Cristina Costa

Great Conclusion Bronwyn!
I think we are in synch!
Thanks for this great contribution.

PLEs are so fashionable right now.
A PLE is individual focused . It's about his/her learning path. It is also meant to establish a (learning) digital identity...
But is the learner really alone? I don't think so. I just think that as in any reflexive exercise, there is always a time when the community participants  need to reserve a time for themselves to  understand their joints experiences and how it has contributed to their own learning path.  
In this sense, I think a PLE is just an extension of what the individual does and is in the communities he/she belongs to.
In my perspective, a PLE is a result (=the individual learning outcome) of the communal activity. While communicating and interacting in and with a group of people, one offers and gets pieces of information, ideas and different perspectives that one then works out until it makes sense to one and one's practice. I think it is in that sense that PLEs are useful. It is how my participation and my contribution to the community benefits others, and how their contributions and participation also benefits me and my learning, as a member of given communities.
PLEs also often offer interaction possibilities, in the shape of comments. It's not an isolate way of reflecting about learning.
The PLE then happens as a need to reflect and register the experiences one has made within the group. It also reflects about a little bit of oneself, and the individual knowledge that one acquires from a joint "venture".

Besides that, for me, particularly, a PLE only makes sense if it is shared with others, so that others also have a(nother) change to contribute to my learning, by commenting on it.
The way I see it, a PLE can be a personal space, which one administers, but not an isolated one, since one makes it available to everyone.
So is my perspective. I see no purpose in closing up  personal spaces with passwords, or the so called walled gardens.

Just my 2 cents....