HS English teacher's lesson plan that embraces social media for the English classroom.

HS Language Arts teacher uses Prezi to tell about using Edmodo in the classroom.

In Case Study 7, a Language Arts teacher details using cell phones with Twitter

Teacher uses Twitter to teach The Crucible.

One teacher's reflections of how she has come to use technology in her ELA classroom. This includes collaborations such as wikis.

Teacher uses Facebook for uploading English papers for peer review.

Sixth grade class uses Skype to communicate with author.

Teacher uses Facebook to push assignments to students.

This blog gives several example of Facebook used successfully in the classroom. It is used for a variety of age levels.

Examples of using social networking to use the limits of Twitter to learn to pare down their writing. In the comment section, several teachers give examples of their successes in the classroom with this project. Students are limited to telling a story in six words.

Examples of using social networking to use the limits of Twitter to learn to pare down their writing. In the comment section, several teachers give examples of their successes in the classroom with this project. Students are limited to telling a story in six words.

I posted this as an extra site with Etienne Wenger's original homepage, which is active, but no longer updated.

I bookmarked this as an extra site. It does not appear to be currently updated, but is George Siemens' personal website. There is a good link to a PDF of his book, Knowing Knowledge (2006).

I bookmarked this as an extra site. It is the current site for Etienne Wenger, now Etienne Wenger-Trayner, along with his wife and fellow researcher, Beverly Wenger-Trayner. There are many good articles about Communities of Practice.

This is a link to a PDF of a paper that supports the theory that connectivism leads to a new conception of learning in which formal, non-formal, and informal learning should all be integrated to build lifelong learning activities in a "personal learning environment".

This is a blog post that elaborates on the idea of learning networks and connectivism. The author provides a graphic of her own learning network, showing professional activities, school, friends & family, internet, and books & articles. She details her search for information (connectivism) and how "the web of information expands." She applies Siemens' theory of connectivism to her own evolution as a learner, illustrating that learning is changing and never stops. Further, informal learning is just as important as formal learning.

This article, which was written for The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language, discusses the value of teachers being a part of many communities of practice. This enable them to see social media modeled and be more likely to use it in the classroom.

This is a link to the Word file of the dissertation of Etienne Wenger. In his abstract, he states," It is an attempt to open up a universe of discourse about learning that does justice to the social character of human life." The dissertation let to the eventual book that he published, "Communities of Practice." Wengers dissertations deals more with issues of transparency, while the book pursues the CoP theory. This dissertation supports the udea of visible artifacts being part of CoPs. This was written in 1990, so was before the advent of social networking as we know it, but comes from a social perspective that correlates to what we consider social networking today.

This is an excerpt from the book by Etienne Wenger, Communities of Practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. In it, Wenger details that communities of practice are found everywhere in our lives, from a very young age (daycare!) on up. For many reasons, modern societies are concerned that valid learning takes place and Wendger hopes to contribute. He points out that "a social theory of learning is...not exclusively an academic enterprise." It is all around us. Wenger is not discounting the many other theories of learning that have been developed in the past. His theory is in addition to these.