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Although many organizations create groups that include people of varying specialties to complete specific problems, people are organizing themselves into communities of practice, informal groups who share "expertise and passion" for a common interest. These communities are new to the business world because their spontaneous, informal nature makes them difficult to supervise. Managers cannot mandate communities of practice, they can only create a supportive environment. Members self select based on common interests and perceived advantage. The authors provide examples from Hill's Pet Nutrition and Hewlett-Packard. While communities should not be forced into creation, managers can cultivate them by identifying potential CoPs that will benefit the company's "strategic capabilities", provide infrastructure to them, and assess their value to the business through "nontraditional methods." Business managers need to realize the wealth of potential available to them through communities of practice.

Prior to my studies in the Educational Technology program, I had never heard of the term Communities of Practice. Until I read this article, I have only seen research about CoP in education. This article begins by discussing CoP in business, and how long CoP has been around as well its benefits for businesses. I was really surprised to hear how long CoP has been around, you would think more businesses would invest the time to develop them. A couple examples mentioned show that it can take up to a year or more before change is implemented, but the long term benefits are worth it. Also, I noticed that another article broke down information in a table, much like the "Snapshot Comparison" section in this article. This is a nice way to compare things in an easy to read and understandable format.

This article, while a bit longer, introduces and explains communities of practice in an in depth and thorough fashion. I enjoyed the comparison to real-life companies organization and the history coming all the way from Ancient Greece. Two of my favorite comments states that communities offer "creative ways that foster new approaches to problems" and "they give you both the golden eggs and golden goose that lays them". It makes me realize how essential deeper understanding and knowledge can be developed within these types of communities. The article also develops an understanding of a comparison chart of different types of work groups to show when using communities of learners are most effective.

This work goes into detail on how the individual learner impacts the creation and function of their PLN. It identifies 9 specific factors that influence how we "build, maintain, and activate" our learning networks. It fits these factors into a "Personal learning network model"

PLN: This article delves into how networking is essential to personal growth and learning; especially personal learning networks. Learning by interacting with peers lets us make the connections that either in learning or work environment is important.

A clear explanation of personal learning networks, and in particular the different ways they form and the different ways individuals interact with their PLNs. Helpful diagrams for understanding the PLN model are included.

This article focuses on personal professional networking. This is essentially a PLN in the workplace. Three primary tasks build a foundation for future activities within the PLN, 1) building connections, 2) maintaining connections, 3) activating connections. There are nine factors that influence a personal professional network. See include: communality (or commonality) reputation, and real potential for collaboration or learning. Learning within a PLN must be cultivated and involve reflection. Participants must recognize the value of other contributors to their own learning in order for the network to be truly effective, because this will allow person to know who to contact in the future for a similar issue. Networking to create a PLN depends on the person be g able to make connections between their own skills and their contacts' potential contributions. In creating an PLN, the learner "orchestrates" the environment, "browsing, selecting, and choosing" relevant resources.

This post describes PLN's and what they look like and the purpose they serve. The author goes on to describe ways people use PLN's, provides a chart with resources, and my favorite part was the stages of PLN adoption section which helps newbies get started without feeling overwhelmed.

It seems to be a common misconception that "Connectivist Learning" is meant to replace traditional methods of instruction. I came across similar articles that focused on the challenges or "failings" of connectivist learning. They cited similar concerns that connectivist learning fails to provide scaffolding for new learners, that lack of instructor presence hinders students with low intrinsic motivation, and that it doesn't support learners whose critical literacy skills aren't highly developed. Conenctivism is just one of many models to consider when undertaking the task of teaching and learning.

I agree with Angela's comment that connectivist learning theory is valuable, but it should be taken with other theories for a balanced learning approach. I found the section in the article about the need and role of critically assessing content as a part of successful learning in a connectivist approach most interesting. Who is producing the best content for learning networks to use? Are the networks themselves? How much depth do the most networks dive into any topic to produce critical literacy content? I think it is important to emphasize the quality of the production of content as well as the consumption of others' work.

I found the discussion about the four major types of activity that enhance learning to be interesting 1) aggregation 2) relation 3) creation 4) sharing. I sense this being modeled in EdTech 543.

One thing the author mentions is the relationships built and camaraderie within his PLN. Member connections are a theme I have found to be overwhelmingly consistent throughout the research undertaken. One quote in particular that is fresh in my memory says PLNs, have a "commitment to mutual engagement, and to mutual understanding of that engagement" (Eckert, 2006). Members need be connected by vested interests, and within these interests, they become connected on a personal level, often building lifelong friendships.

There were some interesting points made in this article. It really focuses on the personal aspect of a Personal Learning Network and I like how Spiglanin points out that PLN's cannot be designed, they are "organic". After reading this article, I could picture a PLN for the first time and actually see how it relates to Connectivism. I could envision the network and how each individual within a network is connected or related to each other. One of the key aspects of a PLN that Spiglanin mentions stood out to me. The second aspect states,"Learning happens naturally as I engage with others in my professional network across a variety of social media. Recognizing this learning and making good use of it requires effective personal knowledge management practices." This stood out the most to me because it is one area that I still need to work on as I develop my own personal learning networks.

In identifying the role of social networking in reference to connectivism the author identifies that among the entire population that uses the internet some 75% are are members of social networking sites. "The role of Web 2.0 technologies is to provide a network of people who connect to each other wherever and whenever they need information." states Tinmaz. Thus, when people are in need of information they have access to an abundance of resources. This had led to the passive acquisition of knowledge by students to trying to create an active and engaged student populous in constructing their own knowledge. Part of this is the connections students build through online social networks. These networks allow for students to follow the flow of information and stay current in the changing information on a day to day basis. One of the new concepts is called a "hub" which is a main center for information distribution. Those people or places who serve as hubs help disseminate information throughout to other students. These social networks allow for easy access and the streaming of information on a constant basis to all people involved. This connectivity to learning allows for all students and others to remain involved in connecting their learning.

I like this article because it directly associates social networks, connectivism, and education. This quote from the article does a good job describing how: "The Connectivist theory has demonstrated that on a connected network, learners increase their capacities, performances, and levels of knowledge while creating and reforming the information. In that sense, social networking websites comprising already linked members in their innate technologies have a superior potential to enrich learners' current knowledge, skills, and abilities."

This author is new to me, so thanks for the resource. Her experiences in MOOCs and how to think about using them as a PLN resource is a new twist to participating those environments. I liked her list of strategies - will probably relay some of those to my students in the coming year.

I love the specific suggestions that the author offers so as to maximize the power of a PLN. As with all of the articles I've looked at, the onus falls on that of the participants in order to make the PLN successful. The author of this article emphasizes the ways in which individuals can contribute to the overall success of a group.

I enjoyed reading this blog post. I especially liked the explanation of what a PLN was vs. a PLE. That concept is something that I struggled with during this module. I also liked the discussion of MOOCs because I have never gotten to participate in one.

Here the author argues that Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) are not an application but an approach to learning. They require a radical shift in how we use technology, but they supply a holistic environment where students learn to take responsibility for their own education.

This article presents the features and reasoning for personal learning environments in e-learning. It discusses reasons for its importance in e-learning and lifelong learning. The ways that "learning" is changing with new technologies and resources are considered. The social aspect of personal learning environments is also described, with an emphasis on the tools that are used to facilitate the connections.

The author discusses the potential of learning environments in eLearning and how these LEs can bring together more authentic contexts for learning. The paper also reviews the different purposes and uses of Personal Learning Environments. Through PLE, individuals are responsible for many aspects of their own learning within the most useful contexts. Blogging was also covered as a way to incorporate informal learning. Attwell considers the challenges associated with continued LEs after a course is over, and points out the overarching questions regarding the responsibility for institutions or teachers to continue to support this ongoing learning.

Attwell, G. (2007). Personal Learning Environments-the future of eLearning?. eLearning Papers, 2(1), 1-8. In Graham Attwell's article he offers some insight and ideas towards why personal learning Environments may be essential to learning in the future. . He details the technology behind the buzz surrounding personal learning environments and examples of how we can use them going forward. What I enjoyed about the article was the notion that everyone's learning environment, style, context, and situation are different and PLE's enable the learner to pace themselves and grow on their own terms. While detailing lifelong learning the author grabs the theory of self-driven education being helped by personal learning environments. Graham does a good job of not following into a common misconception that technology directly correlates to better learning, but rather approaches the aspect of what technology could do for learning as well as what personal learning environments could do for learning as well. From his own personal PLE list of software to explaining the next steps in adopting personal learning environments on a wider scale Graham makes sense of a complicated theory.