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Since launched as a consumer product, Moviestorm has been used not only in film studies, but also extensively by visionary educators as a cross-curriculum tool that promotes engaging and collaborative teaching and learning. As a result, they now offer a range of affordable licenses designed specifically for the technical requirements of modern day schools and colleges.

Interview with Etienne Wenger on the learning theory behind communities of practice. He explains, CoP's are a collaboration of ideas people have an interest in.

Nice interview - I like how he differentiates the communities of practice from the technology but also doesn't diminish the technology. For some reason I had thought that Etienne would be a female so it was great to watch this!

A nice slideshare about Communities of Practice. Provides a nice overview and different types of Communities of Practice.

This is another resource that requires you to log into Albertson's Library using your MyBoiseState credentials. This article's focus is on middle school teachers and looks at the MSP2 Math and Science Pathways project. The project was focused on providing connected online experiences for math and science through the use of technology. It discusses how they used Ning and Wikis for collaboration and also presents some of the findings from the MSP2 project.

Research regarding the benefits of being a member of a community of practice. While the information seems a bit forced (the communities of practice used for the study were exclusively face-to-face communities), the benefits of being a member of a community of practice still seem valid. According to the study, they are (1) autonomy and freedom to think beyond, (2) sources to ideas, (3) sounding board, (4) intellectual discussion, (5) like-mindedness, (6) alternative perspective and cross-pollination of ideas, (7) overcoming intellectual isolation, (8) move towards collaborative research, (9) response to research pressure, (10) synergy and leverage, (11) time and energy saving, (12) an informal ground for learning and training, (13) fostering of tangible returns, (14) driving research, (15) opportunities to met, (16) networking, information sharing and updates, (17) support and guidance, (18) sense of belonging, (19) identity, and (20) intrinsic fulfillment. As the article is about higher education, there are certainly some benefits that are more specific to their context, but I think the findings of the article are still valid.

A great site to find global projects to join or you can create your own.

February 13, 2015 Looking for some interactive whiteboard apps to use in your class? The titles below are among the best you can find out there. These apps will enable you to brainstorm and organize your ideas visually. They are also ideal for joint collaboration on a classroom project or for working on a shared presentation.

Nearpod is a must-have platform that enables teachers, schools, and districts to create engaging learning experiences by providing interactive presentations, collaboration, and real-time assessment tools into one integrated solution.

In this article, Communities of Practice are defined as "groups of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it to better as they interact regularly." Communities of practice have three distinct characteristics including domain, community, and practice. All three characteristics must be present in order for it to be a community of practice. The domain is what we care about. The community is who cares about it. Practice is what we do together. This article includes a visual that shows a CoP very clearly. It also provides details of a CoP and how to organize a CoP. During the organization of a CoP, there are 5 stages to go through.

Great article Kayden! I've seen multiple articles also stating that the 3 main characteristics are the domain, community, and practice. Such great insight!

Many educators talk about the benefits of being part of a PLN. They emphasize that while they are interacting with people and not feeling alone while gathering ideas and sharing feelings, they can connect or disconnect anytime they want. It is the choice of the educator to determine the level of involvement they want to provide. The educators in this video seem extremely comfortable being members of these networks. Connecting and collaborating are important skills. Being able to choose when to connect and be part of a professional network, allows freedom for educators to continue their learning forever.

The authors springboard from a Cornell University study of the difficulties that humanities doctoral students have in finishing their degree to discuss the ways libraries can help improve student success. They show that the establishment of communities of practice are a necessary component of the success of doctoral students in the humanities. They then advocate for libraries to create and support these communities through providing designated space for doctoral students to collaborate and share information in the library and by offering discipline-specific research skills workshops.

I saw a reference to MOOCs when I was researching so I wanted to dive deeper into MOOCs (massive open online courses). This article serves as a report card discussing the successes and needed improvements for MOOCs. MOOCs biggest successes seem to be the huge reach they have with their online presence. Millions of people enroll in the courses and top universities, such as Harvard and MIT, have MOOCs. However, some pitfalls are that less than 10% of people who enroll in MOOCs actually finish. The article gives ideas for improving MOOCs mostly based off the belief that online courses can be isolating and more collaboration with actual humans, via chats and videos, need to be included in MOOCs. I found this read interesting because the MOOCs are founded with the connectivism theory in mind, however many of this components that drive connectivsm and communities of practice are lacking.

Jake, I found a resource on MOOCs as well and while it was a positive presentation of them, it also noted some of the pitfalls. The fact that they draw mostly highly educated students, makes me wonder how accessible they are for all people. However, I know they are new and evolving, so it will be interesting to follow their development.

This article was extremely interesting! I was surprised to see the the high percentage of people who sign up for MOOCs and don't finish. I also strongly agree with the comment in the article, "people need people." Thanks for sharing!