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This website provides an introduction and overview of Communities of Practice, created by the individual who coined the term.

This is a great foundational piece about communities of practice. I really like the definitions provided and noted that there does not have to be an intentional community of practice for one to occur anyway.

Brief introductions are sometimes best. This link helped me furthur my understanding of CoPs. I'm still a little unsure, but I will do more research. I did like how it broke everything down so that it was easier to understand. I'm still serching for something that defines the difference between CoPs and PLNs though.

Defines CoP's and reinforces that CoP's focus on sharing knowledge and developing best practices. Identifies CoP's as a model for connecting people for learning, knowledge sharing, collaboration and organizational development. Provides great key questions for growth of a CoP.

This is a great guide from Educause on the "nuts and bolts" of establishing a PLN. This resource provides a step-by-step guide to establishing a CoP.

This article is really helpful since it gives practical there are some things you can do. My favorite is "Design." You can not just set up spaces and expect people to interact. You have to drive purpose and there has to be meaning there.

"Only student who have a desire to learn will learn". We strive to make students life-long learners. This article defines the main characteristics of CoP as "The Domain", "The Community", and "The Practices". It gives examples of strengths and weaknesses, how it associates with the Constructivism Theory, and how to integrate with technology.

Debi, the initial quote really got my attention. I am more interested in getting my students interested in learning than almost anything else I do as a teacher. I think making them life-long learners through Communities of Practice might be the best way to get them to value learning over a lifetime.

In this article, four panelists who are leaders of successful of successful community of practice (COP) education initiatives share their knowledge and experience on this topic and suggest best practices for online communities of educators. They suggest there is no one definition for a community of practice, rather, there exists a continuum. The panelists discuss the 90-9-1 rule- 90% of participants in an online community lurk, 9% occasionally contribute, and 1% are "rock stars".

This article describes the process of growth of the community of practice of SEDA, the Staff and Educational Development Association. Members of the community went from being on the outskirts, learning from others but not bringing anything new to the table. Then, as they grew, they later became mentors and trainers to those around them. In particular, phrases like "element of selflessness" and "stewarding knowledge" best describe the feeling and attitude of the article.

This article describes the process of growth of the community of practice of SEDA, the Staff and Educational Development Association. Members of the community went from being on the outskirts, learning from others but not bringing anything new to the table. Then, as they grew, they later became mentors and trainers to those around them. In particular, phrases like "element of selflessness" and "stewarding knowledge" best describe the feeling and attitude of the article.

Video details what a CoP is and how it will work. Also talks about joining existing versus starting a new CoP for what best suits you. I think the video is short enough and to the point that it is a valuable resource for someone who is starting out and trying to find more information about a community of practice.

Defines CoPs, explains theoretical reasoning behind CoPs, describes the evolution of the idea of CoPs, provides best practices, and gives examples of CoPs

This article provides a definition and description of communities of practice. A community of practice is a social way to learn and share a common practice/activity/topic. Three implications are identified for learning: learning occurs through relationships, educators need to facilitate these communities for their students, and experience and activity lead to knowledge.

As learners, we can learn most, if not best, through our interactions and relationships with others. Co-participation in groups and/or activities are viewed equally as valuable as content delivered in traditional methods. Educators should strive to get students to include themselves in communities to learn through doing.

This article concludes by focusing on the implications for educators. It does not provide solutions but rather questions and ideas to consider.

This article closely examines how different types of knowing in action emerge in communities of practice.

Thanks for sharing the article. The thing I liked the most about what they had to say was that no matter which educational theory a person felt attached to, CoPs would be valuable. So many of the things we study say that they are the best new way to go. CoPs are common sense ways to solve problems.

Technology Integration
Research & Best Practices

This resource I came across provides resources for all types of social media. Within this specific page, the topic addresses the best practices for Twitter used in the classroom. It provides information on the use of Twitter within primary and secondary schools as well as higher education. Statistics are presented to show usage within the school amongst scholars and faculty. This site is also an interactive social media network system for questions and comments.

PowerPoint can be a highly effective tool to aid learning, but if not used carefully, may instead disengage students and actually hinder learning. Includes links to best practices and sites for further learning.

University of Central Florida's Faculty Center for Teaching & Learning presents effective techniques as well as case studies and best practices

This article describes the process of growth of the community of practice of SEDA, the Staff and Educational Development Association. Members of the community went from being on the outskirts, learning from others but not bringing anything new to the table. Then, as they grew, they later became mentors and trainers to those around them. In particular, phrases like "element of selflessness" and "stewarding knowledge" best describe the feeling and attitude of the article.

This slideshare presentation by Xiaoyu Wen outlines the main points of each chapter of the Cultivating Communities of Resources book by Wegner, McDermott, and Snyder. I think the best part is the list of linked resources on the final slide.

This is a good video showing how setting up a community of practice saves time and resources in a mining company. The highlight for me was that one problem took a company close to a year to solve and they freely shared it with another group so that they wouldn't have to go through the same struggles.

Teachers are developing PLNs to connect with other educators and professionals all over the world to stay up to date on their teaching methods and resources. This article gives an overview of why many teachers belong to a PLN and why it is beneficial to their professional goals. I appreciated that the author named and discussed three popular PLNs that I plan on looking into further. They were Classroom 2.0, Edmodo, and The Educator's PLN. I agree with the author completely when he states that "teachers are lifelong learners." This article is a great read for those new to PLNs.

I loved all of the information on the various tools that can used in managing a PLN, There were several tools I wasn't familiar with and look forward to being able to use in the future.

I found this post to be extremely informative regarding how teachers can use PLNs for learning, moreover for modeling learning for their students. The social network portion of this article was authentic to the purpose of this course and aided in making connections regarding the usage of social networks for educational learning tasks. The review of the three PLNs was also helpful as we navigate this course and begin to implement strategies and plans for the incorporation of social networking into our own classrooms.

This source is a chapter in a book by several librarians from the IUPUI library system. The librarians set out to find ways in which they could collaborate with faculty to promote a more successful information literacy program on campus. The importance of this issue gave them the impetus to form a community of practice. This group consisted of both faculty and librarians who were all dedicated to discovering best practices for teaching and assessing information literacy concepts. The authors concluded the chapter with a discussion of some of the campus initiatives that came out of the CoP activities and what they may do in the future to further the growth and retention of student information literacy skills.

Thanks for sharing this article, Kelly. I appreciated the discussion of campus initiatives, including the student pre- and post-surveys, which yielded "abysmal" results. Even with those results, though, the initiative was successful in sparking the campus to start operating as a CoP.

Crowley writes about how to effectively build a PLN, but goes much more in depth than just listing out three basic steps. She details why PLNs are so beneficial, especially to teachers. I appreciate that she covers the doubts and frustrations someone may have when establishing a PLN and offers ways to help someone from being overwhelmed.

A Professional Learning Network does not need to be a stress inducing task. A PLN should be a changing group of connections that people can join to connect with like minded people who share values, passions, and areas of expertise. When used in education, it connects teachers all across the world and gives it's members with different perspectives on education. PLNs often use technology to drive the connections. When creating or joining a PLN, there are three steps to think about. The first step is to find the professionals. This means that you need to find professional people who share an interest and value with yourself. Once you have found those people, follow them on social media or their blogs to stay connected with them. The second step is to find your niche group. A niche in a PLN is a place where people gather around similar interests or experiences. The final step is to find your PLN buddies and mentors. These are people you have really connected with and who help to expand your thinking. The best part about a PLN is that it is driven by you. You have the ability to adapt your PLN to fit you and your needs. 

As a teacher who is new to PLN and using it as a forum to learn and share ideas, I thought it was a great article to help connect the new user. Like any connection, time and effort are needed to make the relationship work. This article was precise in effective ways to build a community and sustain a PLN. Thanks for sharing.