This article discusses the tools that students need in order to have access to professional communities of practice. It discusses the significance of blogs and their authors. It emphasizes that blogs provide a service which assists others in regards to a particular topic. The paper also explains connectivism. It suggests a way to create a digital learning environment, and a case study of classroom experiences with an instructor's blog and students' personal learning networks.

http://echoreign.com/ss/shelley/Welcome_files/jpae_17n01_final.pdf#page=14

The paper begins by discussing the vast amount of information and knowledge that is available. It then provides an in-depth understanding of what connectivism is and its principles. The paper also compares connectivism to other learning theories. Criticisms and contributions of connectivism are presented. Finally, the author offers examples of how the principles of connectivism are applied in the workplace and e-learning.

http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv815

This paper is divided into three sections. The first section describes connectivism and its ability to inform learning. It discusses connectivism as a learning theory. The second section discusses connectivism as phenomena. The argument is that it is not a learning theory. The final section presents five scenarios where other theories of learning are used to evaluate technology enabled learning.

http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/902/1664

This paper explores the concept of personal learning environments, their usefulness, and why they are key to learning in the future. It explores the constant changes that are occurring in education. It delves into the support and tools that personal learning environments can provide. The paper also talks about the changes that are ongoing with technology. Finally, the paper provides examples of personal learning environments and how they may be used in the future.

http://www.elearningeuropa.info/files/media/media11561.pdf

This article focuses on what it is like to be a part of a community of practice. It provides detailed examples of what it like to be in a community of practice, its benefits, and how they function. It briefly defines a community of practice. It also outlines three qualities of a community of practice: joint enterprise, practice, and identity.

http://waterwiki.net/images/4/49/CoPInside.pdf

A brief introduction to personal learning networks is provided by explaining what they are, the benefits of personal learning networks, the kinds of connections that exist, and how these networks can be built in this article. The article also makes reference, often, to personal/professional learning networks. It focuses on how support offered by a learning network change and evolve based on the actions taken by an individual in those learning networks. They also provide a model that describes personal networking to create a personal learning network.

http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3559/3131

The paper discusses how a connectivist learning can integrate informal, formal, and nonformal learning can be integrated, with the use of social networking, to build lifelong learning experiences. They provide a model that outlines the flow of knowledge that occurs in a connectivist learning environment. They also provided a scenario for building a commctivist learning experience.

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.125.8722&rep=rep1&type=pdf

This article begins by discussing how learning theories are changing as social environments change. Technology is changing the way we think and learning theories need to attempt to explain the link between learning and technology. The article discusses learning theories and their limitations. It then proposes an alternative theory, connectivism, and it explains its meaning. It also discusses the importance of connectivism in the digital era.

http://www.ingedewaard.net/papers/connectivism/2005_siemens_ALearningTheoryForTheDigitalAge.pdf

In this article, Wegner disputes the fact that organizations are successful when they organize themselves as social learning structure and they participate in broader learning systems. It invites people to think of learning from a social perspective. It then discusses three ways to participate in social learning systems. It then discusses the foundation of social learning systems.

http://itu.dk/people/petermeldgaard/B12/lektion%207/Communities%20of%20Practice_The%20Organizational%20Frontier.pdf

The article discusses what a community of practice is and the value it has to Sociolinguistics and Linguistic Anthropology. It describes how there are two conditions of a community of practice and how they are crucial in regards to making it conventional. Communities of practice need to be a shared experience over time and a commitment to shared understanding to be conventional. It goes on to discuss the importance of communities of practice for the speech community.

http://www.stanford.edu/~eckert/PDF/eckert2006.pdf