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Order in the court. Hail to the chief! Roll call…yea or nay… iCivics is game, activity and resource filled Web site, founded by Justice, Sandra Day O'Conner to help young people of all ages learn about branches of government, citizenship, separation of powers, media influences on government, the budget, and the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Games can be accessed by topic or playing time. In addition to games and webquests, iCivics provides lesson plans with supporting resources for teachers. Grades 3-12. Tip: Combine curricular learning with service learning by challenging students to participate in the iCivics Impact Project.

Learn about QuickTime Player's media sharing, flexible recording capabilities, and simple media trimming and combining features. How to use QuickTime Player to play media files on your Mac QuickTime Player is a great application for playing media content, including HD (high definition) video in OS X.

The ComPADRE Pathway, a part of the National Science Digital Library, is a network of resource collections supporting teachers and students in Physics and Astronomy.

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 is a paper that considers the design issues of supporting emergent knowledge from communities of users. It considers these challenges from a theoretical point of view and from the perspective of information systems. It posits principles such as 'Design for Customer Engagement by Seeking Out Naive Users' and 'Design for Knowledge Translation Through Radical Iteration with Functional Prototypes'.

Virginia guidelines to internet use in schools

This article takes a broad look at concept maps in various applications. The author gives some historical background to concept maps, explains a few varieties of maps, and presents research that supports the use of concept maps.

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 article discusses communities of practice from a business perspective, which I found interesting because CoPs truly to exist in all professions; they aren't strictly and education trend. The merit of CoPs, according to the author, is that people share their experiences and knowledge in free-flowing, creative ways that foster new approaches to solving problems. They discuss the various benefits of CoPs and then examine why they aren't more prevalent, concluding that though the concept has been around for centuries, it hasn't been widely accepted yet and therefore companies (and education) haven't spent a long time cultivating them and helping people learn to effectively develop them. They refer to CoPs as the new frontier and predict that they will become a more and more important part of knowledge acquisition for professionals in the future.

This is a great resource that focuses specifically on the use of communities of practice in business environments. However, the information is easily transferred to other areas of industry or academia. It addresses the fact that CoPs are different than the traditional approach of working in teams in that their success and usefulness can be difficult to measure. The author gives tips for how to evaluate the success of a CoP through the sytematic gathering of anecdotal evidence.

This is a great resource for businesses to gain insights into the use of Communities of Practice. In this article, Wenger and Snyder discuss Communities of Practice and their value for organizations.

Summary: The authors of this article clearly prove that a learner who is in control of h/her own learning will benefit the most, especially if h/she designs and navigates h/her own network. A learner will learn whether the connection is strong or weak as long as h/she has: 1) a choice in what network is joined, 2) a true passion or interest, and 3) a flexible method of communication (could be in person or via technology).

This clearly follows the belief that personalized learning is beneficial to the learner. By getting to create your PLN you are strategically picking who to network with and the topics you want to be involved in.

In this article, the discussion of personal learning networks surrounds working professionals and how they manage their professional network. The article presents a model of personal professional networking with the goal of creating a personal learning network.

Talks about what a PLN is and why it's important to grow the connections that used to only exist between coworkers, friends, and family. Also has a table to show the variety of tools that one can use to expand their PLN.

"PLN's have immense value" was supported in-depth in this great resource. What a great find Jasmine! The chart discussing all the tools we can use to develop our own PLN's can be so crucial to educators who may be unsure about where to begin. The networking world can be overwhelming!

This blog entry streamlines the process for getting started with a PLN. It provides a directory of web 2.0 to help build a dynamic PLN. Links are provided. The video "The Networked Student" by Design Inspired by commoncraft is embedded; it highlights the benefits of being a networked student.

Summary: Although the paper identifies three challenges to Connectivist Learning (self-directed, presence and critical literacies) the findings, based on Kop's research, suggest that social networked learning does work. The paper includes students responses, both positive and negative, about their learning experiences. I found that aspect of the paper fascinating.

This paper highlights current theories of learning and gives a critical analysis of connectivism ""within the context of its predecessors" in a attempt to establish whether this theory is indeed anything new to offer for teaching and learning in the digital era.

This article looks at the challenges that could be faced by using PLEs and Connectivisim in social networking. The article breaks down the challenges to Connectivist learning and then explains the research methodology behind their findings.

In this article, the authors explore how PLEs, social media, and self regulated connect. Also introduces a pedagogical framework to for social media to support self-regulated learning

This article discusses how the use of formal and informal education can mesh. It talks about the importance of self-regulation in terms of connection to social media and how it can impact learning. It gives examples of how different media can be used in learning and enhance the PLN.

This paper is most useful for the discussion of how social media can help students develop self regulated learning skills in a PLE. A useful table is near the end of the article showing how teaches can use social media at 3 different levels of complexity for knowledge management.

A simple and effective introductory video to what a PLN is and how it can help teachers.

What a great resource! I have not been introduced to PLN's until this module and this is an additional resource to help clarify some key points and tools to work on PLN's. The quick quotes help simplify the concepts and makes me realize how useful it would be (and easy "15 minutes into your day") to develop a PLN to support my own PD. (and the catchy tune makes me want to swing dance!)

This would be a great resource for introducing PLNs at a faculty meeting or training. It is catchy and does a great job of laying out the basics of a PLN. Definitely worth keeping handy.

This article discusses how LMSs have become the norm for higher education, but identified limitations of the LMS and how learners are demanding a modification that gives students more control and interaction using web tools such as social networking sites to create PLNs to support their learning. Students want to create their own PLNs to manage information, create content, and connect with others. These approaches "represent a shift away from the model in which students consume information through independent channels such as the library, a textbook, or an LMS, moving instead to a model where students draw connections from a growing matrix of resources that they select and organize", emphasizing the personal aspect of PLNs.

This blog by Tom Spiglanin discusses what a Personal Learning Network is and how his was constructed. He discusses specific characteristics that he believes makes his PLN valuable and describes it as a hardware store, rather than a tool in his toolbox.

When I designed my creative expression on PLNs, I thought of keywords that were consistent in my research such as share, network, connections, etc. In this article, I found it interesting that the author described his experience as "on-fire learning." I found other keywords and phrases in this article that I can add to my list, such as global sounding board, camaraderie and support. When reflecting on this topic, it makes me realize what strength PLNs provide individuals and groups.

This discusses the importance of connected learning and all the ways one uses a PLN. It also talks about how the definition of a PLN has changed over time and how many of the original ideas are now obsolete but that the idea behind it all is still that it is about being connected and learning from others, and also helping others learn.