This article discuses the theories behind communities of practices. This resource includes charts and practices of designing effective communities of practice. It provides a clear definition of what these practices mean and provides several crucial characteristics of a community of practice.

This article explores the classroom as a community of practice and examines the role classroom activities have in students' collaborative learning. The study uses a graduate-level public administration course as the case.

The authors describe a successful teacher community of practice as one that is well designed and guided, usually developing one facet of instruction through joint work, supported by a proactive administrator and broad teacher leadership.

A brief overview and introduction of the concept and uses of communities of practice. This article shares theories and what it should look like instead of the "How" it should be done. They share the background of the concept and how it fits into the teaching environment.

This article focuses on defining communities of practice and includes several examples. I like that they break up the words and meaning to simplify and better understand the meaning and benefits of communities of practice. For example, we might live in a community neighborhood, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we live in a "community of practice."

A great article and resource on George Siemen's principles of connectivism. This includes excellent alternate resources including links to other supporting pages and video links to help understand the connectivism theory.

Written by George Siemens, focuses on learning theories for the digital age. He hits on several learning theories but comes to focus on networks and connectivism. He defines it and shares principles of connectivism.

This article written by Michael Graffin was a great resource for explaining what a PLN is and connecting it to the connectivism theory. At first glance, it seems to lean towards the "how to" of creating a PLN but he also opens the doors of theory and a few things to think about when creating one for yourself. This includes reflecting on the idea of the tools you will use, who you would possibly connect with, how you will want to learn and when you want to learn it.

Written by Jordan Catapano who simplifies what a PLN is and explains why one might need it. He explains that a PLN is usually designed by educators networking with fellow educators to make them better teachers. This article goes through the theories and benefits of a PLN and what they intel or include.

Teachthought.com is an excellent resource. This particular resource is titled "10 Reasons why Every Teacher Needs a P.L.N." This page is filled with multiple resources at a glance to help better learn and understand the theories behind PLN.