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This is a paper that considers the design issues of supporting emergent knowledge from communities of users. It considers these challenges from a theoretical point of view and from the perspective of information systems. It posits principles such as 'Design for Customer Engagement by Seeking Out Naive Users' and 'Design for Knowledge Translation Through Radical Iteration with Functional Prototypes'.

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.

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 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.

Educational Success "A large group of early adopters were teachers who haven't always been comfortable using technology in the classroom. Schoology helped them embrace a digital teaching and learning environment in new ways." Kellie Ady District Instructional Technology Coordinator Cherry Creek School District, Colorado

This article presents an argument on PLNs and CoPs in the sector of public affairs education. It states that in order to strengthen PLNs and CoPs, emerging technologies must be used to accurately connect students with proper practitioners, which in turn---will enhance knowledge and present various new learning opportunities. This includes a major shift in practitioner delivery systems so that emerging technologies are adequately integrated.

This paper reviews and relates the connections between learning theories commonly associated with constructivist education. These theories include active learning pedagogies, experiential learning, anchored instruction, situated cognition, activity theory, authentic learning, and connectivism. With the advance of active and connected learning pedagogies, the author recognizes the need for a system to effectively apply the theories through education technology design and teaching practices. I found the article a great review of the research and work done to define these different theories and instructional methods. As I am noticing with each article, this author attests to the need for further work and research required to organize these theories into a useful framework for educational technology projects and activities

Connectivism is controversial as a learning theory. Many people don't see it as one of the majors like behaviorism, cognitivism, or constructivism but those 3 are falling short in terms of describing what is happening in the digital age. Connectivism can be described as distributed learning or using information outside of your primary knowledge. The author thinks that connectivism should be the new constructivism.

I thought that this personal learning network resource was a great fit for our class. This article discusses how schools are using social media to engage students and real-world relevance, for professional development, and school, district, and teacher collaboration. They used Twitter to document and share a paper tower challenge with schools and teachers from all over the world. Twitter was used to connect with experts and students got to see that not all scientists agree on certain topics. They also connected with the community.

I like that this article looks at how Twitter can be used for students and for educators. The idea of Twitter for educators as professional development fits very well with the ideas of COP's and PLN's. While I haven't been a true part yet of a structured Twitter session for PD, I have lurked in many formal PD discussions with hashtags for our public school system and benefitted from what I gleaned.

What an awesome video. It makes me excited to go back in August and really challenge myself to use Twitter or Facebook to showcase my students. Our school district uses a hashtag #bsdpride for teachers to showcase things going on around the district and it's starting to take off. It's awesome that teachers are encouraging each other to use Twitter and begin challenges that involve students. You can tell from this video how important these students feel when their work or projects re used on social media, and are getting attention from other schools.

vozMe: From text to speech (speech synthesis). online tool that offers applications and services to convert text into speech. vozMe uses speech synthesis systems and technology to provide voice resources to any website or add speech synthesis to any web browser.

Google announced new hardware, Android software compatibility, and other improvements meant to make Chromebooks even more welcome in the classroom. The changes--plus updates to the company's suite of education products--could extend Google's influence over the American school system. Chromebooks are popular with schools because they're much cheaper than PCs or tablets.

This is an excellent overview of what communities of practice are, the characteristics that define them and some examples of what they "look" like. Gives great information to those new to the idea.

I really enjoyed the author's writing style which included metaphors and lots of examples and non-examples of COP. I noticed this blog post was 2006, and so I was curious what the author had been involved with since this post, especially since he points out the importance of sustained interaction. He now has a consulting business to help problem solve education solutions found at http://wenger-trayner.com/

Excellent resource to begin to understand CoP's. Etienne Wenger was cited in many of the articles I researched.

Examples of how our students are using PLN's and how we need to be thinking the same way that our students are if we want to be effective teachers.

This video did a nice job of showing the often antiquated school system most students function within. I especially enjoyed the inclusion of focusing on student strengths and resisting holding against them what they have not yet learned.

I like the way this video explored how students are taught in school versus how they learn information outside of school. The speaker in the video called this the "learning age" as opposed to the information age because we are learning all the time in everything we do. Yet, education still remains antiquated and traditional when our technology-filled, instant information society is anything but those traditional methods. We need to help students realize that learning is a way of life, not merely a classroom activity. The connectivism ideas permeate our society even beyond education.

This podcast features George Siemens discussing his Connectivism Theory and its relationship to Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism.

I like that it was Siemens talking about his theory in comparison to the other big 3 theories. It leaves no room for interpretation when it comes straight from the source itself.

Great resource, nice find!! I was struck by his insight that many education systems serve instruction instead of serving learning. Additionally, his description of the learning process as non linear resonates with me and furthered my understanding connectivism and CoPs. Thanks :)

In a different twist, this article discusses personal learning environments as a part of activity theory. This theory encompasses connectivism, but also adds in other elements such as rules and division of labor. The paper goes on to analyze the parts of a personal learning enviornment which include the person and the tool being used.

Summary: This article examines the distinguishing features of PLEs. The authors assert that PLEs are complex activity systems; therefore, they want to prove that key elements of PLEs can be described using Activity Theory. Section 2.3 provides a nice overview on Activity Theory, while section 4 reflects their findings. To read the article click the MSWord link. I appreciate the fact that they include diagrams and charts -- these make the article user-friendly.