Connecting, Collaborating, Continuing to Learn

While meeting with Punya Mishra, I was explaining my interests in social networks, online communities of practice and the ways in which social capital is increased or decreased through teacher participation in these networks.  I was looking for his perspective on this emerging phenomena and he responded quite simply.  “What excites you most about this [...]

Tapped In is one of the longest sustained online education communities of practice.
Research has shown that student achievement is directly linked to teacher quality. State and national teaching standards provide a framework for teachers’ professional growth that requires teachers to engage in ongoing professional development throughout their careers. The increasing demand for continuous professional development [...]

Warlick, D. (2009). Grow your personal learning network: new technologies can keep you connected and help you manage information overload.    Learning & Leading with Technology, 36(6), 12-17.
Personal Learning Networks are not new.  We have been connecting with people for ages.  They ways in which we connect, however, are changing.  The internet has afforded us with [...]

Communities of practice are everywhere.  Groups of people who join together to form a community based around a shared practice, interest or activity. Some people are in the center of the group, others are around the edges.  Both play critical roles in the sustainability of the community.  The community is continually shaped by the participation [...]

Collins, A., Halverson, R., & Brown, J. S. (. (2009). Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology. New York, NY: Teachers College Pr. 
Incompatibilities between Schooling and Technology
Uniform learning vs. Customization
Teacher as expert vs. Diverse sources
Standardized assessment vs. Specialization
Knowledge in head vs. Reliance on resources
Coverage vs. Knowledge explosion
Learning by absorption vs. Learning by doing
Just-in-case [...]

Schlager, M. S., & Fusco, J. (2003). Teacher Professional Development, Technology, and Communities of Practice: Are We Putting the Cart Before the Horse? The Information Society, 19, 203. doi: 10.1080/01972240390210046

Mark Schlager is the co- founder of TAPPED IN an online community of practice established in 1997.  Judith Fusco is the project co-director and [...]

Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32-42. doi: 10.3102/0013189X018001032

Knowledge is situated, being in part a product of the activity, context, and culture in which it is developed and used. Conventional schooling often ignores the school culture and its’ influence on what [...]

Barab, S. A., Kling, R., & Gray, J. H. (2004). Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning. Cambridge University Press.
This book contains many chapters referenced in articles I read. I did not read the complete book, but include it here in my list of annotations as a reference for further research.

Dede, C., Jass Ketelhut, D., Whitehouse, P., Breit, L., & McCloskey, E. M. (2009). A Research Agenda for Online Teacher Professional Development. Journal of Teacher Education, 60(1), 8-19. doi: 10.1177/0022487108327554

The authors make the argument that there is no doubt of the importance of professional development in the field of education.  They outline the costs [...]

Penuel, W. R., & Riel, M. (2007). The ‘New’ Science of Networks and the Challenge of School Change. The Phi Delta Kappan, 88(8), 611-615.

Penuel and Riel utilize social network analysis to take a hard look at school leadership and teacher communities of practice.  They also discuss the way information moves about and within [...]