Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) likely is not the oft-reported but never seen magical silver bullet that will transform education into the enthralling mixture of collaborative technologies and multimedia which "digital natives" are *demanding* However, PLEs potentially represent much more than "just another" buzzword, hot topic or catchphrase we use to impress (or confuse) our colleagues and students. PLEs are inherently learner-centered, ultimately configurable, and persistent and relevant well beyond the classroom. Through an hour together, we'll explore definitions and examples of PLEs, share any previous experiences with and impressions of PLEs, discuss their pedagogical implications and opportunities, and consider issues for future integration of PLEs.
The followup breakout session - Facilitating Learner PLEs in the Classroom - will focus on facilitating learner use of PLEs in formal learning environments: face-to-face, blended/hybrid or online. A PLE centered course currently being re/developed will be examined from the inside out; time will be spent detailing lessons learned from previous iterations of the course, specific tools used for the course, instructional tactics and support resources, institutional concerns, and course logistics.
- http://thisisindexed.com/2006/12/and-as-the-tenth-bullet-states/
- Familiarity with PLEs Data
- Use of Tools Data (any inconsistencies with PLE data?)
What is a PLE?
- "is primarily an intervention inspired by a critique of the nature of ownership of tools and content in education . . . ‘the PLE argument situates itself as a technological intervention to aid a decentralised and personalised transformation of educational institutions’’. (Wilson, 2008).
- a "practical intervention regarding the organization of technology within education" (Johnson & Liber, 2008)
- So many define a PLE by what it is not.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikelesombre/3510951708/
- the generativity comes from how people construct the environment for themselves: the tools they choose, the communities they start and join, the resources they assemble, the things they write. (Wilson, 2008).
Educationally Delicious - Vitamins & Minerals
You may hear a lot of buzzwords - let's hope this isn't true: http://thisisindexed.com/2006/11/lets-right-size-this-right-outta-the-box/. ;-)
- learner centered - instructional experiences focus and results focus on the learner rather than the instructional activity. (http://thisisindexed.com/2009/06/sit-still-and-stop-exhibiting-flashes-of-genius-kid/) - Johnson & Liber suggest it impacts learner self-regulation... leads into:
The rationale for the PLE articulates the need to change the ‘‘way of being’’ of learners so that they are able to exploit and control the technological environment that surrounds them. (Wilson, 2008)
- http://www.tubechop.com/watch/19555
learner control & autonomy - it's their space; they own it and control it... becomes all mine self regulation...
leads into learner motivation. Haskins (2007): invites self-directed learning.
- learner motivation - arcs - at the very least, satisfaction - how many have ever modified a profile, the layout or style of a page, created a new blog? and how many have found yourself tweaking it, looking at it, tweaking it, looking at it... repeatedly? admiring it for yourself? the satisfaction of having created the space? that's the
- those three things help avoid the "creepy treehouse" - http://flexknowlogy.learningfield.org/2008/04/09/defining-creepy-tree-house
- ePortoflio; persistence. (Swain)
- possibly increases likelihood of self-directed informal learning - structuring informal earning. Learning to learn informally (http://thisisindexed.com/2006/09/like-how-to-do-laundry/)
- facilitates slightly less structured responses? (http://thisisindexed.com/2007/03/no-wrong-answers-lots-of-right-ones/)
- information literacy. How many use Facebook? MySpace? LinkedIn? Why do you use the social networks you use? Does it matter? Or is it just a matter of personal preference? making critical decisions about information and systems you use. http://thisisindexed.com/2009/05/good-luck-journalism/
managing information overload - http://thisisindexed.com/2009/07/information-overload-andor-closet-organizers/ -- - contemporary learning theories - connectivism, social constructivism, constructionism. van Harmelan (2008) is one of learner empowerment and facilitation of the efforts of self-directed learners. This approach fits well with concepts of social constructivism, constructionism, and the development and execution of learning plans. Social constructivist approaches are particularly aided by using social networking service based PLEs as mediating mechanisms
between learners, and particularly between geographically distributed learners who might also use the PLE at different times. Constructionism (in Papert’s sense of the term) is particularly amenable to PLE
approaches that enable the construction of artefacts for public consumption: ‘‘Constructionism
. . . shares constructivism’s connotation of learning as ‘building knowledge
structures’ irrespective of the circumstances of the learning. It then adds the idea that this
happens especially felicitously in a context where the learner is consciously engaged in
constructing a public entity,
Downes (2007) - http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2007/02/what-connectivism-is.html - collaborative & community learning more feasible - again a focus on the learners and their engagement with content rather than the content. http://www.netvibes.com/cmduke#Class_People
PLE Challenges in Education
- Implementing them not necessarily easy http://thisisindexed.com/2007/03/yes-there-is-always-another-option/
A PLE comprises the computer-based parts of the learning ecosystem. We may
define computer-based parts to include desktop programs, browsers and other client
programs, servers and web services, ubiquitous and pervasive systems, and wireless
and mobile telephony devices. A PLE may be composed of one or more of these
parts. If there is more than one component, the components may be tightly coupled
to other components, or may be loosely coupled, as for example in a ‘‘small pieces
loosely bound’’ Van Harmelan 2008
- How many would encounter institutional resistance if you said you were moving a significant portion of your class outside of the LMS?
We like to control things; only want to be as learner centered as we can through LMS & CMS. Johnson & Liber (2008)
the desire to create learner-centred, but provider-driven education; or the view that ‘‘personal learning’’ is fundamentally a learner-driven model of education, where the traditional provider-centric role of institutions is challenged. centralized provision of technology may place more barriers in the way of learners than it solves.
The PLE represents a new learner agenda for which institutionally-based services will be required. The identification of those core institutional services which supplement, rather than reproduce, provision outside the institution remains one of the key educational challenges in higher education.
- Resist the temptation to institutionalize them. Severance et al seem to focus on how to incorporate PLE type features into VLE/LMS's.
"We cannot 'manage' self-organised learning for our students. WE can only create conducive environments within which students will organise their own learning." (Wheeler, 2009) http://www.slideshare.net/timbuckteeth/self-organisation-and-virtual-learning - slide 4
Wilson, 2007. perhaps a simple way of expressing reversal is to say that a PLE, when pushed beyond its limits becomes impersonal. (For example, this would be like the mandating of ePortfolios that turns them from personal into institutional artifacts.) http://zope.cetis.ac.uk/members/ple/archive.html
on a theoretical level... (learner control and "instrumentation"). two interpretations.. .the desire to create learner-centred, but provider-driven education; or the view that ‘‘personal learning’’ is fundamentally a learner-driven model of education, where the traditional provider-centric role of institutions is challenged. It's one that situates the learner inherently within the context and learning and action become intertwined. Yet the control of that environment extends beyond the synergizing of services and control of instrumentation: this alone is unlikely to yield self-regulating learners. (Wilson, 2008)
Ivan Illich in 1971 (reprinted in 1973). Discussing the negative impact of institutions on education at that time, Illich argued that ‘‘what are needed are new networks, readily available to the public and designed to spread
equal opportunity for learning and teaching.’’ He called these new networks ‘‘learning
webs.’’ Learning webs, he suggested, should support four kinds of learner goals:
(1) access to educational objects that support formal learning;
(2) skill exchanges, where people could advertise their own availability and skills;
(3) peer-matching, where they could locate others willing to collaborate;
(4) access to professional educators, rather than to educational programmes or
institutions. (as cited by Brown, 2008)
- Fears & uncertainty of social networks
http://thisisindexed.com/2006/08/get-out-however-you-like/
- It has to be more than just synthesizing and collecting information - it has to be more in depth; a consideration of how you're learning and understanding how to engage it. - a metacognitive exercise as well. Johnson & Liber (2008). Who does the work of your learning?
. How are you going to keep up to date with the latest developments in your field of
interest/professional practice?
. What do you learn at university? (Wouldn’t you be better off working?)
. What makes a difference to you?
. How do you manage the presentation of yourself to the different activities and
communities you engage with?
- Push back from learners. Johnson & LIber (2008). the case for becoming more autonomous, selfregulating
learners may not in the first instance appear attractive. Objections might be
raised that:
. the PLE approach might entail more complexity and work for the learner;
. the PLE approach ‘‘lets teachers (and institutions) off-the-hook’’;
. some learners might see technology as irrelevant to their learning and resist it;
. some learners might find that the PLE conflicts with their ideas of what a university
should be;
. some of the technologies used are unreliable and put people off;
. some might worry that the emphasis on informal learning and ‘‘grazing’’ is
insufficient to carry real educational merit;
. some might worry that the development of high-level professional skills (medicine,
for example) requires traditional content-based delivery, rather than engagement
with a PLE.
- Overextending in Personal Spaces; careful with Privacy. Some aspects of the teaching & learning process dont' belong in PLEs - assessment records, lThere's certain aspects of the educational process that honestly doesn't belong in
Johnson, M., & Liber, O. (2008). The Personal Learning Environment and the human condition: from theory to teaching practice. Interactive Learning Environments, 16(1), 3. doi: 10.1080/10494820701772652.
|