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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.

Another great A/V resourse from George Siemens. I have really enjoyed the many resources he has publicly available from the courses that he teaches. This presentation focuses on the nature of groups and networks and how they differ. He stresses that we must not ignore human nature and the need that each of us has to be recognized individually. We cannot overlook humanity by loosing the self in the collective or community. In this presentation he discusses the self and its relationship and role in the network or community.

P.S.- I found the information on slide 22 to be particularly interesting.

Edutopia writer Vicki Davis discusses how PLNs have empowered her students to guide their own learning experiences. She discusses the weaknesses of PLNs and how they work.

While this blog posting from Edutopia does point to some "how tos" and practical application, it does offer key theoretical practices for setting the stage for applying the PLN model for student use. Vicki Davis, the teacher and author of the blog post, states that her students are familiar with breaking news due the development of their own PLN that acts as a "virtual locker." She goes on to discuss how their research builds the content of their PLN and the content changes based upon the assignment. The big idea is that the PLN model allows students to act as the orchestrator of their own learning and allows them to analyze information via an avenue that is personalized to student's learning needs. It also teaches students to embrace connectivism where they make connections between domains in order to form a more complete understanding.

The article goes into the role of a PLN for students. Students can create their own networks to possess information at their fingertips on any topic they could ever desire. By establishing a networking system, the students don't necessarily have to go out and scour the internet for sources when their network could bring relevant information to them.

This article explains the theories behind the connections between massive open online courses and connectivism. It is described that connectivism is the pedagogical approach behind MOOCs, but something is missing. The author goes on the explain how cultural psychology is the factor that makes up for the missing basis for learning that connectivism fails to explain.

This blog post discusses what a PLN is and how educators can create a PLN to support meaningful and relevant learning. It describes a PLN as an aspect of a PLE (personal learning environment) and then compares and contrasts the two. The author also provides examples of PLNs and discusses how to use MOOCs (massive online open course) and cMOOCs (connectivist massive open online course) to help build a PLN.

In this blog from Debbie Morrison it looks at creating a PLN. However, what make it interesting is her discussion of the difference between PLE's and PLN's which she states are often used interchangeably but shouldn't be.

This article has some interesting points about personal responsibility in creating a PLN.

In this study from the University of Central Florida, the researcher focuses specifically on how classroom activities drive student learning towards the CoP model, most notably collaboration. The researcher uses a graduate public administration level class to conduct her study, which is important because all student participants share the same learning and degree outcome---essential to the effectiveness of CoPs. One finding this study presents is the concept of building 'friendship networks' in CoPs. The study shows that friendships were "greatly strengthened" throughout the course and there were no "weakly connected individuals" at the end of the semester (Napucu, 2012). Furthermore, in this study, emphasis is placed on the facilitator (in this case, the professor) of this CoP and how that facilitator structured the course to fulfill the learning needs of the students in the created CoP. *Note, you'll need to log in to Albertsons Library to read the article in full.

Development of connectivist instructional tools used for college teaching. The theory can lead to learner-centered education. Instructors can step back and bring learners to the forefront. "Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories."

I also found this article and liked it. As I read it I was trying to think of ways to apply to secondary education instead of higher education. Good work.

blog post describing two types of MOOCs by an instructor - one connectivist

This is a blog of an expert in Personal Learning Networks. He talks about how his own PLN has developed and changed over his professional career due to the availabilty to make connections with others in far more ways than were possible 20 years ago. He briefly describes many of the connection possibilities on the internet such as social networks, blogs, wikis, etc.

I like the discussion in this article about critical behaviors. I have found that it is challenging at first to follow through on those behaviors. Assignments in our edtech courses help us engage in such behaviors, but the question for me is whether or not I'll keep those habits intact after the courses end. Thanks for the link.

The researchers conducted a study of 2,036 online students at thirty-two State University of New York colleges in the SUNY Learning Network. Participants responded to a forty-two-item survey that investigates the connection between students' sense of learning community as measured by Rovai's Classroom Community Scale and teaching presence as measured by the Community of Inquiry Model. The study provides insight into the important relationship between instructor's online behaviors and perceived establishment of community. The complexity of the research gives rise to further studies to continue to identify the exact instructor behaviors are most effective in establishing a course presence, while staying true to constructivist pedagogy.

This article provides another example of an actual case study attempting to implement a connectivist pedagogy in a smaller size ( to something else. For example, is a limited participant (closed) class automatically disqualified?

29 students of MOOCs were interviewed to explore their engagement in the course.

I thought this was interesting, particularly how they identified motivation, prior MOOC participation and confidence as the key factors associated with active participation. Not everyone is equally equipped to successfully cope/participate in a connectivist course and this needs to be taken into consideration!

This article states the importance of connectivism in the facilitation of self-directed and self-regulated components of education. Details of a study on introducing learners to this type of learning report the necessity of student support and scaffolding when planning to implement self-directed learning into a course.

This article takes the provocative position that a PLN is *not* the best learning situation for all learners. The authors qualify this, however, explaining "when the technology used to support learning is designed to support a specific learning model, this can often lead to a compulsory learning process that users must follow to reach the course objectives." I am not entirely sure this is a bad thing, however; in formal learning situations, I think it makes sense to have clear objectives, assessments, and learning activities. In informal settings--such as personalized professional development for practicing educators, for example--this point might hold true. The authors explain that individuals' epistemological beliefs affect their willingness to learn in an informal (PLN-based) learning situation. Further, the authors believe that beliefs about the role of technology for learning will impact the learning that can occur in a PLN. I really agree with these ideas!

This article on MOOCs brought some interesting things to the forefront. When these courses were new they were touted as having the potential to change the world. In the years since though their hype has gone down. Most people participating have already earned college degrees. On encouraging pattern however is that teachers are often participating in the courses. This could potentially bring big positive changes to teacher professional development.

Article discussing connectivism with a take on MOOCs, or massive open online courses. Concludes by stating that educational approaches in the technological age are in a transitional stage.