Hi Heather and others
what a great topic for discussion!
I currently work for a small not-for-profit organisation that I established a few years ago with some friends. We specialise in working in the education sector in the field of eLearning, with a heavy emphasis on professional learning - providing both face-to-face and online experiences for educators at all levels of the system (ECE-tertiary).
Like Sharon, my background is in academia where I was used to lots of personal professional development - but now find that time is of the essence as I work in the 'private' world and time=income opportunity. The theme of this discussion resonates with me however, as I have found that I am increasingly finding my professional development coming from all those 'informal' (and often unintended) opportunities that come through following threads in online discussions or links that come up on my Twitter list etc.
I look forward to the discussion!
Derek Wenmoth
Posts made by Derek Wenmoth
Hi Ray - welcome to our discussion.
Great to have someone with your experience participating - as you'll see from what's been happening so far, there is quite a mix of people in the group, including several who, like yourself, have been thinking and writing about PLE's for a while now.
Like you I believe there is a strong link between personal knowledge management and the PLE, with a lot of "blurring" of boundaries between the two concepts. It would be interesting to carry this line of thinking across to a different thread of the discussion, and perhaps start by listing the half dozen or so bullet points that characterise personal knowledge management - with a view to doing the same for a PLE eventually as people share their understandings?
Great to have someone with your experience participating - as you'll see from what's been happening so far, there is quite a mix of people in the group, including several who, like yourself, have been thinking and writing about PLE's for a while now.
Like you I believe there is a strong link between personal knowledge management and the PLE, with a lot of "blurring" of boundaries between the two concepts. It would be interesting to carry this line of thinking across to a different thread of the discussion, and perhaps start by listing the half dozen or so bullet points that characterise personal knowledge management - with a view to doing the same for a PLE eventually as people share their understandings?
Hi Sylvia
I think you've put your finger right on the button here - the significance to me of a PLE is that it is "personal". In the context of Web2.0 where there is an emphasis on collaboration, participation, community and groups etc., the tools that are emerging have features that promote this sort of thing. That leads us, however, to thinking of the community as the entity at the centre of things, instead of the individual.
As an individual, I belong to and participate in a number of communities. In addition, I have collections of resources, ideas and artefacts stored (and managed) in a variety of (online) repositories. On top of all that, I use a variety of other (online) applications to help me organise my life (eg calendar, email, bookmarks etc). As an individual, these are the things that, when combined, provide me with my PLE.
I've experimented with the configuration of my browser (Firefox) which has numerous plug-ins available to allow me to personalise how it operates (eg in-built del.icio.us tags and tag bar) and I've created a rather comprehensive NetVibes account (http://www.netvibes.com) that draws "feeds" from everything - including the blogs and news-feeds I read, my del.icio.us bookmarks, my email (POP'ed from other accounts) and the calendars of my colleagues so I can keep an eye on where they are etc.
All of these things are very useful - the NetVibes account in particular as it enables me to access my PLE from anywhere or any machine. On the other hand, I tend to travel everywhere with my laptop - I POP all my mail to my email client installed on my laptop, and do the same with my RSS aggregator (NetNewsWire) so I can read through it all when offline - and since it manages all of my passwords etc so well, I tend to regard that as my PLE - a sort of on-line and off-line combination.
Hope that's helpful in describing how I see a PLE and what makes it personal. Would be interested to hear what others think.
I think you've put your finger right on the button here - the significance to me of a PLE is that it is "personal". In the context of Web2.0 where there is an emphasis on collaboration, participation, community and groups etc., the tools that are emerging have features that promote this sort of thing. That leads us, however, to thinking of the community as the entity at the centre of things, instead of the individual.
As an individual, I belong to and participate in a number of communities. In addition, I have collections of resources, ideas and artefacts stored (and managed) in a variety of (online) repositories. On top of all that, I use a variety of other (online) applications to help me organise my life (eg calendar, email, bookmarks etc). As an individual, these are the things that, when combined, provide me with my PLE.
I've experimented with the configuration of my browser (Firefox) which has numerous plug-ins available to allow me to personalise how it operates (eg in-built del.icio.us tags and tag bar) and I've created a rather comprehensive NetVibes account (http://www.netvibes.com) that draws "feeds" from everything - including the blogs and news-feeds I read, my del.icio.us bookmarks, my email (POP'ed from other accounts) and the calendars of my colleagues so I can keep an eye on where they are etc.
All of these things are very useful - the NetVibes account in particular as it enables me to access my PLE from anywhere or any machine. On the other hand, I tend to travel everywhere with my laptop - I POP all my mail to my email client installed on my laptop, and do the same with my RSS aggregator (NetNewsWire) so I can read through it all when offline - and since it manages all of my passwords etc so well, I tend to regard that as my PLE - a sort of on-line and off-line combination.
Hope that's helpful in describing how I see a PLE and what makes it personal. Would be interested to hear what others think.
Hi everyone - it's the "other" Derek here now, looking forward to the exchanges that will take place in this forum over the next few weeks.
Derek C has done a great job in setting the scene for our discussions - the whole idea of a PLE has certainly grabbed people's imaginations over the past few months, especially as different jurisdictions around the world (including NZ!) are in the process of adopting various models of "Personalised Learning".
More tomorrow....
Derek C has done a great job in setting the scene for our discussions - the whole idea of a PLE has certainly grabbed people's imaginations over the past few months, especially as different jurisdictions around the world (including NZ!) are in the process of adopting various models of "Personalised Learning".
More tomorrow....
Hi Ron
I've had a good read of your article online - and really like it. You've captured the essence of what I see happening in the PLE space. I like your definition, and, while it can be argued that we should be taking account of non-digital resources, the reality is that we're talking about the online space here, and an increasing dependence on digital artefacts.
I like the way that your interpretation of an artefact appears to include the record of conversations and interactions online. For me it is important that a PLE addresses both sides of the eLearning equation - that is, the resource and the discourse elements - thus the capabilities of a content management system must sit alongside synchronous and asynchronous communications tools in a PLE.
The final bit of reflection (for this post anyway) relates to your reference to the concept of "mashups". This is certainly becoming increasingly referred to as various people attempt to descibe what they are trying to achieve in "joining together" a whole lot of disparate tools. Helen Barrett, of e-Portfolio fame, discusses this from the point of view of portfolios at the centre of her world in her post at http://electronicportfolios.com/blog/2006/10/eife-l-conference-2006.html
Seems to me that Helen is also talking about a PLE in this regard - but has chosen to put the portfolio at the centre because that is her focus of concern.
I've had a good read of your article online - and really like it. You've captured the essence of what I see happening in the PLE space. I like your definition, and, while it can be argued that we should be taking account of non-digital resources, the reality is that we're talking about the online space here, and an increasing dependence on digital artefacts.
I like the way that your interpretation of an artefact appears to include the record of conversations and interactions online. For me it is important that a PLE addresses both sides of the eLearning equation - that is, the resource and the discourse elements - thus the capabilities of a content management system must sit alongside synchronous and asynchronous communications tools in a PLE.
The final bit of reflection (for this post anyway) relates to your reference to the concept of "mashups". This is certainly becoming increasingly referred to as various people attempt to descibe what they are trying to achieve in "joining together" a whole lot of disparate tools. Helen Barrett, of e-Portfolio fame, discusses this from the point of view of portfolios at the centre of her world in her post at http://electronicportfolios.com/blog/2006/10/eife-l-conference-2006.html
Seems to me that Helen is also talking about a PLE in this regard - but has chosen to put the portfolio at the centre because that is her focus of concern.