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This is an awesome site for elementary reading teachers and students. There are online activities for phonics, phonemes, vocabulary, site words, comprehension, book talks, and author sites to name a few. There are also games students can play while learning basic reading skills.

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.

Online reading activities for all levels. Improve your reading ability using this fun, interactive, educational tool in school or at home.

Another great alternative to powerpoint and slideshow presentations that can be a bit uninteresting. This is a free online tool that can be used to create exciting presentations. Instead of being based on slides, the presenter is able to create a concept-map of ideas/images/text/pdf docs/etc in order to visually engage his/her audience.

Presentations with zooming animations.

Engaging presentation tool that allows a close up view as well as animated transitions.

Create your own jeopardy template online, without PowerPoint. Or browse the pre-made templates created by other people!

First exploring today's dynamic educational environment the author creates a connection between online classroom and the network of connections that are made through connectivist learning opportunities. The what and why are then built upon with a look into the six skills one should incorporate when attempting connectivist pedagogy: technical competence, experimentation, autonomy, creation, play and developing a capacity for complexity. The article is then finalized with with some suggestions of tools to incorporate into one's connectivist classroom.

This comes from the Glencoe Online Learning Center. Each chapter has a link to primary sources.

Basic games/videos teaching students about internet safety and other everyday issues. I feel that this site is geared towards younger students

Written by dkapuler on Oct 31, 2012 01:27 pm theLearnia is a new (beta) site for educational videos. This is done through a social network aspect that allows teachers to upload videos into "lessons" and then share w/ students. Users can then discuss via public/private messaging about the video. This is an ideal site for online learning.

I found this visual to be an interesting model of what happens below the surface in a collaborative setting. Networking and building up a PLN certainly seem to be core activities, but as Berg mentions, it's often not recognized or valued.

I like how this source provided a unique way to look at collaboration. Collaboration is a skill that I am always trying to instill in my students. I also enjoyed that they included the graphic to help the reader understand the concept as well.

Renee, I appreciate you including this blog post with our Diigo collection of resources. This idea of the iceberg makes so much sense. It remembers me a lot of research surrounding language learning as well. There is so much below the surface that is hard to articulate or appreciate. This visual will be very helpful as I work with my teachers and admin next year. It is important that professionals understand that within PLNs there is a lot that happens that cannot be seen, yet it is these powerful connections and interactions that will most effective a teacher's practice

I've recently started using this website a lot for lessons with English Language Learners. Great resources and articles.

This paper defines PLE's and PLN's and creates a model for social teachers' presence optimization. It does this after a literature review and analyzing survey results about teachers' use of online social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Results suggest there is potential for personal and professional development of educators through these networks.

This study shows a very specific CoP example, using geography teachers in New Zealand as the subject of research. In the introduction, the researcher states "mandating professional development services to several hired geography teachers is impractical...and needs to be voluntary rather than mandatory." This statement is consistent with CoPs having membership of like-individuals connecting because of their learning needs and wants. Furthermore, the study shows a positive result when connecting 'distant' people as a cost effective way to circumvent budgetary restraints for professional development.

Communities of Practice need to be voluntary and non-threatening in order for an individual to join. In this study, I like how they set up their Community of Practice so that the individual could join a topic or subject matter group that was relevant to their situation or needs. As teachers we are often placed in professional development training that has no relevance to the needs of our classroom. I also like how they set up a dialogue for the members of the group. Participants not only posted their own ideas but shared thoughts and ideas through discussion with others in the group. It seemed to be less intimidating because much of the dialogue took place online. One of the factors that impacted the participants was time. Just like educators in the U.S., the educators in this study found it difficult to find the time to fully participate in these Communities of Practice and some did not even finish the modules. As a result, dialogue toward the end of the module fizzled out and was less engaging for some participants. That is one of my concerns with Communities of Practice. Sometimes if one is not being forced to complete a project, it does not get completed. It takes a lot of discipline to be part of a Community of Practice and a willingness to be there for the other group members.

Manners really do matter on the internet, follow these simple etiquette of web surfing to avoid looking like a fool online!