This is hands dow my favorite teaching related website. I am very much a visual learner; therefore, the video testimonials posted for most suggested strategies or lessons help me tremendously. One of my most successful experiences with theTeaching Channel came from watching a video title "Socratic Seminar: The 'N-Word.'" It transformed the way I conduct socratic seminars in my classroom.

This text is similar to others posted in that it highlights the main features to the communities of practice theory. However, this particular text's focus draws to the readers attention the importance of the commitment factor in order to form a successful community of practice. A community of practice can exist in haphazardly fashion, but when the commitment is to the common purpose and shared experience the success will be more vivid. It also alludes to the seven principles outlined by Etienne Wenger which include: shepherd the evolution, encourage internal leadership, weave private and public space, invite multiple level of participation, find rhythm between familiarity and excitement, build momentum, and develop both communal and personal identity. The author states that the communities of practice platform is the perfect place for new and unattempted concepts or ideas to be practiced with nurtured care.

While this blog posting from Edutopia does point to some "how tos" and practical application, it does offer key theoretical practices for setting the stage for applying the PLN model for student use. Vicki Davis, the teacher and author of the blog post, states that her students are familiar with breaking news due the development of their own PLN that acts as a "virtual locker." She goes on to discuss how their research builds the content of their PLN and the content changes based upon the assignment. The big idea is that the PLN model allows students to act as the orchestrator of their own learning and allows them to analyze information via an avenue that is personalized to student's learning needs. It also teaches students to embrace connectivism where they make connections between domains in order to form a more complete understanding.

This source seeks to identified the finite features that make a successful PLN. It highlights factors that influence the individual's ability to build, maintain, and activate the personalized networks. The nine factors include: organization of the contact, network of a contact, reputation, benevolence, like-mindedness, real potential for collaboration, real potential for learning, and trends in work environment. Several diagrams are offered to illustrate how the success of a personal learning network for the individual is governed by the attitude of the individual towards the network and the skills displayed or put into practice on a daily basis. The text also stresses the potential of PLNs as they encounter existing and news social networking technologies that make the connection process easier and allow for greater fluidity in build professional development through the network.

This source offers a plethora of modalities to explain what exactly a personal learning network is. It can mostly simply be defined by the three parts in the name of a PLN: personal, building relationships to fit the individual; learning, the professional development aspect of collaborating and sharing resources; network, the platform that forms the means for building connections. The source offers a short video, a VoiceThread presentation, examples and personal testimonials to prove the power of PLNs.

This text highlights the eight major principles of the connectivism theory and connects them to the Association of College and Research Libraries informational literacy standards. This source objectively evaluates the effects of connectivism when implemented for the purpose of teaching literacy standards. The big idea to be taken away is that as school librarians are embracing the digital media world, which is drastically altering student library experience, they are intuitively embracing connectivism, but would benefit from being more intentional about applying the theory. The theory applied to the library experience would involve the domains of information management, contacts, synchronous communication, and RSS. The goal would be that the conenctivism theory is applied so that students make personalized networks using the domains that maintain a dominance in secondary and post-secondary libraries.

This particular document looks at the communities of practice model from the lens of a government agency in its' partnership with businesses, foundations, non-profits, and other organizations. The document's value comes to life in the fact that it focuses on how the communities of practice implemented are more of a valid method for productivity because a shared interest is involved and the experiences are shared. First time viewers of this document would benefit from the diagram on page 8 that explores the distinct features of the community, domain and practice which lead to a successful community of practice. The diagram is an excellent means of introducing the model to new participants or those already engaged in a community of practice, but simply unaware of their involvement. I also appreciate this document because it offers practicality and context in viewing how multiple entities can come together to form a community of practice united by a common purpose.

Etienne Wenger seeks to simplify communities of practice by elaborating on three distinct features that make a a community of practice different than a community. A community of practice is defined by its' domain, the shared connection based on a common interest; the community; a group of individuals that interact with each other through collaborative activities; the practice, common experiences and resources to take on similar problems. The text is particularly user friendly in that it offers provides charts that contextual types of activities that would make a community a community of practice such as: visits, mapping knowledge, problem solving, etc.

I appreciate this piece because then intent is to build a concrete definition for communities of practice for an encyclopedia. It explores the sociological implications of the term and offers rich language that can be used to adequately define this particular type of community. According to the author there are two primary conditions in order for a collection of people to be considered a community of practice: commitment to the same shared understanding and a shared experience over time. These communities act as a tool to familiarize participant's with the world using the lenses of the group's interests.

This article explores three different types of learning theories as applied to distance education or learning, a non-traiditonal means of learning where students are not physically present in the classroom for instruction. While the paper discusses the cognitive-behaviourist and social constructivist theories in this learning model, it also highlights the connectivism approach. It is made known in the text that the connectivism theory caters to the constant evolvement of the act of learning as it functions on the premise of building understanding by making meaningful connections between networks of information. It is to be appreciated that this text points out the strengths and weaknesses of the theory. When applied, this theory can be a struggle for students as the theory is extremely individualized and relies on the student to act as the "central connector" in their own learning, often leaving students weary from the energy exerted and sometimes confused by a lack of structured guidance and the responsibility to take control of their own learning.

This text composed by George Siemens, an entrepreneur of the connectivism learning theory, explores the traditional learning theories of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism in order to reveal a more modern learning theory that encompasses the digital age. Connectivism, simplified, is the idea that individuals engage in learning processes that hold real world application via various resources and contacts to which valuable information can be extracted to create new learning that builds lasting knowledge applicable to a diverse number of circumstances. In this academic article Siemens explores the basic principles and implications of the connectivism theory and heavily emphasizes that this type of learning doesn't necessarily occur within the human, but can be drawn from different nodes which then connect to build individual understanding.