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This article provides insight into personal learning environments by answering seven basic questions about them. A scenario in which an avid car enthusiast uses a PLE to help him gather knowledge to restore a car provides a helpful image as an introduction. Additionally, an overview of PLEs is provided, along with some examples of institutions that encourage their use and how they are used. Web 2.0 allowed the evolution of the PLE into a digital world. One drawback mentioned by the article is that students who have never practiced metacognition in their own learning practices are said to have difficulty at times with the format of PLEs.

For anyone who is involved in professional development for teachers and staff this site and these articles provide some interesting insights in how to move from traditional training - event based or once a year in-service presentations) to keeping the conversation going with social and informal learning. Includes theories of social and informal learning that can translate to the classroom as well.

This essay makes an argument that organizations need to include social learning systems, such as communities of practice, in order to achieve success. The author explains social learning and explains why communities of practice are beneficial.

This article looks at communities of practice from different sections of a community such as individuals and organizations. The article starts with a social definition of learning and then takes a deep look at the structure of communities of practice and social learning networks.

I wanted to know more about the difference between a personal learning network and a personal learning environment. This article does a great job of breaking down the differences even though they obviously work hand in hand.

What I love about this source is the section that discusses why PLEs are significant - I love how it talks about how it is student-driven. It is up to the learner to be in charge of their own learning path and provides authentic learning opportunities. With the creation of 2.0 tools, educators are able to differentiate to different learners with the creations of these tools and pairing students that are in the same skill-set or have similar interests for them to learn information and assist in making connections.

I like this source and how it explains PLEs, why they are important, who they are for, and even the downsides to them. It makes it an easy read and easy to find the information you are looking for. I also like how it includes a case study to align with the information that is given.

This article explores the classroom as a community of practice and examines the role classroom activities have in students' collaborative learning. The study uses a graduate-level public administration course as the case.

This article discusses the use of a university classroom as a community of practice. The survey showed how leadership played an important role in increasing collaboration among the students. Learning took place during engaging and reflecting class activities. Classroom activities that were designed for social interaction promoted learning. Collaboration occurred through a diverse set of ideas leading to a common goal. Students stated that including activities that encourage students to learn from their peers by connec classroom knowledge with real-world examples creating a community of practice.

In this article, Wenger defines Communities of Practice (COP) as a "tribe learning to survive," (p. 1) although learning isn't always the goal of the group but can be an outcome. Members are committed to their community and create a shared practice of networking for a specific purpose. Originally associations and groups, the Internet is extending the reach of COPs and increasing the flow of information.

For those who have never heard of communities of practice, this resource explains it well. What are communities of practice, what do communities of practice look like, where does the concept come from and how it is being applied is all covered.

This is a brief but comprehensive introduction as to what communities of practice are by Etienne Wenger. One important aspect addressed is that learning is a product of a community of practice whether intentionally or not. It also gives multiple examples of what a common community of practice can look like such as problem solving, discussing developments, and visits. The concept came to be as a learning model by Wenger and Jean Lave. The concepts has many applications but a couple common places these communities are seen are organizations, government, education, and technology.

This article discusses how Connectivism, focuses on that people learn through connections of social and cultural interactions. Every single source is a "node" which interacts with another to become a channel of shared information. In higher education, learning is viewed as a process that continually develops. The use of Twitter is a tool which allows students to share knowledge with each other

This was an interesting article about using Twitter though the lens of Connectivism. I thought it was interesting that as first, they thought it failed. But soon they said they created "a place to test our knowledge and facts" and that the class had "formed a learning network, where each one was tweeting a chunk of information." What a great outcome and a lesson that learning is a process, not an event.

This blog has an entry titled: "Building School-Based Social Networks for Inquiry, in which he discusses building a social network for students named "Youth Voices." This site is for students to write and respond to each other and teach the value of peer interaction. The process of responding to each other has motivated student begin new posts.

This is a great article about social networking in schools.

http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2010/06/16/03networking.h03.html M. Gottlieb Day School in Jacksonville, Fla. Ms. Tolisano launched her "Around the World With 80 Schools" project with a goal to introduce her school's students to peers in countries around the globe. She built a social-networking site using Ning for teachers from all countries who wanted to participate. Tolisano sets up meetings between classes using Skype, students prepare a list of questions and chat with students in Canada, Finland, New Zealand, and Spain, among a long list of others.

New Milford High School in New Jesrsey has embraced the use of social media. One example of use had students blogging daily during a field trip to Europe to visit Holocaust sites.

A brief but excellent look at the need for PLN in school.  Give a good description of why teacher's need to be involved as students develop their existing PLN's and why they need to develop their own.

Everyone's network is going to look different. It is more of a process than just being in a room with those you interact with every day. It is an independent function that you need to engage in! We have to create our own PLN so that we can connect with our students who already have one.

Everyone's network is going to look different. It is more of a process than just being in a room with those you interact with every day. It is an independent function that you need to engage in! We have to create our own PLN so that we can connect with our students who already have one.

This author is from the Istanbul Kultur University. He reviews and applies connectivism theory research and discusses the methods used within social networking platforms for education purposes. He promotes the idea of the growing need for learning as a connected activity. Since people already use social networking for interacting and communicating personally and professionally, it makes sense that SN platforms be utilized for educational purposes. The author also pointed out a number of challenges in making this a reality. Some of the challenges include lack of training, lack of reliable technology and open access to SN sites, and unreliable information shared on SN sites.

A Facebook group page was created and used as a mentoring tool for high school science students and university students. Facebook increased communication and engagement between mentors and mentees. Questions were asked and support was provided through the page.

This article comes from the OD Practitioner journal, Fall/Winter 2000. This article focuses on the basics of Communities of Practice, defining the dimensions, purpose and changes from knowledge sharing now rather than in the past. This article focuses on the industrial and business world. It shares that knowledge in the past was knowledge was to be horded for power, while today it is to be shared to grow said power "in multiples" (Allee, 2000). The article goes on to share the benefits for everyone as far as the business, community and the individual. I appreciate the call for possible new communities of practice to meet new business community challenges.

I like how this article, even though it focuses on the industrial/business world, still has some great applications to the world of education. It's also interesting to find out more about some surrounding groups to CoPs and how they are related. A quote from the article (pay close attention to the last sentence in regards to education) says, "Communities of practice emerge in the social space between project teams and knowledge networks. When multiple project teams are engaged in similar tasks the need to share what they know often will lead to community formation. From the other direction, a loosely organized knowledge network of people who share common interests can gel into a focused community when people recognize new shared opportunities or begin to seek a significant breakthrough. Those who would support communities need to learn what conditions foster their emergence and create an environment in which they can flourish."

This was a short source but it detailed how teachers can easily create a PLN using the Independent School Educators Network. From this resource they have access to professional development opportunities ranging from Google apps, iPads, Digital Citizenship, and others.

This study looked at how Twitter-using educators were using Twitter to collaborate, network, or engage in professional development

Molly, I really enjoyed this article. It is especially relevant with this course. Honestly, I could never image using Twitter as any kind of professional resource, but after reading this and using Twitter for this class and one other, I can see how it would benefit educator to collaborate. It is also very easy to use. Thank you for sharing this article!

Hi Molly, This is very appropriate for our class, especially since we are using Twitter to share articles and resources with each other - - in our own personal learning environment. I focused on the discussion portion of this article. I noticed that for educators, personal learning networks are important and useful for professional development. It was interesting that the study found greater use in high school environments (maybe because we are influenced by our students?). The benefits of Twitter and professional development, is that one can access and participate at any time and any location - - it is self-directed! I would be interested in finding out how to promote this type of professional development within a school. What type of training is needed for educators to get started? How would one track satisfaction and learning?

Brenda A. Dyck works with teachers to learn the newest technologies to apply in the classroom. In this article she lists many Web 2.0 tools that she has used in her professional development training sessions and describes why they are useful.

While some of the tools mentioned in this 2010 video by Skip Via are a bit out of date (Google Wave and Google Reader, for instance), the importance of developing a personal learning network is clear. First, creating a PLN ensures that we have access to a support system, and additionally, we have a professional responsibility to seek out and participate in our own learning opportunities, and PLNs offer inexpensive (free) ways to accomplish this.

This video provides a good overview of a PLN. What I like about it is that tools that can be used for a variety of activities are discussed.

This site contains a lot of information about COP and is organized as answers to FAQs. Importantly it covers tools that can be used to facilitate CoPs

This article has a great layout. I appreciated how I could decide what information I needed and click on the questions for answers. All of the information was interesting and useful in order to learn about social learning, communities and networks as well as cultivating communities of practice. Thank you for sharing this great resource.

In this article with an interesting format Wenger & Trayner tackle the frequently asked questions surrounding social learning, communities, and networks. Section 1.2 on Cultivating communities of practice was most helpful to me to truly understand the purpose of COP's by looking at the objectives.