This article comes with a downloadable PDF that shows visuals of PLNs. It gives examples on what a PLN is and how to create your own. It also provides a list of experiences that will be available to someone who creates a PLN based on their needs.
This articles gives information about the basic thought behind Connectivism. This article even gives the background information about the limitations of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism in the realm of technology and knowledge.
This article goes over the basic understanding of what a PLN is, and how to get one. Basically, it explains that a PLN is not something that one can acquire, but rather a person has to build that PLN based around the needs. It gives some steps for an educator, or anyone looking to network, to follow in order to begin setting up the accounts needed to create their PLN.
This website gives 4 free Learning Networks that teachers can use on a personal level to grow professionally. It gives a summary for each of the networking websites and how that site can be used to network with other educators.
This article shows the results of a mega-blogging experiment called a Tweetstorm. The authors wanted to see a Personal Learning Network come to life in a brainstorming and identification session. It got results similar to concept mapping: general thoughts that were fine-tuned and eventually became written by experts.
This article really just digs in to what connectivism is and analyzes the different ways it is implemented in post secondary online courses. The author considers the use of technology in education and makes the claim that online enrollment has increased due to the recent boom in technology. The article goes on to explain how students with technology involvement in their courses tended to outperform students taking more traditional courses.
This article explains the theories behind the connections between massive open online courses and connectivism. It is described that connectivism is the pedagogical approach behind MOOCs, but something is missing. The author goes on the explain how cultural psychology is the factor that makes up for the missing basis for learning that connectivism fails to explain.
This article gives some background and insight to the different parts of a Community of Practice. What I found to be most relevant about this article is the fact that it is based around digital learning. There is an image included in the article that displays the different websites that can be used as a tool for a CoP. This image is helpful in visualizing all of the ways to meet and communicate with peers in the digital realm.
This article describes how the term Community of Practice can be ambiguous and vary depending on the circumstance in which it is being used. It has been discovered by the author that there are various descriptions of CoPs, but one common factor amongst them all, discourse. The findings revealed in this article show why the author finds that discourse is significant when talking about the studies done in higher education CoPs.
This article follows the progression of a group of doctoral students in their journey to become scholars. Students were to use Communities of Practice in their studies, ultimately trying to see if this will allow them to emerge from the program with a stronger self-identities as scholars. Students had to learn to rely on one another while also providing for one another. Using COP, students were guided to not sit back and take the role of the student, but to get involved in their own learning to reach the role of scholar.
Lexia provides explicit, systematic, personalized learning on foundational reading skills for students of all abilities, and delivers norm-referenced performance data and analysis without interrupting the flow of instruction to administer a test.
This site is awesome for the at-risk student who needs help mastering the more basic principles of reading.
This app is perfect for the student who wants to be heard, but not seen. Students can use images and voice recordings to tell their stories, their way.
Weebly makes it surprisingly easy to create a high-quality website, blog or online store. Over 30 million people use Weebly to bring their unique ideas to life.
This can be used with classes to post their work and upload their vlogs or published pieces.
The World Book web site offers an encyclopedia, dictionary, atlas, homework help, study aids, and curriculum guides. World Book is publisher of the World Book Encyclopedia.
Love, love, love this site for students to explore and gather information. Credible and filled with information and images.
Discover an endless library of free books, picture books, & poetry or use simple tools to create books in minutes. Storybird is a creative community where readers & writers celebrate storytelling.
This site is an engaging and creative way to allow students to publish their work.
PenPalNews allows people to create an anonymous pen pal relationship in order to obtain feedback from someone or just to chat. Students can get feedback on opinions or can complete research from other areas of the world.