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United States Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology. Includes resources, publications, and a blog.

Blogger, Larry Ferlazzo, provides his list of best Web 2.0 applications so far for 2016. Many of the applications have to do with ELL and ESL; however, these applications could be used with lessons in any classroom. He also provides lists from prior years.

Blogger, Larry Ferlazzo, provides his list of best Web 2.0 applications so far for 2016. Many of the applications have to do with ELL and ESL; however, these applications could be used with lessons in any classroom. He also provides lists from prior years.

Participate Learning's OCLP gives you options to find and participate in Twitter chats more easily, find and curate educational resources, or take an online course. New and experiences Twitter users will love the ease with which one can follow their favorite chats with the chats feature, which also allows users to save resources shared within the chats into an educational resource collection for easy access later. Schedules for Twitter chats are posted, so one can find a chat conveniently.

Check out this dissertation study that analyzed Apple Distinguished Educators as a social media platform for personal learning and networking. Chapter 2 displays an excellent overview of literature related to social media and communities of practice. Eller, L. S. (2012). Social media as avenue for personal learning for educators: Personal learning networks encourage application of knowledge and skills (Order No. 3498101). Available from ProQuest Central. (925788703). Retrieved from http://libproxy.boisestate.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.boisestate.edu/docview/925788703?accountid=9649

This article discusses the power that social media has in adult education. It discusses the ability for knowledge to be shared and discussed worldwide. The article also points out that social media is changing the way society communicates and networks, and that the world has become more interconnected than before. I appreciated the author also bringing up that consumerism, mostly in the form of advertisements, can be a downside of many free social media applications. The author argues that the ads could perpetuate harmful spending habits of users. I think this argument is one to take into account when using social media in primary and secondary education.

Thanks for posting this article, which exposed me to a brand-new term: Pedagogy 2.0. Using social network tools, Pedagogy 2.0's teaching and learning practices advocate learner choice, self-direction, and flexibility in learning activities, which are key components to adult education. I also enjoyed the article's discussion of consumerism and power structures, which are engaging in "social surveillance."

Connectivist theorists argue that the way in which individuals acquire knowledge has changed. Academic institutions (which have historically been considered as the place in which individuals acquire knowledge and information) are being supported and/or replaced by groups of people within a learning network. The process of learning involves the creation of knowledge through these personalized networks and identifying the relationships between one's own knowledge and the knowledge of others within a network. These connections can occur in a variety of ways and with a variety of learners.

This article helped me to understand how to apply connectivism in the classroom. It also pointed out misconceptions that educators have about using social networking in the classroom.

Written by Kegan Remington, an Instructional Designer, the article discusses what connectivism is and how it can be applied in the classroom. He lays out the four simple ways of introducing connectivism in the classroom.

This link downloads an article by Antonio Calvani from the University of Florence. He gives his take on whether connectivism is a legitimate learning theory or just a re-branding of the traditional three. He comes to the conclusion that digital access requires that we must re-think learning theories based on tools that were un-imaginable when those said theories were created.

Calvani, A. (2009). Connectivism: new paradigm or fascinating pot-pourri?. Journal of E-learning and Knowledge Society, 4(1). This article is a little hard to swallow at times. In what seems to be a love affair for his own writing he denounces, disagrees, and argues against the text Knowing Knowledge, By Siemens. I am all for disagreeing and arguing but not at the expense of the writer's own opinion where he cannot incorporate any research that supports his position. The author argues that many are too quick to adopt "isms" as a new learning theory and web 2.0 buzzword. He seems to jump from Connectivism as an unfinished theory and being incomplete, again though with no research backing up his own opinion and claim. Just when I thought he was done speaking about anything that I could connect with, Mr. Calvani did illicit a head nod. "A wild transfer of Connectivism to school would lead to think that putting students on the net is enough to produce knowledge, thus consolidating that widespread harmful cliché according to which the more technologies we use, anyway we do it, the better it is for learning".(Calvani,) As an alternative viewpoint to Connectivism he does draw some interesting end points, albeit at the sake of providing actual research for his own defense.

This is a great article about social networking in schools.

http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2010/06/16/03networking.h03.html M. Gottlieb Day School in Jacksonville, Fla. Ms. Tolisano launched her "Around the World With 80 Schools" project with a goal to introduce her school's students to peers in countries around the globe. She built a social-networking site using Ning for teachers from all countries who wanted to participate. Tolisano sets up meetings between classes using Skype, students prepare a list of questions and chat with students in Canada, Finland, New Zealand, and Spain, among a long list of others.

New Milford High School in New Jesrsey has embraced the use of social media. One example of use had students blogging daily during a field trip to Europe to visit Holocaust sites.

This article gives one professors experiences on their successful use of Facebook in their British Literary History course. Facebook subsisted for the discussion forum common to a good many course management systems. Students use it because they were already there (on Facebook) and they found the use interesting.

This is a student's response to using Facebook to generate discussion in a British Literature History class. Even though it is collegiate level, I think that this scenario could definitely work in the high school setting.

SuperTeacherTools provides free programs to assist teachers or anyone else looking for fun review/training/classroom management materials.

GarageBand is a useful tool that allows musicians and "non-musicians" to create music. It features deep instrumental customization as well as pre-made loops. Users can create simple songs quickly, or complex songs with custom instruments and vocal. This tool can be integrated into various multimedia, art, and music curriculum.

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 is a helpful article that gives instructors some ideas for incorporating videos in the classroom. It describes ideas on how to use videos to expose students to foreign concepts, create student projects, and for teachers to use as a learning tool.

This article by Stephen Downes provides a great insight into what an effective PLN looks like and how it functions. I enjoyed reading about his second stage of PLNs, which is the "personal learning environment." This idea is presented as the evolution of PLNs due to technology and connectivism in the classroom.

This article by Stephen Downes gives a definition of a community of practice and then discusses PLE's moving into networks and the characteristics of a learning network: diversity, autonomy connectedness and openness.

As I was relatively unfamiliar with learning networks before this course, I wanted to find resources that showed me what they looked like and examples of how they can be used. This article introduces the importance of using digital tools effectively and empower ourselves to gain the knowledge the web offers. The author states that "Learning therefore evolves from being a transfer of content and knowledge to the production of content and knowledge". Working in a network, PLE or communities of practice allow learners to be creative about information and knowledge, instead of just consuming information and knowledge. The article highlights the key benefits of a PLN: diversity, autonomy, connectedness, and openness.

While some of the tools mentioned in this 2010 video by Skip Via are a bit out of date (Google Wave and Google Reader, for instance), the importance of developing a personal learning network is clear. First, creating a PLN ensures that we have access to a support system, and additionally, we have a professional responsibility to seek out and participate in our own learning opportunities, and PLNs offer inexpensive (free) ways to accomplish this.

This video provides a good overview of a PLN. What I like about it is that tools that can be used for a variety of activities are discussed.

Here, Ravenscroft conducts a theoretical look at connectivism. He asks what the role of networked technolgies is in the digital age and suggests that tool selection, desired dialogue, and genre should all be considerations for networked learning. He says that "embracing connectivism means that we need to consider new design metaphors for future learning that place the person, their social behaviour, and their community at the centre of the design process and the resulting network technologies" (155).

I found this to be a particularly interesting article. The authors propose the development of a new theoretical model that integrates the foundations of social constructivist thinking, with an emphasis on dialogue, with the connectivist approach to networking. This combination in turn is meant to illicit, support, and increase in collaborative inquiry. The dialogue game provides the students just enough structure necessary to facilitate a organic discussion and critical inquiry.

Talks about what a PLN is and why it's important to grow the connections that used to only exist between coworkers, friends, and family. Also has a table to show the variety of tools that one can use to expand their PLN.

"PLN's have immense value" was supported in-depth in this great resource. What a great find Jasmine! The chart discussing all the tools we can use to develop our own PLN's can be so crucial to educators who may be unsure about where to begin. The networking world can be overwhelming!

This blog entry streamlines the process for getting started with a PLN. It provides a directory of web 2.0 to help build a dynamic PLN. Links are provided. The video "The Networked Student" by Design Inspired by commoncraft is embedded; it highlights the benefits of being a networked student.

In this article, Professor Gerstein articulates the power of Twitter as a tool for professional growth. The professor used Twitter itself to conduct informal research to discover how educators were using the tool and overwhelmingly their responses were "collaborating with colleagues". This article outlines keywords of those who responded to the survey providing insight to connectivism in the digital world.