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This website is monitored by edublogs and geared towards teachers who are wanting to create professional learning networks. Step 1 provides a detailed examination of what a pln is, which includes videos, images, and other media to convey content. From this page teachers can move forward in creating their own pln.

Great share Courtney! I love the videos explaining what a PLN is (very simple and to the point). The video about connected educators is one I want to share with my district on my proposal to get social media active. It discusses why educators need a PLN and how beneficial it can be!

A PLN is personal because you choose who is in your group and if you want to lurk or comment. A PLN is what you want when you want it- reminds me of the Burger King slogan- "your way right away"

This paper discusses how Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) integrate formal and informal learning and help students self-regulate learning in "higher education contexts" through social media. Connectivism has given rise to the idea that "the community is the curriculum", so institutions should foster the creation of communities among their students to allow them a more personalized education. PLEs are the tools, services and communities that learners choose to use as they pursue knowledge. PLEs are an attempt to deliberately unify formal and informal learning, especially in e-learning situations. PLEs specifically address social media use and the creation of a cultivated online identity to enhance learning in the learner's chosen arena. In order to fully leverage PLEs via social media, students must use personal knowledge management (PKM) skills. S involves "creating, organizing and sharing digital content and information" and balancing contexts, among other skills. Students cano sumo mine their PLEs, but this requires knowledge management and self-regulation.

I like how this article views PLNs from the angle as if the user already has a social networking account. Most of the article I've come across have a list of steps that a person has to follow and sites that they need to sign up for, but this article assumes the reader has these log ins (because they probably do). It shows how to take what you are probably already using and turn it into a PLE to foster and grow knowledge.

This article makes a connection between social networks and the theory of connectivism and how this theory can help education through social networks.

The article addresses one of the concerns I have regarding connectivism and social networking: the credibility and accuracy of information. Even in my PLN of educated people, misinformation can spread like wildfire. Unfortunately, if one of the respected members of a social network passes on information without checking the veracity of the information, misinformation can be given an air of legitimacy. In my networks, if the information is incorrect or outdated, I include a link to clear up the misinformation. However, you cannot "unring a bell", and the misinformation takes on a life of its own as "truth"

This article discusses the learning networks that have been created with the rise of so many social networking websites and how that relates to connectivism in terms of how people of this generation learn. The author asserts that today's learners are different from learners of the past because they require a social aspect to successfully acquire knowledge. This supports the proposed learning theory of connectivism, which they cite as meaning that "knowledge and cognition are distributed across networks of people and technology, and learning is the process of connecting, growing, and navigating those networks" (Siemens and Tittenberger (2009). The article identifies the need for a new perspective of integrating social networking websites using connectivism as an instructional strategy.

This article gives good examples of 6 different platforms educators can use for a PLN. These are already established, and allows the educator to lurk, or become involved. Some of these outlets educators use already, so the learning curve isn't a harsh as joining something you haven't used before. It gives a good description of each tool and some provide links to pre-made education groups or people to follow.

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

This article helped to explain why PLNs and Connectivist theory go hand in hand. It explained that theory and knowledge are linked in a PLN because they are accessible in the context they are applied. The nature of the learning in a PLN is all about applying knowledge and coming up with new ideas about its relevance to concepts. PLNs are all about creating as well as sharing as well as autonomy for its users. Connectivism is about working cooperatively, meaning independently but in a shared environment. This article really helped me to bridge a connection between the Connectivist theory and PLNs.

This article discusses the foundational theory of how PLNs and PLEs influence learning. It discusses the new definition of what the PLE is for each student and how it is evolving with the web tools available to the student.

I like the fact that the authors discuss that educators need to embrace emerging technologies. In addition, they point out that social networking turns the consumer into the producer-what an interesting concept; I think I will use this as I argue for a bit more technological freedom in my classroom.

gives 7 things to consider in personal learning networks; what they are (a learner-centric approach to learning), major universities who utilize PLEs, why they are significant (extension of classroom learning) and some of the downsides (constant need to maintain, organize, and grow learning networks), where PLEs are headed and their implications in education (deeper engagement with content)

I think the 'who's doing it' section is very useful. It's helpful to see how it is being implemented.

Teaching us about PLEs through a story and simple bulleted points is an ingenious idea to get straight to the point. Rather than a long dissertation, writing a short article can sometimes be more powerful.

Learning communities need to be intentional; students must form with each other deeper understandings; gives students more control over their learning environment

Standards for teachers to follow as performance indicators for implementing, designing, and assesing learning experiences using digital technology.

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.

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 is my favorite URL as I love to cook. The recipes are easy to follow and the site provides a variety of recipes. Yummy!

I definitely love this PLN site. I too love to cook and this is a great way to learn new recipes. I used a site similar and this summer made some Indian food for the first time called Chicken Tikka Masala.

Students create a twitter account for a specific class (in this case journalism). They are encouraged to follow their classmates school accounts. Assignments are given about what specific tweets should be about. For history or geography class, these could be extremely specific and unit driven.

The Activity Theory model breaks down PLE's into subject, object, tools, rules, community and division of labour.Context is not an external container but it is constituted through an activity.The most common context for PLE's takes place through Higher Education (31%) and Lifelong Learning (15%), followed by enterprise,organisations and workplace (9% each).

This paper included many diagrams documenting personal learning environments. The PLE is broken down into six distinctive parts. The subject is the person with the object leading the subject to the outcome. Tools connect the subject and object within a community where the subject acquires knowledge. Rules are present to minimize conflict and help to guide the subject toward the object and possibly most importantly, the PLE has a division of labor. This is how the community is organized and includes contributions from all subjects. Without any one of these parts, the PLE would not function which would lead to the loss of knowledge within a community of practice.

A helpful--if lengthy--article explaining what a PLE is, and how to conceptualize the structure and role of a PLE in terms of Activity Theory. Helpful section distinguishing PLEs, PLNs, and CoPs on p. 24.