Group items matching

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This article provides an overview of some of the potential benefits of using social media with students.

This speaker does an excellent job showcasing that our students are totally capable of being part of a learning network before they can even recognize what it is they're doing. Things have changed intensely since the rise of networked connections between people. School needs to adapt and use these tools that professional educators are using to improve meeting the many "standards" that Mr. Regur talks about. "We have standards just to write standards…" We need to avoid the closed off island that is being a teacher… There is no longer an excuse to be stuck in this single-player version of education.

We all create personal learning networks in everything we do. Using this in education is extremely important so that students a) know how to connect with others, and b) know how to benefit from connecting with others. I like how he called the "teacher the most important activator".

Two is a meeting, Three is a network. Steve had some great "real" advice and reasons for why we should all join PLN for a variety of different reasons to create a stronger and more educated world.

This student blog is an excellent example of active learning and sharing that learning with others. The author shares what she is learning, her reflections, and leaves a positive digital footprint that will really benefit her. Comments are enabled and she posts commenting guidelines to ensure good netiquette is followed.

This study looked at how Twitter-using educators were using Twitter to collaborate, network, or engage in professional development

Molly, I really enjoyed this article. It is especially relevant with this course. Honestly, I could never image using Twitter as any kind of professional resource, but after reading this and using Twitter for this class and one other, I can see how it would benefit educator to collaborate. It is also very easy to use. Thank you for sharing this article!

Hi Molly, This is very appropriate for our class, especially since we are using Twitter to share articles and resources with each other - - in our own personal learning environment. I focused on the discussion portion of this article. I noticed that for educators, personal learning networks are important and useful for professional development. It was interesting that the study found greater use in high school environments (maybe because we are influenced by our students?). The benefits of Twitter and professional development, is that one can access and participate at any time and any location - - it is self-directed! I would be interested in finding out how to promote this type of professional development within a school. What type of training is needed for educators to get started? How would one track satisfaction and learning?

"Studies have concluded that social engagement can benefit retention efforts, and schools and teachers are successfully pursuing this tactic with the help of social media applications." This is an article that points to studies indicating that just as social interaction can help with student retention, both in the field of study and at the school, so to can social media fill this need. 

This article discusses adding CoPs to different organizations. It mentions the Internet Generation and describes various tools that will benefit a CoP. Finally, it describes that a CoP should have a purpose that has goals aligned with a specific purpose or vision in order to be effective.

I really appreciated this article and in particular the sense of purpose as a topic. So often I feel that CoPs can feel very purposeful and vibrant when they are created but lose their vigor or meaning as the primary task has been resolved. It seems that strategically placing emphasis on keeping the systems open and renewing purpose in order to develop leaders and new members creates a different energy for everyone involved.

This article mainly summarizes the work of Etienne Wenger concerning CoPs. Additionally the article has an included video discussing the benefits of CoPs in the workplace.

Defines and lists the characteristics of a Community of Practice. Tells how they are unique, their benefits, and how they are useful.

I really like annotated bibliographies because they provide so much information on a topic in a fairly simple analytical summary, and they allow the reader to delve further by providing the source. The author, Kristi Newgarden, has two fields of interest: educational technology and teaching English as a Second Language. Overall, the focus of the bibliography is on Communities of Practice and Lave and Wenger's concepts of Legitimate Peripheral Participation.

Scott, it's great that you found this annotated bibliography. What caught my attention initially was that it was posted on a TESL website, but after reading further the author mentioned that the resources mentioned could benefit any teacher in any subject area. This is a nice way to find resources on a topic without having to type in a search engine or review resources at the end of a research study. Even better when there is a summary provided so you don't have to figure out if that is a beneficial resource or not.

J Matibag - One thing I didn't touch upon, but didn't, is the benefit summaries provided in an annotated bibliography like this one. Thanks for putting that into your post. Having these description certainly gives the reader a chance to discover more sources in less time. Most studies I've read tend to be 10-25 pages, so this circumvents sifting through studies that may not be what one is looking for.

This is a resources describing the effect of connectivity in a PLN. "If I surround myself with people doing great things, then I am going to benefit." This video explains PLNs and how these networks cause exponential creative growth.

This video really describes PLNs and CoPs in a nutshell. It shows how valuable these networks are to education and learning in general. As the video states, "there is no way I can be the best at everything." It takes a network to benefit from the knowledge of many others. No longer do we, as teachers, have to to know all of the facts.

Explores how personality affects interactions and perception of interactions amongst learners. Noting that there is sometimes tension between being connected enough to benefit from plethora of choices on the internet & still experience individual, personal development. An important component of understanding connectivism is to never assume that those who do not show overt involvement are not as engaged as those who do.

Community of Practice evolving encyclopedic resource keying in on history, examples, benefits, with a variety of additional references and additional readings

A well written definition with some great explanation, distinctions, and benefits of cop.

This is one of the few resources I decided to use that was not found at scholar.google.com but rather a simple Google search. I choose this power point because it breaks down Personal Learning networks in digestible pieces easy to understand. Within the presentation Pam does a great job establishing the importance for teachers themselves to establish their own PLN's to not only benefit themselves but also their students that will be learning from them as well. She goes on to describe what a PLN is and the benefits they offer. What I like most about Pam's presentation is that she includes ways to set up popular PLN's from scratch such as RSS readers, blogs, twitter, and professional networks as well. The quick points and step by step processes made this a standout resource for me when learning about personal learning networks.

FYI I couldn't get you link to work Jason might need to fix it.

This is San Diego State University's facebook page, which effectively uses, through a bill board style, links to all major parts of campus. This is similar to the links you would find on a webpage for the school with the added benefit of seeing current student activity in bulletin boards, and finding services with relative ease.

This infographic has stats about social media, benefits of social media tools, and teaching suggestions for social media in the classroom.

List of adaptive technologies, how they work, and who they benefit.

I selected this article because I was looking for "newer" articles. Teresa Byington defined Communities of Practice in a way that resonated with me, addressing the disconnect that often exists between the special education and the content area teachers. Additionally, she underscores the benefits of collaboration between educators. The DCP explanation also resonated with me. The latter part ventures into "how to" and why for using blogging to create your CoP. Since I still do not care for blogging, I needed the extra explanation of the benefits.

A straightforward government-issued document on Communities of Practice that focuses on a variety of benefits for both organizations and individuals. Uses business at the working guide- not education- but the principles are the same. Very easy to comprehend document.

Thanks - I read this because it was not aimed at education which is where my interest tends to take me. I liked that there were examples with benefits but did find the description was probably a little narrow in stating that, ". .. who often collaborate via established Web sites. These community Web spaces are designed to allow community members to share ideas and knowledge in several ways" Enjoyed reading it though. Thanks.

This article comes from the OD Practitioner journal, Fall/Winter 2000. This article focuses on the basics of Communities of Practice, defining the dimensions, purpose and changes from knowledge sharing now rather than in the past. This article focuses on the industrial and business world. It shares that knowledge in the past was knowledge was to be horded for power, while today it is to be shared to grow said power "in multiples" (Allee, 2000). The article goes on to share the benefits for everyone as far as the business, community and the individual. I appreciate the call for possible new communities of practice to meet new business community challenges.

I like how this article, even though it focuses on the industrial/business world, still has some great applications to the world of education. It's also interesting to find out more about some surrounding groups to CoPs and how they are related. A quote from the article (pay close attention to the last sentence in regards to education) says, "Communities of practice emerge in the social space between project teams and knowledge networks. When multiple project teams are engaged in similar tasks the need to share what they know often will lead to community formation. From the other direction, a loosely organized knowledge network of people who share common interests can gel into a focused community when people recognize new shared opportunities or begin to seek a significant breakthrough. Those who would support communities need to learn what conditions foster their emergence and create an environment in which they can flourish."

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.