Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

This study examines how adults learn from one another within a workplace environment. As the article highlights: "[Informal] learning at work constitutes a large part of the learning undertaken by adults . . ." The article determined that large worksites afforded a range and variety of communities of practice, informal learning opportunities, and types of learning within a worksite. However, very often, the people we learn from at work are not necessarily recognized as having a role that traditionally promotes learning.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article and I found it logical that in the example of the Tiling Teachers, the article mentioned that they considered each other peers on the same level which would facilitate the learning that takes place within that group. I wonder how this learning would contrast from feedback or learning taking place from students in the class or even a superior like a Vice President of a program or a Senior Instructional Designer?

This was a great article and got me thinking a little deeper about communities of practice. So far this week, my studies have led to articles and examples of communities of practice in a learning or educational environment. I love how the focus was really on practices of communities of practice in the workplace. It was cool to realize that this process begins way before the class even begins. Thanks for sharing.

Advancements in assistive technologies have spurred an emerging roster of new digital products designed to facilitate better communication between parents and teachers of children.

This is a great article about projects teachers have done with digital tools. Not all of them used social media, but some used NING, blogs, and Google Docs for networking and sharing information. I like the fact that many of these projects are about using social tools like blogs to enhance writing skills

This post discusses George Siemens 2005 article Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age and examines the limitations of this theory as well as its relevance to teaching and knowledge management practices. The relationship of connectivism to learning in a MOOC is described. It is suggested that widespread adoption of connectivism in formal learning will face resistance because of its stance that 1) the network is more important than content 2) knowledge is a process rather than an artifact 3) and knowledge can be retrieved rather than memorized.

This source is actually a summary/review of a different article, but it provides some good insight. The author argues that the explosion of technology and internet sources has changed the way that we acquire knowledge. Different pieces of information are accessible by tapping into different sources. The author also discusses how connectivity can be used in the classroom and how some people may resist the use of the connectivity theory.

I found it valuable to go through Siemen's fundamental principles of connectivism. Siemens considers connectivism as a significant departure from previous learning theories because connectivism includes learning occurring outside of the learner, within the network. I also found it valuable to go through the applications of connectivism in classroom and managing knowledge.

This is a more technical site that better describes CoPs.  It talks about what a CoP is and what the requirements are.  I particularly like that the it states that the learning is not necessarily the primary reason for the existence of a CoP.  It also gives some sources for further study.

This article is an outline of Communities of Practice with description of relevant terminology outlined and defined. Identifies the three components of CoPs - domain, community and practice. This article says that the central component of this learning theory is to draw participants deeper into the community through the attractiveness of developing skills relative to the domain.

This one I didn't summarize, only because I really had a hard time grasping the three elements of the CoP, and I thought this site encapsulated it nicely. Incidentally, my creative assignment for this week was inspired by the reference to Star Trek fans in this post. Here are the three elements make up CoP, and again, this information below is taken straight from the source (long quotes), because the definition is so good: 1. There needs to be a domain. A CoP has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest (e.g. radiologists, Star Trek fans, middle school history teachers, Seahawks football fans, etc.); it's not just a network of people or club of friends. Membership implies a commitment to the domain. 2. There needs to be a community. A necessary component is that members of a specific domain interact and engage in shared activities, help each other, and share information with each other. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other. In this way, merely sharing the same job does not necessitate a CoP. A static website on hunting in itself is not a community of practice. There needs to be people who interact and learn together in order for a CoP to be formed. Note that members do not necessarily work together daily, however. Wenger points to the example of Impressionist painters who sometimes met in cafes to discuss their painting styles. He indicates that even though these men normally painted alone, these kinds of interactions were essential to making them a CoP. 3. There needs to be a practice: A CoP is not just people who have an interest in something (e.g. sports or agriculture practices). The third requirement for a CoP is that the members are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources which can include stories, helpful tools, experiences, stories, ways of handling typical problems, etc. This kind of interaction needs to be developed over time. A conversation with a random stranger who happens to be an exp

A few months ago we started up a new Twitter chat series, #Bufferchat. So far, we've talked about everything from productivity to social media monitoring and lots of other topics in between. These days, we have up to 185 participants each week, sending out nearly 2,000 tweets. It's a true delight!

This Pinterest page is more of a menu of materials associated with Personal Learning Networks.  Numerous links to PLN resources are provided.

Pinterest is awesome, except for the fact that it is a total time sucker. At least I get some good ideas for my classroom and recipes for dinner from it. I also posted this link because it had quite a few websites that talked about PLN's. I'm new to PLN's but I am certainly learning a lot more about them this week.

I wondered if anyone would find something on Pinterest. One of the articles that I read mentions the idea of framing, or putting a personal interpretation on someone else's material. Pinterest is a classic example of this. Without framing, though, I don't think we would all see the value in what others pin.

This is a link to a presentation given at a conference I attended this week. The presenter was Leslie Bonci, director of Sports Nutrition, University of Pittsburg Medical Center.

here are my strategies to develop a positive digital footprint!

Stevens, V. (2008). Trial by Twitter: The rise and slide of the year's most viral microblogging platform. TESL-EJ: Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, 12(1). This article did not focus just on Connectivism or just on communities of practice but provided a clear example of both after my previous readings. If you think about the basic fundamental of twitter it would be easy to discount at first whether or not it would be successful. I'm sure along the way some may have even felt that it was a fad destined to fail or fade. Who would want to be limited to only one hundred and fifty characters to get out a complete thought and why would anyone be interested. Well right now according to this article twitter is the most popular microblogging tool that has existed. I found it interesting if you have read my previous articles especially about linguistics in communities of practice that twitter type has made its way into our everyday vernacular, such as saying hash tag in actual dictation. Interesting that a change in our speech and actions are indicators of belonging to a certain community of practice, much like how some groups say 'lol' instead of actually laughing out loud. This article draws these dots that are easily linked together to show Connectivism. The author spends time explaining when he "got" twitter, or when it dawned on him this is an excellent tool. From there he uses some great analogies to describe the connected world twitter produces for millions of users a day. My favorite quote from his article "To 'get' twitter, you have to have your finger on the pulse of what is pumping lifeblood through the Internet, and that is the people on it and how they come together (Connectivism), connect, and relate to one another (communities of practice) in virtual learning networks". (Stevens,2008)

I didn't realize Twitter had been around as long as it has - I also didn't know it's origins. Lost most of the social media sites it's changed a lot since the beginning!

Great post and I was cracking up at "The Twitter Curve" image. It gave a good explanation to me about what makes Twitter so powerful and its benefits but am also glad it touched on things to be leery of.

Smith, M. K. (2003) 'Communities of practice', the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm . In this article, author, mike smith explains the beginning concepts that Jean Lave and Entienne Wenger developed for communities of practice. What I liked most about this article is it was the first reading I had that took communities of practice and put a learning centered spin on the theory. "Suppose learning is social and comes largely from our experience of participating in daily life. Their model of situated learning proposed that learning involves a process of engagement in a community of practice" (Smith, 2003). Mr. Smith defines and reiterates what Lave and Wenger argued, structure communities of practice. I also appreciated the time Mr. Smith took note the weaknesses that could be potential downfalls within their own research, such as "romanticizing communities of practice" as Mr. Smith puts it. "In their eagerness to debunk testing, formal education and formal accreditation, they do not analyze how their omission [of a range of questions and issues] affects power relations, access, public knowledge and public accountability" (Tennant 1997:79). He goes on to discuss organizational development and follows up with a conclusion that included the below phrase I really enjoyed. "Learning is in the relationships between people."(Smith, 2003) If you think about the history textbook version of what the authors and historians assumed thanksgiving was like and the weeks and days leading up to the day of thanks, you can see a great example of learning as a relationship between people.

This article examines the nature of learning communities constructed among a diverse group of adult learners in an online graduate-level 16 week instructional design course. Researchers analyzed course artifacts, survey responses, online profiles and project evaluations to explore communities formed in an online setting that involves 21 international participants. Data was collected through observing recorded audio webcasts and chat discussions, and analysis of student profiles, artifacts, survey responses, and course evaluations. The authors found evidence of community building without significant differences associated with race, culture, or gender. Instead, evidence for community building was more dependent on active participation, forming of shared identify, and the establishment of social network. The course design allowed individuals to work and communicate collaboratively. The authors admit that the study is narrow in scope with a small number of participants, making it unreliable for wider contexts.

The authors conducted a study of two groups of students (ages 13-17) with two mentors in a teacher education program at Brigham Young University. The study examined how interaction within the two study groups contributed to social construction of shared knowledge. Group A had social interactions previous to the six-week online project, while group B had no previous social interactions. The researchers examined a variety of data including email exchanges, chat room transcripts, electronic logs, and discussion board entries. The conclusions suggested the effectiveness of an online mentor whose role helps establish social interaction, a supportive climate for the exploration of ideas, consensual decision-making, and open discussion. The strength of the study involves using two groups for comparison, as well as a variety of authentic data resources. Limitations include whether results can be generalized and limited ability to analyze students' prior social interactions as factors in the results.