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Wasko and Faraj discuss the phenomenon of shared knowledge in the digital world; why communities of practice emerge and the motivations of the participants to share knowledge. As they state, "People often behave altruistically and pro-socially, contributing to the welfare of others without apparent compensation."

Very interesting paper. It's an investigation into electronic communities of practice, especially as to "why people contribute time and effort to the provision of knowledge as a public good given the propensity for people to act out of self-interest." I think the authors results are intriguing. They find that people in these electronic communities of practice behave out of a sense of moral duty; feel that sharing knowledge and helping others is `the right thing to do'; desire to advance the community as a whole; and often make contributions in order to have the favor returned one day. In the end, the authors find that within these electronic communities of practice, people contribute time and effort through a combination of altruism and self-interest.

This article very clearly defines what connectivism is.  It goes over George Siemens theory in detail and how it applies as well as how it is different from other learning theories.  It has some real-world examples.

This was a great article. I like the way he stated that others thought it was plagiarism because it was so similar to other theories. This is what I have found as I have searched for "Connectivism" and have come to the same conclusions. Most of the articles are very similar. This article discussion Connectivism and how it is an integration of principles, networks instead of hierarchy, dialogue instead of blogs, and collaboration instead of wikis. I love the last statement: "...imagine what we could come up with together, connected." Thank you!

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.

The Utah Education Network provides free web tools and services, such as lesson plans, videos, curriculum resources, student interactives and professional development for Utah educators, students and parents. UEN is the Internet Service Provider for public education, the Utah System of Higher Education and state libraries.

Blog created by Dr. Matthew J. Koehler who is a professor of Educational Psychology and Educational Technology at Michigan State University. It has a ton of resources dealing with TPCK or Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge.

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 paper, by Ana Maria Marhan examines connectivism and social media. The author points out that because today's learning is a "messy, nebulous, informal, chaotic process, we need to rethink how we design our instruction. This hit home because I just moved to a new state and a new district, and they are very strict with, well, just about everything on the computer! I teach at a Title 1 high school, and these kids would truly benefit from instruction that wasn't so linear. These learners (like all learners) form their own pathways of knowledge, and I believe I could make a stronger impact on them if I could use more tools.

Marhan, A. M. (2006). Connectivism: Concepts and Principles for emerging Learning Networks. In The 1 st Conference on Virtual Learning. In this article author, Ana-Maria Marhan does a good job exploring the principals pushing forward Connectivism as a pedagogical helper. This becomes apparent right from her abstract "Connectivism views learning as a network creation process, and looks at how we might provide 'learning ecologies' to meet the learners' needs.". In her first section, she defines learning as "a persisting change in human performance or performance potential which must come about as a result of the learner's experience and interaction with the world." As soon as I read the last few words "interaction with the world", I began to connect the dots (no pun intended) to what I've read thus far about communities of practice. She spreads out on a handful of relevant and interesting subtopics to the overall theme of Connectivism. After she describes more about the new connected and growing world we live in she tackles the basics of Connectivism as a theory of learning and the principals behind it. Again like other articles she echoes many of the same sentiments George Siemens made when he originally proposed the learning theory. After the background on Siemens theory, she begins to draw everything together. One statement that I enjoyed was "Individual is the starting point of Connectivism: personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into communities, organizations or institutions, which in turn feed back into the network and then continue to provide learning to individual". She does a great job of supporting the use of technology not as the new power of learning but as a tool to unlock that power. "When knowledge, however, is needed but not known, the ability to plug into sources to meet the requirements becomes a vital skill".

I also appreciate how Marhan suggests that connected learning is cyclical: "Individual is the starting point of Connectivism: personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into communities, organizations or institutions, which in turn feed back into the network, and then continue to provide learning to individual."

This is a very useful discussion presented from four community of practice leaders who have share insights based on their experience creating and maintaining COP. Some of the topics discussed include the importance of leadership and support, creating a culture and climate, immediacy and quality in responses, using modeling and examples when starting the community.

Great discussion. I enjoyed that they touched base on how to encourage participation which sometimes could be the number one problem in getting the results a community of practice could produce. To further break this down the discussion focuses on the 90-9-1 rule which states there is one person actively involved in the online presence then 9 every now and againers and 90 lurkers. From there they not only suggest how to encourage participation but how to reward it as well. Overall I enjoyed this article. Great find.

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 is a slideshow that states different facts about learning theories. One of the theories discussed is connectivism. Some of the slides will discuss the theory that is associated with the different theories.

This is a chapter from a book. It discusses how technology is just a vehicle to help deliver their knowledge. The authors state that a learner can learn from their technologies if they use those technologies to their greatest ability.

This article states, "Spreadsheet design is part art and part science. It involves not only technical expertise but also attention to aesthetics." I honestly never connected aesthetics to spreadsheets.... I found this to be an interesting read.

In this L.A. class of Mr. Legaspi, students use cell phones and computers and type off 140 character answers on Twitter when he asks questions. The teacher states he uses the popular social networking site to make his classes energetic. According to him, using Twitter has been very productive in his classroom, helping engage students in the material and is especially powerful for shy students who wouldn't usually speak up in class.

Specific information on computer lab accessibility requirements.

***You will likely have to sign in to the Albertson's Library to access this article! This article provides examples of how Karl Fisch uses his own personal learning network. He references electronic sources, books, and face-to-face interactions that all represent critical parts of his PLN.

A straightforward government-issued document on Communities of Practice that focuses on a variety of benefits for both organizations and individuals. Uses business at the working guide- not education- but the principles are the same. Very easy to comprehend document.

Thanks - I read this because it was not aimed at education which is where my interest tends to take me. I liked that there were examples with benefits but did find the description was probably a little narrow in stating that, ". .. who often collaborate via established Web sites. These community Web spaces are designed to allow community members to share ideas and knowledge in several ways" Enjoyed reading it though. Thanks.

I like this article because it lists both pros and cons to using .PPT. I also like that it clearly states not to use too many slides and that it is meant to help add to the presentation, not deliver it or make it more interesting.

SUMMARY: This resource is geared towards school and district leaders to better understand the necessity of CoPs for not only their teachers but also themselves. It provides simple strategies to infuse educational environments with rich resources that lead to growing PLCs and CoPs.

Thanks for sharing this Cate. I follow CoSN and am usually up on their stuff, but I had not seen this resource. I love the fact that it includes action steps for superintendents. Too often that level of leadership is left out, then people wonder why change is not really taking place.

This provides district administrators with concrete steps for building communities of practice that can help educators develop technical abilities. Suggestions include finding pockets of excellence and working with and benchmarking from other school districts.

This article from the Educational Leadership journal is an interview with Karen Cator, former Director of the U.S. Office of Educational Technology. Cator goes into depth on the topic of personal learning environments. She says that PLEs bring in "the long tail of student experiences and interests." She also state that anytime you add a new technology, something gets amplified and something else gets reduced.

The first school that comes to mind when I read this article is about as poor and dysfunctional as the one in the article is well funded and utopic. In the last year there, not only have they not been able to get internet access and technology into the hands of all students, they have seriously discussed putting overhead projectors with plastic sheets back into rooms. The digital divide is alive and well, with the poor getting poorer. I truly believe that technology can make a huge difference in education, but how many students will be left behind waiting for it to get to them?

Cator hits home with a lot of these points for me. She speaks about how the digital and pedagogical divide amongst teachers and administration is so large. There are schools taking on the technological issues head on while others are still stuck in the old way of thinking. Before we can purchase all of this new technology, we need to get the teachers to realize what age they are living in and what is necessary to help them teach to the students in front of them.

This article by Richard DuFour, one of the key voices in PLC professional development, identifies what distinguishes a PLC from other Communities of Practice. PLCs in schools are focused on student achievement, and creating a common understanding of what students should know and be able to do, how we will know when a student has reached mastery, and what we will do when a student is not successful.

I also had the opportunity to go through a training with the DuFours, but for three days last summer. I felt their were spectacular. Communication and problem solving are also important aspects of PLCs. #EdTechSN

I am developing my curriculum into a more blended environment. I think the professional learning communities and collaboration suggested here could really help me overcome some barriers. Thank you.