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A wonderful source for teachers on how-to, uses of, and just about anything you want to know about digital storytelling. It is especially useful for writing and social studies.

Scholastic sponsors Beth (I don't know how)... and she gives an EXCELLENT tutorial for making movies in class (Note: Mac computer required)

Dr. George Siemens discusses his experiences with connectivism and how it reshaped his perceptions of the relationship between student, teacher, and information. He believes in this newly inter-connected world, knowledge itself becomes even more of a network. Beyond the network connections in the brain, the social networks on the internet have become a new way for people to know, understand, and retain information.

It's hard for me to believe that blogs have been around for more than 15 years ago! He's been blogging since the "late 90s, early 2000s." I appreciate his idea that learning is really a socially connected process because of technology.

Dr. George Siemens offers his backstory on how he came to create the theory of Connectivism and how it really relates to learning. He articulates why Connectivism is different from Constructivism or any other previous theory.

This book was written by Stephen Downes. Although it is very lengthy, there are many visual representations of connectivity and portions of the book that are very informative. It is broken into chapters that stand independently allowing the reader to pick and choose what they need information on.

Connectivism by Stephen Downes, anything you want to know about connectivism in this 600+ page pdf.

This article actually stretches into the idea of Asynchronous Learning Networks. It is probably a little out of the scope of this assignment but the article focused on the social needs and elements of Asynchronous learning so I thought it was interesting and relevant.

This is quite old, however, as I read through the document I felt that the information was still relevant. You may read through it to see if you agree. While the tools and access have become much more advanced since 1998, the needs of participants in an asynchronous network have not changed. Let me know if you agree. For a fun look at the past, see the graphic on page 11.

I bookmarked this as an extra site. It does not appear to be currently updated, but is George Siemens' personal website. There is a good link to a PDF of his book, Knowing Knowledge (2006).

The site didn't seem all that informative, but the links to the PDF books make up for what the page is lacking. These two books should provide some good reference materials.

Some of this article seemed a bit outdated for me. I realize that it was written in 2002 but it dated itself in the writing. What I did like was how they acknowledge that Instructional and Educational technology are slightly different. I did not know the difference until 541.

I stumbled across the video that a former student created that shows the differences of CoPs, Connectivism, and PLEs. What is cool is that the author uses only pictures, music, and written text to define them - no dialogue.

I watched this because it was made by a former student. It was nice because it was different - the no words was a nice touch. I wasn't really a fan of all the images and I think they only made sense because I am watching this last. If I watched this first, I am not sure I would be much wiser. Not a criticism of the video per se, just didn't do a lot to further my rather limited knowledge. Sorry Matt! ;-)

I watched the video and now need to go improve my presentation. The student did a great job of finding images that exemplified the topic. Even knowing this was for module 2, I kept waiting for words, not because I didn't get the message but I think people (teachers and students alike) are just so used to having words to rely on.

YouTube video giving great reasons for the PLN, the role of the PLN and an overview of one person's PLN.  Gives one a pretty good understanding of the 'why' and 'how' of Personal Learning Networks.

I think the author makes a great point with the "two-way street" analogy. It helps differentiate the qualities of PLNs versus PLEs and reminds us that we can be a valuable resource in others' PLNs.

In this video, the author explains the reasons educators should focus on building their Personal Learning Networks. This guy is pretty funny and does a good job explaining why PLN's are important.

I know we aren't supposed to focus on the how-to, but I found this video and decided to include it as an extra one. I really liked the suggestions made about growing your PLN.

This article is written in-response-to-a-response of an earlier article by the author (titled Researching religious education pedagogy through an action research community of practice - I've posted it as my #6 article). It seems that the response to the original article was critical of the a few items, most notably questioning whether the unnatural makeup of the group (too homogeneous or heterogeneous compared to the "general public") makes the practice invalid. Also, the article brings into question the nature of practice and theory, and how both impact one another.

This shows how communities of practice is defined, explains the process of how they've created and what they look like. Further explanation into how they can be applied in a wide variety of environments. The application part discusses how specifically it can exist within education both internally and externally. For EDTECH students, web communities of practice enable us to " extend the reach of our interactions beyond the geographical limitations of traditional communities."

I forgot to add my summary! This is an excellent source that fully explains what a Community of Practice is and how it can be applied. "Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly." I particularly liked the section about what CoPs actually look like. This is a must have resource for every EdTech student.

The author lists three "must-haves" to be considered a community of practice: the domain - shared interest, the community - learn from each other, the practice - share a repertoire of resources. Communities of practice fall back to learning theories. The term community of practice refers to a living curriculum. The concept is being applied in organizations, government, education, associations, social sector, international development, and the web.

All you need to know about setting up a school network.

Google is usually one of the first places students turn to when tasked with an assignment. Whether it's for research, real-time results, or just a little digital exploration ... it's important they know how to properly Google.

An overview for teachers who may not know social media tools including tips and tricks for using them. Also includes and infographic.

This website is an excellent resource for teachers who have a classroom set of iPad's or tablets. Many teachers have classroom tablets but do not know how to integrate them into the classroom. This website has a list of great apps to download for tablet use in classrooms. Students need to be engaged, challenged and be able to practice the skills learned. Using classroom tablets as a group/partner activity or individual use is a great way to incorporate technology into a lesson plan. High school students are a great age to use tablets with because they are more mature than elementary/middle school and (hopefully) will respect the technology devices.

Spreadsheet software offers users a wide variety of tools and features. From organizing data and creating charts to computing complex math formulas, the possibilities are endless. Knowing where to begin and how to make sense of it all can be a daunting task. This resource serves as a beginners guide for those wanting to learn how to operate Google sheets.

This text composed by George Siemens, an entrepreneur of the connectivism learning theory, explores the traditional learning theories of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism in order to reveal a more modern learning theory that encompasses the digital age. Connectivism, simplified, is the idea that individuals engage in learning processes that hold real world application via various resources and contacts to which valuable information can be extracted to create new learning that builds lasting knowledge applicable to a diverse number of circumstances. In this academic article Siemens explores the basic principles and implications of the connectivism theory and heavily emphasizes that this type of learning doesn't necessarily occur within the human, but can be drawn from different nodes which then connect to build individual understanding.

"The pipe is more important than the content of the pipe." Siemens says that it is more important in a digital world to know how to find the information you need, when you need it, than it is to possess the knowledge itself. And he recognizes that our current educational system needs to change to accommodate new ways of learning and new technology.

This article provides an interesting view of connectivism as an alternative to behaviorism, constructivism, and cognitivism. It argues that in the digital age, these theories don't properly meet the requirements of modern learners. Connectivism corrects these theories faults and looks at learning as a group activity.