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Edutopia is one of my favorite resources. This is a great article on using Twitter for professional development.

Thanks for sharing this Mary! I had never heard of Edutopia before this, I will have to look into this more as it seems to be a popular social network platform among our group.

I love reading articles from Edutopia and this was no exception. It is amazing how much knowledge can be gained by the use of Twitter. I participated in a few PD type discussions and have found them very useful. The tips provided are very helpful. Thank you for sharing this article.

This article reviews how behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism have all been central ideas that we based our teaching on. However, in the new digital age, it is becoming evident that we need to shift to a connectivism point of view. We need to use the resources we have to connect with teachers and learn from each other.

This article, written by George Siemens explains how connectivism is the theory behind the PLNs. The author describes how connectivism fills the limitations of behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism, the learning theories developed when learning was not impacted by technology. It is the complement. The author compares the connections in a PLN with pipes and says "The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today." (Siemens, 2014)

A detailed article on connectivism, written by one of the biggest promoters of Connectivism- George Siemens. There is a lot of great information on how this impacts organizations which was particularly interesting. We struggle with this all the time at my company- "Connectivism addresses the challenges that many corporations face in knowledge management activities. Knowledge that resides in a database needs to be connected with the right people in the right context in order to be classified as learning".

This Edutopia article explains what a PLN is, how they develop through thought, that PLNs are collaborative, what PLNs can do for you, and how to build a PLN. The article brings up three deterrents of PLNs for educators: PLN is a mindset, there is an overwhelming amount of techno-babble, and requires more digital literacy than a Google search. A good quote from this article is, "We must remember that lifelong learning requires effort." The article ends with a list of resources on PLNs.

Edutopia's article defines PLN and provides concrete ways for educators to establish one. While it addresses the barriers for mass adoption of PLN, the focus is to highlight the collaborative nature of PLN. It is this collaboration that allows for personal and professional growth.

This is yet another great and practical article. I especially like how the author outlined how we can each develop a PLN in 20 min/ day and gave some great suggestions for what we should do with those 20 minutes. 20 min/day feels very doable, even to someone new to PLNs or social media.

This is a more technical site that better describes CoPs.  It talks about what a CoP is and what the requirements are.  I particularly like that the it states that the learning is not necessarily the primary reason for the existence of a CoP.  It also gives some sources for further study.

This article is an outline of Communities of Practice with description of relevant terminology outlined and defined. Identifies the three components of CoPs - domain, community and practice. This article says that the central component of this learning theory is to draw participants deeper into the community through the attractiveness of developing skills relative to the domain.

This one I didn't summarize, only because I really had a hard time grasping the three elements of the CoP, and I thought this site encapsulated it nicely. Incidentally, my creative assignment for this week was inspired by the reference to Star Trek fans in this post. Here are the three elements make up CoP, and again, this information below is taken straight from the source (long quotes), because the definition is so good: 1. There needs to be a domain. A CoP has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest (e.g. radiologists, Star Trek fans, middle school history teachers, Seahawks football fans, etc.); it's not just a network of people or club of friends. Membership implies a commitment to the domain. 2. There needs to be a community. A necessary component is that members of a specific domain interact and engage in shared activities, help each other, and share information with each other. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other. In this way, merely sharing the same job does not necessitate a CoP. A static website on hunting in itself is not a community of practice. There needs to be people who interact and learn together in order for a CoP to be formed. Note that members do not necessarily work together daily, however. Wenger points to the example of Impressionist painters who sometimes met in cafes to discuss their painting styles. He indicates that even though these men normally painted alone, these kinds of interactions were essential to making them a CoP. 3. There needs to be a practice: A CoP is not just people who have an interest in something (e.g. sports or agriculture practices). The third requirement for a CoP is that the members are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources which can include stories, helpful tools, experiences, stories, ways of handling typical problems, etc. This kind of interaction needs to be developed over time. A conversation with a random stranger who happens to be an exp

I love this site for exploring and sharing good books. It's a favorite form of social media that I think could be really useful for English classes. Alas, the app is rated for adults because it contains links to all kinds of books. Don't know how that's different from a library BUT it has been blacklisted for my students. "Discover and share books you love on Goodreads, the world's largest site for readers and book recommendations!"

This article identified a massive discrepancy between educational researchers and educational practitioners (i.e. teachers) and called for a new collaborative approach to research in which the two factions work together to build communities of practice "based on collective expertise and designed to scrutinize and improve education." CoPs are a new way to promote dialogue and inquiry on current educational issues and topics, taking the former idea of CoPs as primarily for PD to a new level.

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 article was a study of novice music teachers' experience using an online community for one year using wikispace. A community of practice was formed in this wikispace and findings found that teachers' emotional needs were supported in this community regardless of grade level taught and music specialty taught. Knowing that other teachers were going through similar things gave teachers a feeling of support.

Big fan of the Newsela website application. This web-based app gives you unlimited access to hundreds of leveled news articles and Common Core-aligned quizzes. It's adaptive, and constantly being updated with great new features, like annotations, spanish translations, reading clubs, novel articles, and so much more. If any of you in this group would like to explore a Pro account, please let me know.

This is a resources describing the effect of connectivity in a PLN. "If I surround myself with people doing great things, then I am going to benefit." This video explains PLNs and how these networks cause exponential creative growth.

This video really describes PLNs and CoPs in a nutshell. It shows how valuable these networks are to education and learning in general. As the video states, "there is no way I can be the best at everything." It takes a network to benefit from the knowledge of many others. No longer do we, as teachers, have to to know all of the facts.

Did you know all of the accessibility features already built in to your Mac, iPad, iPhone, or iPod? Cool!

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.

I like this slideshare because it broke down Constructivism in a very simple way. It also brought up that knowledge gained doesn't only happen by making connections but by being able to travel across those networks of connections. This is important because it's one thing to connect to an idea, but to be able to take that connection and connect it to something different is difficult. Knowing how to access that knowledge once the connection is made is crucial to retention.

I like how this slide show clarifies a misconception that some people can have about what connectivism is. "In connectivism, there is no real concept of transferring knowledge, making knowledge or building knowledge." ... "we are growing or developing ourselves our society in certain (connected) ways." Brilliant explanation!

Cheers! Glad that this resource mentioned the initial developers/founders of connectivism, so many sites lack that credit. I enjoyed this how this presentation used mixed forms of media to communicate, very accessible for a variety of learners.

This article really helped to define knowledge in the Connectivist theory. To know something, means that you are able to organize and connect ideas together. The author makes a brilliant point that the more connections you have to the idea, the stronger your knowledge of it is. It also states that it is more important to continue to search for more knowledge and connections than it is to be satisfied with what is currently known.

This article discusses different learning theories. One of the theories was network semantics and connective learning. This section describes what it means to be a network. Then it connects networks to what it means to be connective.

After reading this article I can get my head around how important PLN are and I applied it to my corporate job. Both my peers and the people who report to me connect in many ways.

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.

This is an excerpt from the book by Etienne Wenger, Communities of Practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. In it, Wenger details that communities of practice are found everywhere in our lives, from a very young age (daycare!) on up. For many reasons, modern societies are concerned that valid learning takes place and Wendger hopes to contribute. He points out that "a social theory of learning is...not exclusively an academic enterprise." It is all around us. Wenger is not discounting the many other theories of learning that have been developed in the past. His theory is in addition to these.

Andrea, thank you for finding this. I thought I'd found everything available on the internet for Wenger. I had been vacillating back and forth about purchasing "Communities of Practice: Learning, meaning, and identity." Having now read this chapter, I think I'll have to go ahead and buy the book. I love Wenger's writing, especially his straightforward prose used to support his argument for the Communities of Practice theory. Here's a fine example: "What if we assumed that learning is as much a part of our human nature as eating or sleeping, that it is both life-sustaining and inevitable, and that - given a chance - we are quite good at it? And what if, in addition, we assumed that learning is, in its essence, a fundamentally social phenomenon, reflecting our own deeply social nature as human beings capable of knowing?" That's very nice.

This is a great site to get started understanding the benefits of PLN's. In particular, I like the fact that when discussing the benefits of PLN's the author, Education in America, brings up the fact that even though teachers are surrounded by students and colleagues, teaching can be an isolating experience. I've been there, and I know that having a PLN has not only made me feel connected, but also it has helped me share ideas in a more personal way.

I liked the fact that this site recognizes that "teaching can be an isolated profession"! Very interesting article.

I have to agree with the statement in this article about teaching being an isolated profession. I felt that many times and often wished that I had the remedy. In hindsight, I think a better network would have been helpful. Most of my time spent in a traditional classroom setting (face to face instruction) was as a lone teacher in a very small school. A better PLN would have been very helpful.

Stevens, V. (2008). Trial by Twitter: The rise and slide of the year's most viral microblogging platform. TESL-EJ: Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, 12(1). This article did not focus just on Connectivism or just on communities of practice but provided a clear example of both after my previous readings. If you think about the basic fundamental of twitter it would be easy to discount at first whether or not it would be successful. I'm sure along the way some may have even felt that it was a fad destined to fail or fade. Who would want to be limited to only one hundred and fifty characters to get out a complete thought and why would anyone be interested. Well right now according to this article twitter is the most popular microblogging tool that has existed. I found it interesting if you have read my previous articles especially about linguistics in communities of practice that twitter type has made its way into our everyday vernacular, such as saying hash tag in actual dictation. Interesting that a change in our speech and actions are indicators of belonging to a certain community of practice, much like how some groups say 'lol' instead of actually laughing out loud. This article draws these dots that are easily linked together to show Connectivism. The author spends time explaining when he "got" twitter, or when it dawned on him this is an excellent tool. From there he uses some great analogies to describe the connected world twitter produces for millions of users a day. My favorite quote from his article "To 'get' twitter, you have to have your finger on the pulse of what is pumping lifeblood through the Internet, and that is the people on it and how they come together (Connectivism), connect, and relate to one another (communities of practice) in virtual learning networks". (Stevens,2008)

I didn't realize Twitter had been around as long as it has - I also didn't know it's origins. Lost most of the social media sites it's changed a lot since the beginning!

Great post and I was cracking up at "The Twitter Curve" image. It gave a good explanation to me about what makes Twitter so powerful and its benefits but am also glad it touched on things to be leery of.

Meyerhoff, M. (2002). 21 Communities of Practice. This is another article that researches the marriage between social and linguistic definitions used in communities of practice. What I enjoyed about this excerpt was when the author went beyond the foundation communities of practice has, and explored distinguishing frameworks on which linguistic and social understandings were built. I also enjoyed that a good portion of this writing included the research that went on in the developmental stages of defining community of practice. This allowed me to draw strong correlations within my own educational arena and within the development of adolescents. All the research made sense to me as I read it; I just wish I knew the conclusion to the research, such as how it can affect those who want to belong to a less than morally ideal community of practice. How do I combat the need for certain students to want to feel part of a community of practice I know will not lead them to professional success.

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.