EDTECH at Boise State University

In this article Nicole Cooke, a Reference and Instruction Librarian encourages fellow librarians to keep abreast of the latest technology and the most current ways of seeking information so that they are prepared to help satisfy the needs of today's library patrons. She suggests that librarians prepare themselves for the evolving library patron by participating in professional development activities. In particular, Cooke advocates that librarians seek out the current educational opportunities that are available through various Web 2.0 applications. Cooke then moves on to describe how librarians can incorporate new learning opportunities into their day to day functions through the use of social media platforms such as blogs and wikis. Cooke ends the article by talking about personal learning networks and how librarians should take advantage of social media platforms to form connections with others in the field for professional growth.

I think this is a great article. I agree that anyone who is in education has to stay "savvy." I especially liked the comment "Maintaining competence and learning new skills must be at the top of every professional's "To Do" list. It is an ethical responsibility, to be sure, but also one that is pragmatic and critical for career success. [...] Continuing professional education is no longer an option, it is a requirement of professional practice. "

I am glad to see you posted a link to a PLN for librarians. I think understanding PLNs purpose and framework comes easier when it is viewed from a particular perspective (i.e. Librarians). I do think PLNs are particularly useful in the digital age with some much information and professional development resources readily available.

Beth Transue, a librarian at Messiah College, begins this article with the suggestion that librarian educators reflect the tenets of the connectivist learning theory when designing their information literacy instruction. Transue mentions how the adoption of this theory in the development of library instruction can happen very easily as many of the connectivist principles are already evident in the steps of the research process. Transue spends the majority of the rest of the article talking about how the connectivist theory is connected to the model of the networked student proposed by W. Drexler in 2010. According to Drexler, a student uses information from four different domains: information management, contacts, synchronous communication, and RSS. The information management domain essentially covers the traditional library resources. The contact domain covers those who should be part of the student's personal learning network such as teachers, librarians, and classmates. The synchronous communication domain covers platforms like Twitter and the RSS domain covers blogs, wikis, and other social networks. The author spends the next couple of pages offering very specific directions for librarians to address individual domains in their information literacy instruction. Transue concludes the article by talking about what an information literacy session rooted in the connectivist theory might look like.

Hi Kelly, Interesting article. In one of the videos I found, the connection between research and connectivism was highlighted. I had not thought about that before, but it makes sense! And I've always enjoyed research, so good to know I've already been practicing connectivism on some level.

I love this site. It allows some of my lower level readers access to the same text as their peers. You can adjust any of the settings to meet the needs of your students.

After reviewing articles on the basics of Communities of Practice, I was seeking an example of COPs in Action. In an article, I saw a reference to the iEARN educational project that operates as a global educational COP for teachers and students in 100's of countries. iEARN is one of the largest online primary and secondary educational network. While the community operates through technology, the technology is not the focus but rather the just a means to connect educators. The core components of iEARN are "mission driven" (how to make the world a better place), decentralized structure (no true president our central figure), honoring teachers not technology, and a "sense of community". The article helped me contextualize what a real life community of practice looks like which gives me ideas on how to look for COPs in my own professional development.

This research effort developed by Barbara F. Hartigan, Ed.D. and Marialice B.F.X. Curran, Ph.D at University of Saint Joseph that looks at connectivism in the context of using social media as a mentorship program for pre-service teachers. It is based off the researchers witnessing teachers on Twitter who engage in the Twitter chat #kinderchat mentoring a first year kindergarten teacher through their weekly chats. This developed into a research project where they embedded social media into the program for 19 pre-service teachers. They used mostly Twitter, Skype, and blogging and found that all of the participants learn from and value learning and teaching ideas and methodology obtained from their social media interactions. They note that next steps would be to follow those educators into their classrooms to see their continued development using social media.

This was an interesting article I found on the ISTE site where two educators provide two different points of view about whether teachers should have a professional social media presence. One writer say that teachers should absolutely have a social media presence so they can be models for their students while also broadening their own professional learning network. The other writer recognizes the amazing benefits of having a professional social media presence but also says that teacher's should not be required but rather educated in the benefits of social media for themselves and their students. This is a great article for looking at both sides of the social media presence coin and will lead to some good thinking on this topic of connectivism and professional learning networks online.

Jake, great resource! I often find that items that are mandated see more pushback from teachers even if the mandate is helpful. I think offering opportunities for teachers to learn and engage in social media will help build the grassroots movement and it will inevitably catch on.

I saw a reference to MOOCs when I was researching so I wanted to dive deeper into MOOCs (massive open online courses). This article serves as a report card discussing the successes and needed improvements for MOOCs. MOOCs biggest successes seem to be the huge reach they have with their online presence. Millions of people enroll in the courses and top universities, such as Harvard and MIT, have MOOCs. However, some pitfalls are that less than 10% of people who enroll in MOOCs actually finish. The article gives ideas for improving MOOCs mostly based off the belief that online courses can be isolating and more collaboration with actual humans, via chats and videos, need to be included in MOOCs. I found this read interesting because the MOOCs are founded with the connectivism theory in mind, however many of this components that drive connectivsm and communities of practice are lacking.

Jake, I found a resource on MOOCs as well and while it was a positive presentation of them, it also noted some of the pitfalls. The fact that they draw mostly highly educated students, makes me wonder how accessible they are for all people. However, I know they are new and evolving, so it will be interesting to follow their development.

This article was extremely interesting! I was surprised to see the the high percentage of people who sign up for MOOCs and don't finish. I also strongly agree with the comment in the article, "people need people." Thanks for sharing!

I really connect to theory through hearing about practice. In this article by Tom Whitby for Edutopia, he shares 6 different stories from 6 different educators who have begun to engage with online professional learning networks. I connected to this article because I had the same path as many of these educators. Whether it was the teacher who heard someone at a conference or the 29 year veteran who found herself in a 1:1 MacBook class, they all began peripherally and then developed into active participants in their online PLNs. This article is a pretty good setup for our upcoming adventures.

It was interesting to see most of their stories had to do with Twitter. I have resisted Twitter for so long because I do not understand it at all! Guess it's time to learn.

Reading personal stories from teachers really helps me see how educators are using Twitter, and other technologies, in the classroom. I appreciated reading the variety of ways these teachers use Twitter to communicate with students and connect with other educators professionally. I'm beginning to see the value of Twitter as a professional network builder!

In this article faculty and graduate students at the University of Plymouth wrote about the growing use of blogging in higher education classrooms. The authors see connectivism as the theory that helps to legitimize the use of blogging in the teaching and learning environment. They acknowledge that Web 2.0 tools such as blogs give students the ability to easily make connections with their peers and others outside the classroom walls. One of the most interesting aspects of the article was that the authors advocated for the use of course blogs rather than individual blogs for the simple fact that it promotes a single platform for students to share and connect. The authors gathered much of the information for this article from a case study that they did with university students. They asked several students to complete a survey. Instead of a survey, the staff involved in the project were interviewed. Through this case study, the authors were able to produce both qualitative and quantitative data on the use of blogs. Overall, the results showed that blogs are an acceptable medium for using the connectivist model and that by and large, most students achieved the learning goals while completing the assignment.

Kelly, This is a very interesting article especially since I have had to use blogs for many courses and have considered having my own students use them as well. I definitely understand having a single platform, but I wonder if that takes away from the individuality students gain from getting to create their own.

Tiffany, I too am torn on the use of a single platform in the classroom. I love that it would be easier to manage one account rather than individual student accounts. I have over 100 Spanish 3 students (which doesn't include my Sociology and Spanish 2 classes). It could be a nightmare to monitor appropriate blog use of all of those students. At the same time, I agree that students lose the ability to create a personal site, and could be less engaged on the single platform.

Stephen Downes, in Learning Networks in Practice, details a concise history of personal learning environments, including communities of practice. He also ties this evolution in thought and practice to Web 2.0. He emphasizes creation, not consumption, as well as context, not class. Learning becomes more informal and multi-disciplinary. Downes acknowledges that the "theory" of PLEs can't specify an organization that will facilitate learning better than any other organization. Instead, he presents 4 parts of a 'semantic principle'. These parts will support personal learning environments and, in his opinion, will be more effective for learning: diversity, autonomy, connectedness and openness.

This 2011, Communities of Practice: A Brief Introduction, by Etienne Wenger distills earlier writings and discussions about communities of practice and outlines some characteristics and guidelines. Wegner's definition, "Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly." There are 3 characteristics: the domain of shared interest, the community shares information, activities and relationships and the practice of practioners who share resources, experiences, stories, tools and problem solving. Communities of practice can be for problem solving, information requests, experience seeking, reusing assets, coordination and synergy, documentation projects, visits and mapping knowledge. They can be small or vast, online or face to face. The theory of communities of practice has spilled over into organizations, businesses, government, education, associations, social sectors, international development and the web.

One of the articles in the resources for Module 2 mentioned collaborative learning vs. cooperative learning, so I wanted to read this article about the differences. This article details cooperative, collaborative and problem based learning in these areas: origins of the approach, definitions, essential features, goals, specific strategies and techniques and research that supports it. While there are multiple definitions, the authors say that "cooperative learning combines active and social learning via peer interaction in small groups," but that this also applies to collaborative learning. In contrast, cooperative learning emphasizes interdependence, where collaborative learning focuses more on discovery, understanding and producing knowledge. Collaborative learning also involves the teacher as well, working together with students to learn. In problem based learning, students work in small groups to solve a problem, often a real world problem. This type of learning does also involve cooperation and collaboration. There is a table on page 33 that summarizes the 3 approaches.

I was most interested in this website in section 5.4.9, where the author details the strengths and weaknesses of MOOCs, specifically the weaknesses. MOOCs have high registration numbers, but only a small number actually finish the course. They are expensive to produce and they are used mostly by those with higher education levels. Higher levels of learning are difficult to assess and so "credit" becomes difficult or impossible to grant. Copyright issues can also be a problem.

I found myself spending most of my time reading the strengths and weakness of MOOCs located at the end of the article. I found several articles that listed only the strengths, or only the weaknesses. I appreciated this article because it examined both.

On page 7, there is a useful table comparing behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism and connectivism. Connectivism is seem by some to apply only outside formal learning environments and so serves as a great vehicle for life-long learning. On page 13, the author discusses that connectivism is dependent on electricity and runs the risk of tying learners to their computers to the detriment of their physical and psychological health. This is something I have thought about and was glad to find this author acknowledging it.

This article explores how to find a balance between teacher control and student autonomy in personal learning environments. I like the author's observation that students are "networked learners in training." Page 3 has a networked teacher model, while page 4 of the article shows a diagram model of a networked student. A networked student uses constructivism based on experiences and social interactions. Meaningful learning is made up of knowledge construction, conversation, articulation, collaboration and reflection. The remainder of the article details a test case with networked learning. And there is a link to a YouTube presentation of the project, at the end of the conclusion.

Thank you for sharing this article. The diagrams painted a good picture of the networked teacher and student. It was interesting the direction the arrows were pointing in both pictures!

This post is the first chapter from a book titled Collective Intelligence and E-learning 2.0. The first chapter is titled Learning Networks and Connective Knowledge. This chapter outlines the thinking behind personal learning environments. Learning comes with the network of connections and experiences gained from a knowing community. The new learners in the net generation interact and think in new ways.

This article discusses connectivism and communities of practice within the context of situated learning. Situated learning focuses on learning as taking place by participating in the social world. The primary aim of the paper is to continue the task of analyzing and advancing experiential education.

10 Reasons Every Teacher Need A PLN This article has a great graphic that provides outlines 10 reasons teachers need personal learning networks. The reasons range from finding great resources, to sharing ideas, to getting support when needed. As one contributor to the site so succinctly stated, "professional development often leaves a lot to be desired. The key is to help teachers teach themselves through sharing and engagement (Todd Kominiak)." http://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/10-reasons-every-teacher-needs-professional-learning-network/

Teachthought.com is an excellent resource. This particular resource is titled "10 Reasons why Every Teacher Needs a P.L.N." This page is filled with multiple resources at a glance to help better learn and understand the theories behind PLN.

This article gives an overview of what Connectivism is and how learning happens in the digital age. Siemans describes the basic principles of how learning is a network of information sources referred to as "nodes." It doesn't describe how learning occurs within but how learners connect with the networked world of people and information.