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A mostly visual representation to explore connectivism as it occurs through an open learning system. Points brought up include learners making meaningful choices while exploring their personal interest in order to guide learning. And as participants engage in making connections, a natural result will be content development and eventually those more experienced students becoming mentors.

Great video that has a section about how our students are "different" than when we were in school. "They [Students] expect to learn from technology because that is what they are used to." As soon as ALL teachers realize and accept this fact, then we as teachers can be one step closer to helping our students achieve their FULL potential!

I like the idea of learners making meaningful choices. Anything that can guide students to make effective and relevant connections is a great resource. I also think teachers have a lot to learn about the way our students learn these days. The idea that students actually need to be a force in their own learning and that they expect instant gratification are concepts I have been seeing more frequently in my own classroom. Great resource!

Learning Networks in Practice paper by Stephen Downes regarding personal learning environments, learning in communities, content creation and context.

This article talks about the beginning of the PLN movement in education. It discusses how a good PLN makes use of the WEB 2.0 applications that are out in cyberspace.

This is a link to the Word file of the dissertation of Etienne Wenger. In his abstract, he states," It is an attempt to open up a universe of discourse about learning that does justice to the social character of human life." The dissertation let to the eventual book that he published, "Communities of Practice." Wengers dissertations deals more with issues of transparency, while the book pursues the CoP theory. This dissertation supports the udea of visible artifacts being part of CoPs. This was written in 1990, so was before the advent of social networking as we know it, but comes from a social perspective that correlates to what we consider social networking today.

I bookmarked this as an extra site. It is the current site for Etienne Wenger, now Etienne Wenger-Trayner, along with his wife and fellow researcher, Beverly Wenger-Trayner. There are many good articles about Communities of Practice.

This link is to a presentation on The Educator's PLN website. The video gives an overview on learning theory from ancient Greece to the present day, concluding with Siemens' theory of connectivism. This is very easy to understand and basic reasons are given for the advent of each theory with an explanation of each. When discussing connectivism, the speaker, Dallas McPheeters, talks about online self-organizing social systems (OSOSS), which are the communities that form via social networks. MCPheeters feels that technology allows history to repeat itself, providing the very best of every theory to any and every situation.

Site to support 21st century learning and improve academic performance through content driven collaboration. We engage educators and students in meaningful e-learning projects worldwide to develop science, math, literacy and communication skills, foster teamwork, civic responsibility and collaboration, encourage workforce preparedness and create multi-cultural understanding.

This resource I came across provides resources for all types of social media. Within this specific page, the topic addresses the best practices for Twitter used in the classroom. It provides information on the use of Twitter within primary and secondary schools as well as higher education. Statistics are presented to show usage within the school amongst scholars and faculty. This site is also an interactive social media network system for questions and comments.

This is the government's take on Communities of Practice, and I included it because like it or not, it impacts many of us on so many levels. The National Education Technology Plan asserts that we need PLC's, and if you have never read this document, it is worth the read. It definitely furthered my knowledge when I read it in EDTECH 501. The bottom line is that because so many students have access to mobile technology, they are able to be a part of social networks. The goal is to harness this power and cultivate collaboration and engaging learning experiences. Its premise is student-centered learning where students are able to make decisions and choices that form their own pathway to learning.

Thanks for including this document. I was impressed to see the progressive views outlined with many strong and important points for changing our education culture. One of the main areas included the need to leverage technology to empower students and shift learning responsibility from teacher to learners. In essence we want to strive to create master learners, where students understand how to evaluate and gain the information they need as life-long learners. The section "Measure what Matters" I especially applauded, as I feel our extreme emphasis on testing is misplaced if we don't make sure the tests and measures are appropriate for what students need to know to be life-long learners. Do standardized tests even have a section about locating information and assessing its validity? This report started out with a short list of recommendations that included, "Be clear in outcomes we seek". I think this is an important point as we strive to embrace and utilize the growing potential of connectivness.

This article is about Computer Based Instruction and how to design an online course for students who will be attending classes online. This article talks about creating an online classroom where the teacher communicates via the web only. This article offers eight guidelines for creating such a classroom. A few of the guidelines/tips that are offered is to orient students with the internet, have students select "email pals," and use computer based testing.

Authors present evidence that social media facilitate the development of personal learning environments (PLEs) in higher education. The community is the curriculum, not the vessel. Learners are in charge of self-regulating their experiences because PLEs put the responsibility to organize information on the learners. Authors present a framework for use of social media to support self-regulation in PLEs in higher education.

This author is from the Istanbul Kultur University. He reviews and applies connectivism theory research and discusses the methods used within social networking platforms for education purposes. He promotes the idea of the growing need for learning as a connected activity. Since people already use social networking for interacting and communicating personally and professionally, it makes sense that SN platforms be utilized for educational purposes. The author also pointed out a number of challenges in making this a reality. Some of the challenges include lack of training, lack of reliable technology and open access to SN sites, and unreliable information shared on SN sites.

This article is beneficial for understanding the background of CoP's; in fact, the reader is educated about much of the terminology associated with it. Overall, the research in this study focuses on using Twitter as a personal network, but I think the value I pulled from it was that it expanded my knowledge base of researchers spanning from 1991-2010 who have defined and analyzed data associated with this subject.

Blog author Steve Wheeler summarizes several writings on connectivism in this blog post. He highlights the connectivist idea that learning occurs outside the individual via social networks and PLNs. He also points to the shift in knowledge acquisition from one of "knowing information (aka memorization)" to "knowing how to locate information." He suggests it's vital that students learn to develop their own networks and personalized learning tools.

I enjoyed the quote from Siemens where he says that students need to find a method to develop their own learning tools, environment, and communities to store their knowledge. As educators, it is more important for us to guide students to find the information they require. Then coach them as to how they can store and display the knowledge they have acquired.

I found his "nutshell" comment about how connectivism argues it's more important to know where to find knowledge than it is to internalise it to be very helpful.

This is a fantastic resource to learn more about CoPs, particularly if you are considering forming one. It provides basic info and background about CoPs, but also provides a few examples, and also concludes with some links to external Websites where you can see additional examples of live CoPs.

Tips for More Effective PowerPoint Presentations

An online learning environment based around GBL!

This is a list of websites and project ideas that focus on connecting students from different classrooms and getting them to use social media. I have a feeling I will be using this site to find the rest of my sites for the Module 6 project.