Over the last year or so, the subject of Personal Learning Environments came up several times as part of other SCoPE conversations.
A few random quotes:
Informal Learning: May 15 - June 4, 2006 - scurrie on Friday, 9 June 2006 2:42:00 p.m.:
What just struck me is how much we benefit from having access to other people's personal learning environments. How other people draw connections, decide what's important, and interpret what they come across in their own daily routines through commentary, can be so intriguing. In many ways how individuals structure their PLEs is as valuable as the information. Personal Learning Environments are obviously valuable for the individual, but maybe "personal" is the wrong label if others are benefiting as well?
jaycross on Friday, 9 June 2006 5:30:00 p.m.:
Sylvia, I find personal the apt term and I agree that looking into one another's PLEs is a great learning experience. I've been playing around with recording some of my navigation on screen and replaying it as "a look over my shoulder." We all use so many shortcuts and online tools that a three-minute look over anyone's shoulder may show you how to save hours.
Blogging to Enhance Learning Experiences: February 12-25, 2007: terrywassall on Monday, 12 February 2007 9:26:00 a.m.:
In particular I am interested in how I and students can develop a more personal learning environment outside of the more restricted institutional VLE.
Learning the Art of Online Facilitation: March 1-21, 2007: berthelemy on Monday, 22 January 2007 5:59:00 a.m.:
Regarding the second question, I think about my own experiences of writing responses to things on my blog, or as comments on other people's blogs, or in forums like this. I also have bookmarks kept in Diigo; three email clients where I keep archives of conversations; as well as various file storage mechanisms. Is the search engine really the only way we can try to keep track of things? What about content and conversations that are hidden behind a login? The concept of the Personal Learning Environment seems beguiling, but for the moment do we need to live with the fact that our online lives are not very easily connected? What happens then to those people who find working online difficult to start with?
From Live chat breadcrumbs - transparent facilitation by nnoakes on Monday, 19 March 2007 12:35:00 a.m.:
There were a number of key ideas I left with from our live chat/conf call, such as:
* Complexity - facilitation, technologies, life
* Proliferation - of tools, of knowledge
* Fractured/fracturing/fracturati
* Expectations - mis-match (gulf? chasm?), management (solving it needs immersion)
* Faciltator's role - baggage of transmission approach (connects to expectations too), knowledge capturing and sensemaking, glue, collaborator - and how to spread role to others
* Learner and learning center stage - starting point of shared value of learner driven, e.g. personal learning environment (PLE)
* Tensions - (i) conforming to one tool vs. multiple tools, (ii) focus on individual vs. focus on group, (iii) being together vs. being apart - level of commitment needed for being together
From Re: Online Facilitation - the next 10 years (where do we go from here?) by hondomac on Thursday, 15 March 2007 6:07:00 a.m.:
I think that the increased use of Web 2.0 tools and technologies (and Web 3.0, 4.0 , etc....) will add a greater "social" aspect to online learning and online facilitation. What this means to me is that as an online facilitator I will be able to engage learners in ways that I have not even fully thought out or realized yet, and they will be able to engage each other in ways not yet fully explored, resulting in a much richer learning experience with a collective approach to information gathering and dissemination.
Learners will develop their own personal learning environments (PLEs) around tools and technologies that they want to use rather than tools assigned or provided to them. This means as a facilitator I will have to be aware of these diverse tools and technologies.
On reading this small assemblage of quotes I think there is a lot to tease out already. !!
And just for fun I found this while I was trolling the archives, a quirky take on PLE's . . .
The month ahead . . .
Derek (Wenmoth) and I have talked on this topic quite frequently over the last few years. Through his blog (eg http://blog.core-ed.net/derek/personalisation/ ) and his work at Core Education (http://core-ed.net/) he has contributed regularly to the debate around PLE's. My interest comes through the challenges of meeting the needs of students at the place where I work - last year the Christchurch College of Education, and now the University of Canterbury. We both live in Christchurch, New Zealand. (although Derek is spending quite a lot of time in Malaysia at the moment).As usual, we will have opportunity to tell stories, share ideas and explore new thoughts together. You are invited introduce yourself and tell a little of your interest in this topic (probably not the first introduction if you are a regular here!!). I'm not going to dive in with PLE definitions, further questions or directions just yet, but if you have things to start us off, go ahead!!
If you are really new to SCoPE seminars, you are particularly welcome.
Soon we will open up two further threads, two dimensions for our thinking: the behavioural and the technical aspects of this diverse and multifaceted topic . . .
With regards, Derek (Chirnside)