as a formal learning theory. The paper focuses on four key principles for learning that exist within connectivism: autonomy, connectedness, diversity, and openness. The authors also examine different theories regarding personality and self-determination and look at how these affect the individual's experience within connectivism.

This article defines the learning theory of connectivism and examines it in light of preexisting, more widely accepted learning theories to see if it fits in and should be accepted as a new learning theory for the digital age. They conclude that schools aren't quite ready to accept connectivism because it's a relatively new idea that is more relevant to students than the adults who make the decisions, and many of the adults aren't comfortable with that type of environment. Connectivism isn't to the place of being accepted as a new learning theory, though it is definitely influencing educational pedagogies.

One of my current favorite websites is Google Newspapers. So many amazing primary sources are available to engage students!