Group items tagged

I choose this article because I'm looking for a discussion of how PLCs and PLEs are different. While I think it may be more about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, this did allow me to read more about how social capital plays a role in PLCs.

A comprehensive listing of social networks used in educational environments. It includes links to topic areas that may be of use to teachers in this course. For example- art.

Glori- This is a really cool page!! I just scrolled through it and looked at some of the links. It is so helpful that people work so hard to create these "compilation sites" for those of us that have such limited time to do hours of surfing on the net to find sites we need to use for school, work, etc. Super cool!! Thanks!

How helpful! I love how these sites are divided into sections of what we are interested in. I will come back to this page several times during the next year. Thanks for finding this!

I liked this article because it relates social media to both formal and informal learning. The first comment that intrigued me by Quinn, "The recognition that learning is 80% informal suggests that we need to support natural connections between people who can help one another". As teachers/trainers we should be trying to access all the tools in our tool belt to accomplish the greatest amount of learning. He goes on to say that social media can be a huge payoff in formal settings. By accessing informal learning methods of social media we can access 80% of the learning that is going to happen. It may even accelerate the learning experiences because drawing upon personal experiences allows the learner to apply it to other problems to solve. This leads to Quinn's assertion, "Having one place to go for additional resources around the topic, and to have that portal incorporated into the learning, anchors the learning in the real world, and provides scaffolding both in the task and to performance beyond the task."

Thanks Lora, this article really provides a rich summary of the topic. It would be interesting to try to document all of the informal learning that occurs in a day.... my brother helps me with my portfolio web site, I give my sister the answer to a health-related question, the list goes on and on. Just think how much could be accomplished with the addition of social media tools.

This article reviews and synthesizes current practices and thoughts on how Web 2.0 allows for participatory/networked learning. It references Gee 2004's affinity spaces, Jenkins et al. 2006's participatory culture and Wenger 1998's communities of practices. I found the author's components of Web 2.0 spaces to be useful especially for whenever I may need to explain the essentials of a social network. These components were listed as presence, modification, user-generated content and social participation. I also found the author's use of the DJ metaphor to explain re-appropriation and remixing of content to be helpful.

Visit this presentation website to learn how educators can use Web 2.0 tools to communicate and collaborate with peers and learn about some of the newest tools teachers are using to support their own professional learning goals. Contains links to a number of PLN resources.

I think you will find this video a helpful summary describing visually why educators should consider crating and participating in a personal learning network.

Thanks for sharing Glori! I enjoyed listening and watching the Youtube video. I then watched quite a few more to get a better handle on what a PLN is and how to set my own PLN up. It also allowed me to see that I already do some of the aspects of a PLN but did not know it. This will help in creating my own PLN.

This is a really good blog on how to start developing your own PLN. The blog suggests 5 steps to follow to get started and offers some websites to visit. At the end, the blogger provides additional resources if needed.

I really like this blog that you found. The clip has some great inside on PLN. My favorite part of this blog is that the steps to get started on developing a PLN are simple yet detailed enough to make sense and there are several resources listed.

This was an interesting blog post that essentially asks, is it better to remain uninformed? This is a very real question for the passionate educator. Once one connects in to best practices, it can become increasingly difficult to abide in the current practice of one's own school. As an example, my wife is a nationally board certified teacher, she works in a private school with great resources (her third grade classroom is one to one laptops) , but through fairly poor leadership, the technology largely remains outside the circle of meaningful practice in her school. Her peers largely rejected any thought of instructional transformation, and as a result, her school has essentially provided every student a laptop computer to utilize as a sixth textbook, or a word processor. Being a progressive educator, engaging in professional reading, and attending conferences, can be incredibly frustrating when one understands the possibilities and sees dynamic change occurring elsewhere. It's almost like you are standing outside the gate, seeing the party, but have no means of entering. This might seem like whining, and the comments in the post somewhat bear that out, but it is part of the burden one must assume in working to create change. So, is ignorance bliss? In all honesty, sometimes it can feel so.... ts

If I may... There just may be areas of life about which we are better off not knowing, but I'm not sure. Then again, I'm happy that many hostile biologists do not possess the sequence and the genetic code for the small pox virus. Your addition to this page does raise some interesting questions.

Whenever I read or hear "Ignorance is bliss" I can't help but see thee image of Cypher chomping down on a huge steak in the Matrix. While there are definitely areas in life where mankind should remain ignorant (nobody wants that seventh grader bringing a laser gun to class), teachers being more aware of better practices or what's happening in more technologically advanced schools is one of them. Seeing these new ideas can lead the teacher to ask, "How can I make that work in my classroom even if I don't have everything they have?" At least a passionate educator might. The dispassionate educator probably isn't even utilizing a PLN.

This blog post compares and contrasts content management systems (CMS) and personal learning networks (PLN). The author has a clear and concise list of the advantages and disadvantages of both. The second idea of the blog is that people often set this up as a false choice: use advantages of a cms or don't. However, the author is seeking ways to integrate the best of both the cms and pln.

Tom, do you have any ideas regarding how to integrate a PLN into a CMS?

Learn more about how to effectively use Facebook as a learning tool. Most importantly, learn what Facebook isn't in terms of educational use.

Here is another link to the ideas of Harry Wong.

Hey Dennis, Teachers.net looks like an interesting network, but I didn't understand how the specific link you've provided here informs us about social networks or PLCs, in particular.

When I was teaching in the D.C. area, Harry Wong's ideas got me through. Universities really don't teach teachers how to manage an unruly classroom. Studying the ideas of Wong allowed me to exit survival mode and enter teaching mode.

Hi Dennis, curious why you shared this resource in a group called "social network learning?" Do you see a connection somewhere? Thanks.

I thought this was an interesting example of how to use the "list" functionality of Twitter to create a professional learning community for people interested in virtual worlds. Note they recommend Hootsuite and Tweetdeck for organizing your Twitter account. I use both of these and find they help.

Not sure how helpful this is, but I am using this site for my 503 class. It is very much like Bubble, (but not as cool in my opinion). I am struggling with all of the theory and "big words" in my 503 class, but I move forward.

Hi Stephen, the link you provided doesn't bring me to the site... Can you try to repost? Thanks!