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CoPs (Communities of Practice) and PLCs(Personal Learning Communities) help to support teaching by providing a
common time for grouped content area teachers to learn about new methods and resources to help teach their students. Also, during PLCs, teachers are able to find solutions to problems that they may be facing with regards to lesson execution. The goal of PLCs is to help teachers grow, “The idea is that you have this collective intelligence–more than one person working by themselves”. (Adams,2009)

Learning is supported by PLCs and CoPs through the evidence of higher test scores and an overall improvement with student behavior. Such was the case with Anne Fox Elementary School, per Adams’s article, The Power of Collaboration. “Professional learning communities are having a big impact on schools in many ways. Parents, teachers, and students at Anne Fox Elementary see the positive results in better test scores and improved student behavior”. (Adams, 2009)

Social networking has helped establish CoPs as people are grouped based off of similar interests. Thus, allowing for professionals to share resources that could be beneficial to the whole group. Another benefit of technology used as a collaboration tool is that it alows for professionals to collaborate at any “location”. In other words, one does not have to be physically present in order to learn from colleagues.

However, according to the article, Social Learning Networks Build Mobile Learning Networks Based on Collaborative Services, there is a drawback to online collaborative learning–isolation. “They have led to the unintended consequence of increasing isolation among people with respect to their academic peers”. (Huang,Yang,Hsiao, 2010) With technolgy, there is always a risk of people becoming more and more isolated, but with proper monitoring and an openess in communication, that consequence could be avoided amongst colleagues.

References

Adams,C. (2009)The Power of Collaboration. Vol. 119 Issue 1, p.28-31. 3p. Instructor

Huang, J., Yang, S., Huong, Y., Hsiao, I.(2010) Social Learning Networks: Build Mobile Learning Networks Based on Collaborative Services. Educational Technology and Society, 13(3), 78-92.

I am excited to begin to implement my learning activity with my students. Having them do something that incorporates reading and writing with the use of technology is something that I have been wanting to experiment with for a while. This is my first real attempt at blogging and creating a web page. It has been a fun learning experience. I want to share my experiences in doing this with my students. I am eager to begin teaching them how blogging will not only help to improve their reading,researching, and writing skills, but will also help to prepare them to become twenty-first century learners.

With the topic of this course being new and innovative ways to incorporate technology into classrooms, then I am wondering if social media will now become a mainstay for how teachers decide to communicate with their students?

Interesting website for using blogging in the classroom!
http://www.ning.com/blog/2011/10/ning-in-education-social-media-today.html