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This is a good set of tools and instructions for creating and maintaining a PLN.

I found these piece both extremely interesting and valuable. So true the way the author discusses the outcomes of a one-shot workshop vs. a "job-embedded, ongoing" (love the terms!) framework such as PLCs. The main benefits of the PLCs are 1) their are embedded into each school day and are facilitated by teacher support staff and 2) they are not collaboration for collaboration's sake! Instead, they engage teachers into an ongoing dialogue that is of their concern or interest right here, right now! Thus, meaningful collaboration results in meaningful outcomes. Great read!

There's two tools I'm seeing less and less that were included in this blog post. I'm seeing less people using wikis and also Ning seems to have been replaced maybe by Google+? I see this blog as good discussion of using your time wisely and wonder how it might be updated say in 2 or 3 years with new technologies.

This article provides a concise look at personal learning networks in education. Benefits and reasons for educators and students to utilize are outlined.

This guide provided the benefits to PLNs, and both teachers and students can use PLNs effectively. The benefits outlined were, student preparedness, engaging, students have to take ownership of learning, individualized instruction, problem-solving skills, safety, and saves time and money. Ways teachers can use PLNs are for resource allocation, collaboration, and help. Students can use PLNs to find credible information through RSS feeds, share blog postings, about reflections and offer feedback for improvement.

This post is light on theory, but does a nice job explaining the whats, whys and hows of PLNs

Invited by Siemens, Kerr offers a challenge to the theory of connectivism.

Interesting read. Admittedly, the dine differences between learning theories is a bit beyond me, but if Siemens thought it was important that people heard the counter view then it must be substantive. While some of the comments by Kerr don't seem to necessarily counter Siemens' views, they certainly do add to the conversation.

An interesting angle on how communities of practice are being presented for a specific purpose. In this case, it is for NIRSA- a company that is tied to collegiate recreation. This site encourages people to get involved in a community of practice largely for sharing resources and discussions.

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.

Don't let the academic sound of the title push you away from reading this article. The author, Bopelo Boitshwarelo, presents arguments: "This paper set out to propose a research framework that will aid in advancing the research agenda of connectivism, particularly developmental work. " It is very dense with lots of synthesis of research that has been done on Activity Theory, Connectivism, and Communities of Practice from 2000 - 2011, when it was published. If you need to do a content-based paper on activity theory, connectivism, or communities of practice, this has several references listed at the end that will help you find original sources of ideas.

Thanks Melissa, this is helpful. No doubt that many of us are going to benefit from this type of research in our own academic pursuits. As you said, this study is fairly dense. But I also found that it breaks things down in nice chunks. I liked the explanation that a learning community is "a group of people learning together through continuous dialogue."

The author, Bopelo Boitshwarelo, from University of Botswana, points out the interconnections of online communities of practice, design-based research, and activity theory. The author proposes designed-based research as a framework to advance connectivism. I found the first half of this article particularly helpful with definitions and key points synthesized from pioneers in the field of connectivism. Central ideas encompass the importance of learners connecting in a CoP both as providers and gleaners of information. Learning networks or communities of practice are complex and dynamic in nature, providing challenges to researchers and studying their effectiveness. The article provides food for thought about the complexities of the interconnections of these theories and the development of frameworks to monitor and assess learning success when putting them into practice.

Physical impairments come in many forms and can generally be classified as a loss or limitation of function in muscle control or movement or a limitation in mobility. This may include hands that are too large or small for a keyboard, shakiness, arthritis, paralysis, and limb loss, among other difficulties.

Math Videos arranged by topic including introductory math, algebra, trigonometry and calculus. What I really love about this site is that it includes multiple (in most cases 3-4) videos from different people about a specific topic. For example, -7-2 has 4 videos on it for the same problem! It gives students a chance to see it in multiple perspectives.

I appreciate the example that John Brown lays out in his paper "Growing Up Digital". He speaks about the Xerox company sending in anthropologists to study how tech reps fix broken machines. They learned it is all about the communication and storytelling, never do reps use the manual. After developing an online presence for tech reps (CoP) to communicate, Xerox saves $100 million a year while the learning curve of the reps has grown by 300%. This is a great case study to get a better understanding of a CoP analyzed and at work today.

This article on MOOCs brought some interesting things to the forefront. When these courses were new they were touted as having the potential to change the world. In the years since though their hype has gone down. Most people participating have already earned college degrees. On encouraging pattern however is that teachers are often participating in the courses. This could potentially bring big positive changes to teacher professional development.

A brief overview of Connectivism by Stephen Downes.

Stephen Downes must be an interesting fellow. I admit this article had me lost more than once, but, it was useful and kept my interest. I am starting to recognize the Downes from this assignment. I like his take on knowledge is grown rather than acquired. This is more a conversation than an article but offers good argument.

This is Stephen Downes' blog and gives a brief description of connectivism. It also includes Downes' responses to various comments related directly at connetivism.

In this article Wegner continues to expand upon CoP's by defining their role in organizations and highlighting the success of organizations in using CoP's in coordination with social learning systems. Through this process organizations are able to meet a greater variety of needs for their employees. Wegner highlights how this process is the antithesis of normal "management styles" which is usually a top-down format. However, by working and associating in a variety of learning systems throughout regions or areas, people are more knowledgeable within their field.

The authors propose seven principles that they believe will allow communities to be "alive" and connect with members.

The seven principles for designing, implementing, and evolving a community of practice is the focus of this article. It does a very good job of describing these activities in terms of promoting a growth model within the community and the members. This desire to attract and connect with more and more people will only serve to grow the communities knowledge and abilities (this is somewhat mentioned in principle #2) by opening the conversations among those who are in and outside of the community.

This article discusses the components of the current educational structure and how they can be detrimental to continued learning. It also proposes an alternative structure that promotes shared connections and networking.

Written in 2007, this article purposes an "alternative design" to online education that seeks to expose students to a variety of different technologies instead of having them master one. It would then ask students to share new found resources and ideas with other students. Although this "new" concept is clearly the type of education the MET program subscribes to, it is interesting to read about it in a hypothetical sense.

This article argues that personal learning networks will help advance the field of education technology. The author explains the differences between the dominant design of education technology and personal learning networks. The author states that personal learning networks will help people build relationships and connections.

This article breaks down what a community of practice actually represents. It lays out the purpose of said groups, the roles of people involved, among other things. I liked this article because it was simplistic in describing a community of practice as an active group full of participation.