EDTECH at Boise State University

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.

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.

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.

Summary: Connectivism often features student choice, personalization, and varied paces. Social connections and collaboration are highlighted in this theory. A librarian at Wichita State University implemented connectivist ideals in a research class to make the course more meaningful and useful in the future. She asked students to comment digitally on student created research guides that could be used in the future with other students. This professors success came with strong plans and deliberate use of collaboration among students.

Connectivism is presented as the latest theory in library education. It combines elements of cognitivism and constructivism. As librarians engage in traditional 50 minute instruction periods they often miss the individualized instruction that produces the best results. In this article a librarian at Wichita State was looking for ways to take her intruction to the next level. Fortunately she got that opportunity while working with an upper-level English course. Students made connections between sources and among each other by completing a course research guide. At the end of the article the author offered several tips for improving library instruction. Librarians must have a detailed lesson plan in place, strong faculty collaboration, and include fun active learning exercises.

In this article two university librarians advocate using social media platforms to teach information literacy concepts. They believe that social media platforms, which students already engage in, provide a perfect focal point for showing students how they can access all kinds of information sources outside the realm of the traditional sources like books and scholarly articles. Because of the need to critically evaluate information found on the web, the use of social media for research provides an excellent demonstration model for this essential skill. Librarians, the authors say, should embrace a connectivist approach when using social media to show students the process for making connections between different sources of information.

This article seems so relevant, especially to my teaching experience. I think that teaching students how to use social media and evaluate information on the internet is not just something librarians should teach; it should be something all teachers cover as it is extremely valuable. As the world around us changes, so to must our teaching practices and the content we cover.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In this article Mark McBride, a librarian at Buffalo State College, discusses the recent changes that he made to his information literacy course. He talks about how he incorporated constructivist principles and problem-based learning activities into his course structure. In the process of making these changes, however, he discovered that he is really incorporating connectivism into his classroom. He makes the case that librarians should begin to adopt connectivist principles when teaching information literacy concepts. Additionally, he acknowledges that if librarians are going to move in the direction of the connectivist theory, the Association of College and Research Libraries must take a look at its information literacy standards and update them to acknowledge the ways in which learners can share and create information through the use of social media.

The authors springboard from a Cornell University study of the difficulties that humanities doctoral students have in finishing their degree to discuss the ways libraries can help improve student success. They show that the establishment of communities of practice are a necessary component of the success of doctoral students in the humanities. They then advocate for libraries to create and support these communities through providing designated space for doctoral students to collaborate and share information in the library and by offering discipline-specific research skills workshops.

This article looks at the role of social networking and connectivist theory in the learning process. It explains how not only has technology changed, but the learner has changed as well. For example the learner no longer just consumes information, but also produces resources that can be shared in a network of knowledge. The article argues that technological tools, such as social media, will assist the learner in creating and contributing useful material.

I travel the country teaching educations about instructional technology and one tool I love is Smore.com. It makes it quick and easy to create, collaborate and share ideas with others.

My Diigo share about the EdTech site called Smore.com

User-generated media (UGM) incorporates traditional media (i.e., newspapers, radio, television) as well as non-traditional media like the Internet (i.e., blogs, wikis, picture- and video-sharing sites, and social networking platforms). This article examines three usages of UGM from the uses and gratifications (U&G) perspective, which are separate but interdependent concepts. The first use, consuming, satisfies the information, entertainment, and mood management needs. Participation, the second use, fosters interaction with content and people to enhance social connections in virtual communities. The final use, producing, encompasses content that is created for both self-expression and self-actualization. This article analyzes the appeal of UGM via the lens of U&G. U&G is used to explain the psychological needs of the individual consumer and why an audience consciously chooses a specific medium to fill recognized needs. These needs can be divided into five categories to help us understand media consumption on user-generated sites: 1) cognitive needs, 2) affective needs, 3) personal integrative needs, 4) social integrative needs, and 5) tension release needs.

This article looked at a Web-based survey and its results in order to make a correlation between gratifications and uses of social networking sites (SNSs) and an individual's political and civic engagement in the real world. This survey targeted the Facebook Groups application to look at how participation compared to offline activities, mainly due to this feature's ability to recruit members, share common issues, and organize off-campus events. The survey identified four main needs for Facebook Groups involvement: 1) socializing, 2) entertainment, 3) self-status seeking, and 4) information. However, as this survey was trying to draw links between online and offline involvement, the need for information was recognized as having the most impact on participation in real-world activities.

In this article three academic librarians seek to find ways to remain relevant and improve their role among the faculty as technology expands people's access to information. In order to foster this growth, however, the authors quickly realize that they must first establish a strong community of practice for librarians before they can really integrate themselves into the academic community. The most interesting part of this article is that the authors stumbled upon this realization by accident. Through the process of providing a service they thought their faculty needed, they ended up discovering what their faculty wanted the most from the library staff. They established a CoP among campus librarians that was focused around the real needs of the academic community. This experience triggered a significant increase in faculty/librarian collaboration. The authors conclude the article by talking about some of the ways in which CoPs can help improve the status of librarians in academia.

In this article Librarian Andrea Wilson Brooks discusses how the educational theory of connectivism can be used to enhance the delivery of information literacy instruction. She begins the article with a discussion of the connectivist theory and then moves on to the specific role that this theory can play in 21st century library instruction. The instruction that Brooks talks about in this article utilizes mobile technology, in particular, tablets. She concludes the article with a series of specific examples of lessons based on connectivism. Each activity involves the use of mobile devices, various apps, and social media platforms to engage the learner while developing his or her information literacy skills.

The author of this article, Etienne Wenger, is one of the leaders in the field of communities of practice. Wenger briefly defines and describes communities of practice. He also explains how communities of practice are being applied in organizations, government and education. The resource is a great overview for those wanting to understand the basics of communities of practice.

This article looks at some of the possible obstacles of forming communities of practice. The article broadly looks at communities of practice in organizations. The limitations include hierarchical organization as well as socio-cultural backgrounds. The authors make a well-researched case that both elements must be taken into account when forming effective communities of practice.