Great analysis, this truly helped my understanding. In this way, my principals can CALL the monthly meetings PLC meetings (or communities of practice), but they may just be team meetings with a goal, meeting only because we are contracted to do so. From personal experience, a group that chooses to meet is always more productive and engaged.

The ten tips to establishing a PLN seem to be what we've been doing in 543 so far...

Great read. I especially like the part about "active participation" in a community. This seems a powerful learning theory - my students are always worried about their identity within their community, its no surprise that learning would work well here.

This is a light hearted video that accomplishes its stated goal in the title. Truth time: I see many similarities between this "PLN" and my monthly mandated school PLN. I often times feel like the mustachioed teacher that doesn't see the end game with the data (although I don't walk out). My question is can PLCs be pushed onto non-willing participants? Or is the fault in the mission of the PLC? I have a group of teachers that are passionate about integrating technology into their classrooms, and we meet whenever one of us feels like we have something new to share (we call our selves "Chromies" because Chromebooks). This isn't forced upon us by principals or central office, and we all enjoy it.

This website cleared up a few things about PLNs for me. It discusses how in vogue calling every meeting under the sun a "Professional Learning Community" can be for administrators, but it may just not be so. Also defined are Professional Learning Environments, "a PLE is a system that allows learners to create and manage their own online learning." This site is challenging those involved in education to build those close relationships and form true, genuine (not mandated) PLNs in order to better their practice.

Here is a very complex study. Fortunately, the highlights tell us some important findings. This study went with the understanding that teachers have organically formed professional learning networks using the Internet, and report that they like them. This study focused on putting some data behind that, which it has provided. As a teacher, I found this quote very refreshing, about a researcher that "argued that top-down teacher PD in schools often aligns with hierarchical structures that de-skill teachers from their intellectual work by treating them as passive recipients of mandates. Even the term "professional development" conveys that teachers are "deficient and in need of developing and directing." In my own PLN, I have learned much more about teaching and learning from an 8th grade math teacher than I have in any of my administration-mandated social studies PD sessions.

In this site, communities of practice are defined as "groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly." This seems very encompassing. It would include a group of friends that play a simple, addicting game on their smartphone. If this group of friends hangs out and discusses tips on how to do well in the game, boom: community of practice. At this point in my research, I'm surprised that there is so much literature produced to discuss something so simple. The value of a community of practice is clear: passionate, committed people doing something and learning from each other. But this has existed throughout human history, and is now labeled. Next, I'm going to search for who coined this term.

This article begins by describing three different communities of practice, but not how one would traditionally think of them. A "community of practice" for myself on a personal level would not necessarily have to be the other middle school teachers in my building, but could involve the elementary art teacher I am friends with. The more I read about these communities of practice the more they are sounding like "like-minded people who talk about stuff they have in common." There is a neat little graph describing five stages of development of these communities.

One of Siemens's points about connectivism is that "Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions." I find this interesting because I teach ancient history, where "facts" can be debated and there can be multiple viewpoints on a topic. Maybe this shows my math ignorance, but I'm not sure a math teacher would welcome this same attitude into a math problem. This site first lays out Siemens's main points of connectivism and then suggests ways to bring connectivism into the classroom.

This is an intro video for a 2.5 hour session lead by Madeline Brooks on Connectivism as a digital learning theory. She asks questions like "where do your students find experts" and introduces a lot of the major themes of connecting digitally online and learning in general.

According to this sites definition of a Personal Learning Network, this Diigo group meets the definition ("a tool that uses social media and technology to collect, communicate, collaborate and create with connected colleagues anywhere at any time"). The article continues by stating that each member becomes "a source of information," which leads us back to connectivism, making connections, and learning.

A great introduction into communities of practice. These communities require three things: commitment to the mission/goal, a community, and a shared role (or practice).

This was my starting point for research on Connectivism. This is a short read introducing the topic and its creator. Learning takes place when connections are made.

The British Museum has an outstanding presence online. I've used this website for years for students to conduct a webquest. They have other ancient cultures as well.