This article makes a great point, that a personal learning network is designed by the learner where they are learning in their own comfort zone. The learner is attracted to certain things because of their abilities and own comfort level. The learner is in control of what they wish to accomplish, how much they want to learn and how they want to do it.

This article talks about the similarities and differences of professional networks and personal learning networks. It mentions that both networks have learning as the main goal in mind, and that sometimes professional networks have formed into personal learning networks because it is more detailed and defined that that individual and what they are interested in learning.

This article explains that technology is the main reason for learning networks. We have been learning online, through websites and interactions between people for a long time now. It states that learning together with other people online can be much more engaging, entertaining and worth our time.

From this article I understand that connectivism is a way of learning through the internet, media and social networks. It discussed how learning can be formal and also informal, to which informal learning seems to be outweighing the formal learning now a days. Informal learning comes from communities of practice and personal networks which are very popular and common today.

This aritcle explains connectivism as learning within a network. Today, much if not most of our learning takes place on the internet, it states that learners recognize patterns, changes, chaos on the internet and a lot of that is out of their control. The article talks about how people are continually striving to learn more and do not focus on what they currently know.

This article had mentioned a good point about communities of practice: not all communitites are communities of practice. They gave the example of a neighborhood, it is a community where people are living, but they are not necessarily practicing a common interest. However if you have a neighborhood watch group to watch and protect the surrounding homes, them that would be a community of practice because they have the same goal and are working together. It stated that learning can be the reason for the group to come together, or it can be an outcome of someone's actions.

I really liked this article because as an educator it spoke to what I believe in. Learning does not only take place in the educational setting of a school, but it also takes place outside of that environment. Learning is social, it's physical, it's interactive, it's communicating. There are so many different ways to learn and therefore people never stop learning. It states that communities of practice are all around us and most of the time we are involved in many of those groups at the same time.

I thought this article was interesting, about the communities of practice because it was discussing who you interact with can shape your learning and thoughts. If you create a community of practice for a specific group, your learning is shaped by those who are in that community. It was discussing a teachers community of practice, how most of them collaborate with their own colleagues and therefore share and learn from each other which them reflects on their teaching.

I thought this article was helpful in explaining the theory of communities of practice. It stood out to me when it said that this is where people are creating a community with a common interest/goal to improve their own performance in it. It also stated that people are using communities of practice while communicating and interacting regularly, they are just doing it with more of a defined purpose.

This site speaks specifically about the three "must haves" in order to determine if something is a community of practice or not. They are: having a common interest, having a community, and practicing that specific skills/interest.

There are two websites that I use very frequently during the school year, one is: www.edmodo.com
This is my class website for all 3 of my different courses. It is very similar to Facebook, but used for teachers and students.
I also use my school districts website almost every day: www.westada.org
This year they are giving every student in the district their own email, therefore us teachers can email them with upcoming tests/quizzes/etc. and the students are now responsible for their own email. We are very excited for this so now we can communicate directly to the students instead of going through the parents (although sometimes that is still needed ;) The students will be using the school district website quite frequently as well to check their school email.