Came across this while digging around on the Christensen Institute blog.

I too really enjoyed the section on learning theories and how the different learning theories are connected to communities of practice. The paper discussed several learning theories that I am unfamiliar with, but by tying them back to communities of practice it made clear connections for me.

This article focuses on the future of the learning management system in online education. It argues that the closed LMS is incapable of offering the interactivity of web 2.0 technologies to students. It stresses the need for greater connectivity and environments that can be personalized.

This article examines arguments made for and against online learning and what is best for creating engaging and rigorous elearning environments. It argues the need for both asynchronous and synchronous opportunities to promote optimal communication and collaboration.

This is a training resource that I came across from a school district in Indiana. It focuses on how professional learning communities or communities of practice can avoid becoming a passing fad in educational reform. It gives three "big ideas" that educational CoPs need to focus on to truly be successful. They are: ensuring that students learn, creating a culture of collaboration, focusing on results by holding themselves accountable.

This is a great resource that focuses specifically on the use of communities of practice in business environments. However, the information is easily transferred to other areas of industry or academia. It addresses the fact that CoPs are different than the traditional approach of working in teams in that their success and usefulness can be difficult to measure. The author gives tips for how to evaluate the success of a CoP through the sytematic gathering of anecdotal evidence.

Another great A/V resourse from George Siemens. I have really enjoyed the many resources he has publicly available from the courses that he teaches. This presentation focuses on the nature of groups and networks and how they differ. He stresses that we must not ignore human nature and the need that each of us has to be recognized individually. We cannot overlook humanity by loosing the self in the collective or community. In this presentation he discusses the self and its relationship and role in the network or community.

P.S.- I found the information on slide 22 to be particularly interesting.

This is a GoogleDoc created by George Siemens for an MOOC he co-facilitates on Connectivism through the University of Manitoba. It outlines the differences between connectivism and other prominent learning theories. It details the distinctions of the connectivism learning theory.

This is a link to an audio/visual presentation given by George Siemens on connectivism. The entire presentation takes about 15 min, but you can navigate to specific areas using the menu on the left sidebar. In this presentation he explores what connectivism is and our needs/desires as humans to create meaningful connections. This is a great resource for the auditory or visual learner that doesn't require endless reading!

This article summarizes the work of Lave and Wenger on the theory of communities of practice. It discusses how participation in communities of practice leads to learning and contributing to community goals. The article also includes a helpful chart that outlines the differences between communities of practice and other types of teams or focus groups.

This is paper written back in 2007 about PLNs. The author argues that PLN are the future of elearning because of the power they have to offer individualized learning and give the learner the opportunity to organize his/her own learning. That educational institutions cannot expect to simply recreate the same forms of learning used in tradition education online. rather that we must learn to adapt to the new and emerging technologies of ubiquitous computing and social software. Considering that this article was written 9 years ago, I found it to be extremely accurate and representative of PLNs today.

The author creates a great case in favor of digital PLNs. She explains why they are so important and relevant today. The emphasis of the article is on the need to work together, not on best practices, but rather on emerging practices. The author takes the stance that best practices require training with known knowledge for known outcomes. While we should be collaborating and innovating together to tackle the emerging practices.

One of my favorite blogs for discovering new tech to use in the classroom. This is a recent post that focuses specifically on student health and using technology to provide in-classroom physical activity.