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Wondering how to become a certified blockchain professional? Want to give a head start to your career in blockchain space? You have landed on the right page. This article explains the concept and importance of blockchain technology and focuses on the most-demanding blockchain certification courses of 2020.

a bit of history about cloud computing & a bit about where it is heading

This is a video discussion as part of a online course on connectivism.  Taken by itself, it is a little obscure, but taken in the context of EDTECH543 and in an attempt to understand connectivism, it was immensely helpful to me.  The video centers around the nine dots puzzle and the how the solution to it is a perfect example of connectivism.

Thanks for sharing this video. It made me understand that even if we think that at the beginning we are not going to need to get connected to a certain "point", you never know if in the future you are going to need information/knowledge from that source.

I really like this 'outside the lines' way of looking at connectivism. There is so much information out there that we really might not need at a certain point in time but it is still there and can be accessed. It's interesting to think that we might be that point for others, we are still there but they don't need what we have right now.

Since we're getting started with a few social media platforms this week, here are a few more that are out there.

This link downloads an article by Antonio Calvani from the University of Florence. He gives his take on whether connectivism is a legitimate learning theory or just a re-branding of the traditional three. He comes to the conclusion that digital access requires that we must re-think learning theories based on tools that were un-imaginable when those said theories were created.

Calvani, A. (2009). Connectivism: new paradigm or fascinating pot-pourri?. Journal of E-learning and Knowledge Society, 4(1). This article is a little hard to swallow at times. In what seems to be a love affair for his own writing he denounces, disagrees, and argues against the text Knowing Knowledge, By Siemens. I am all for disagreeing and arguing but not at the expense of the writer's own opinion where he cannot incorporate any research that supports his position. The author argues that many are too quick to adopt "isms" as a new learning theory and web 2.0 buzzword. He seems to jump from Connectivism as an unfinished theory and being incomplete, again though with no research backing up his own opinion and claim. Just when I thought he was done speaking about anything that I could connect with, Mr. Calvani did illicit a head nod. "A wild transfer of Connectivism to school would lead to think that putting students on the net is enough to produce knowledge, thus consolidating that widespread harmful cliché according to which the more technologies we use, anyway we do it, the better it is for learning".(Calvani,) As an alternative viewpoint to Connectivism he does draw some interesting end points, albeit at the sake of providing actual research for his own defense.

This post explains very clearly what the purpose of connectivism is and why it is critical to student learning. It explains 6 things educators should do with their students and how to encourage them to explore and connect with ideas. At the end it provides a few examples of tools readily available to use in connecting people and technology.

This article states the knowledge exists "through the variety of connections established amongst students, instructors, and technologies." It gives 6 skills that connectivist educators need and examples of networks and tools.

Great article! I have been very intrigued about connectivism since I heard about it in my learning theories class. This article gives good reasoning behind connectivism as well as a few ideas for how to incorporate it.

This article expresses the idea that our professional and personal learning and networks take place in many places and not just the classroom, though that is a part of it. However, learning can be just as valid if you meet in the local coffee shop or head out for lunch together. It encourages us to expand our ideas of what professional development really is. It's not just the conference or event we go to. It's on-going.

I really enjoyed reading this article. I appreciate having a more informal setting for PLNs outside the classroom and think it helps with creativity! Thanks for sharing!

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.

gives 7 things to consider in personal learning networks; what they are (a learner-centric approach to learning), major universities who utilize PLEs, why they are significant (extension of classroom learning) and some of the downsides (constant need to maintain, organize, and grow learning networks), where PLEs are headed and their implications in education (deeper engagement with content)

I think the 'who's doing it' section is very useful. It's helpful to see how it is being implemented.

Teaching us about PLEs through a story and simple bulleted points is an ingenious idea to get straight to the point. Rather than a long dissertation, writing a short article can sometimes be more powerful.

Interesting blog post about developing PLN examples.  Provides a bit on how, a bit on why and a few examples of the PLN

Hey Ben. I was lucky enough to go through the PLP program and have heard/talked to Will on a number of occasions. His energy and ideas are what have me heading in this direction.

This is a nice post. Good information on developing my own PLN and the examples are useful. I too have seen that name out there and after reading this article I think I may need to research these Authors a bit further.

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.

PLN have been around forever but now we use technology to help increase those who can be involved. Most of the Personal Learning Networks are online and we can communicate with others from around the world. This article gives examples of how to use a PLN and how to build your own.

I liked the video clip that showed how networking can be beneficial. Simple video that explains it for people like me who are new the world of PLN's.

I like the chart of resources. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around all of the social media tools available out there on the Internet, so the chart in this blog post is helpful. Thanks!

Go to the first option, it is the article written by Attwell. This article gives a summary of what a personal learning environment and it's benefits. This article gives good examples of what a PLE and how it works as well as some history and theoretical background.

Great read! Totally agree that while life long learning is nothing new, technology brings it to a different level (even though the focus of the article was on education rather than the technical aspect.) I also found interesting the discussion on new approach to assessment (the traditional one on the outcome vs. the new one on the competencies for such an outcome.) Some food for thought!

Great article! I liked how the article defined PLNs and gave ways to use them for deeper understanding and engagement. I used to teach an introductory tech course at our local high school and I will be speaking the the teacher and sharing this article with him. I feel that the benefits of students using PLNs is limitless.

This article proposes the infrastructure of a next generation "context-aware" PLE environment that would automatically filter content using a Bayesian prediction engine. The guts of this are over my head, but it does address one of the key issues with PLEs and Connectivist pedagogies which is information overload and significant time wasted exploring the "wrong" links and resources.

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.

A critical review of George Siemen's (2005) article "Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age". A distinct relationship is made with Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) and connectivism: The individual, and his/her abilities to create a personal learning network, is the "starting point of connectivism" (Siemens, 2005, p. 6). A great summation of the original article.

I thoroughly enjoyed this article! To some degree I have always associated Common Core with connectivism because I am seeing the ways in which Common Core is pushing students to be critical, analytical thinkers able to justify their responses. It isn't so much memorizing content as much as it is learning skills to apply to different terrains of knowledge which is similar to part of Siemen's definition that connectivism involves "determining when and what knowledge should be retired and replaced with updated knowledge." This statement prompted an "ah-ha" moment within my head as I was able to begin connecting some dots between connectivism and the practical aspects of my own teaching practice.

Is connectivism limted to Western and technologically advanced cultures? Learning theories such as behaviorism, constructivism and even cognitive and socioclultural theories can be applied to learning in various cultures. It seems that connectivsm requires a certain amount of freedom and access to technology. If this is the case, can it be considered a learning theory?

The author, a chief technology officer (CTO), does an excellent job outlining how to develop your own PLN. He challenges the reader to use Twitter, Diigo, Google+, and blog. The is an excellent beginners resource!

I like this a lot. As Jody stated above, I never really thought of connecting with others and considering them colleagues. I was more focused on just listening to their ideas and making them my own, rather than sharing collectively.

This article, while simple, points out some profound "a-ha's" about power of online personal learning networks. Online PLNs allow educators to engage in the flow of conversations without necessarily being to tied to a time and/or place. As the author points out, some of the biggest changes occur in educators when they begin to share what they know on a PLN. By sharing one's thoughts, an individual can reach a deeper understanding of his or her own understanding.

This website was a fantastic resource for me this week when learning how to create interactive slides. This is a great element to add to any PowerPoint presentation to get the students involved. Creating links on the slides to travel through the questions in the correct order takes some time to organize in your head but once it is created, it is awesome!

This page on the Wenger-Trayner website, there is an in-depth explanation of communities of practice as well as a brief history of its inception. I really appreciated the part of this site that gave examples for how to effectively use communities of practice (CoP). It was interesting to read myths about CoPs as well as to be provided with links to further reading on the topic. I also found it incredibly insightful that the site explained how CoPs are being used in a variety of forums, not only in education.

This article provides examples of where COP can exist!

I like how it emphasizes that the three components of COP are domain, community, and practice. You need each of these to have a successful COP. Thanks for sharing.