© www.role-project.eu

Build your Personal Learning Environment

Dr Alexander Mikroyannidis

Knowledge Media Institute

The Open University, UK

Widgets and apps everywhere!

What is a widget?

• Widget (or Gadget)A widget is a micro-application performing a dedicated task. This task can be as simple as showing news headlines or weather forecasts, but also more complex like facilitating language learning or collaborative authoring.

• Widget bundleA widget bundle is a set of widgets that complement each other and are used together for a common purpose.

• Widget store

A widget store is a directory of widgets. Users can browse and download the widgets, as well as provide feedback on the widgets through ratings and comments.

What is a PLE?

• A Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is a facility for an individual to aggregate, manipulate and share digital artefacts of their ongoing learning experiences.

• The PLE follows a learner-centric approach, allowing the use of lightweight services and tools that belong to and are controlled by individual learners.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hanspoldoja/4098840001 http://www.flickr.com/photos/petahopkins/2157928982

PLE characteristics

• Supporting learners in planning and controlling their learning journey• Setting their own learning goals

• Monitoring their progress towards achieving these goals

• Managing their learning – both content and process• Enabling learners to aggregate resources and personalise their

learning environment

• Providing recommendations to learners about resources and other learners (‘study-buddies’)

• Collaborating with others in the process of learning• Providing support to learners for community building and

collaborative activities

• A shared learning experience instead of a lone study

A PLE in action

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyk_m0FrRG4

An introductory course to PLEs

• Introduces the core ROLE concepts and demonstrates a selection of ROLE learning tools.

• Learning outcomes:• Understand how widgets

can be used to carry out specific tasks

• Outline how a Personal Learning Environment can be enabled

• Build your own Personal Learning Environment

http://tinyurl.com/role-course

Self-Regulated Learning

• Self-regulated learning (SRL) is a term that describes an individual’s ability to learn how to learn. In other words, each of us can develop a wide-ranging skill set that enables us to learn in a number of different ways.

• In some university settings the term SRL is more commonly described as “independent learning” or “auto-didactic learning”.

• Some examples of how SRL might be assessed:• Having the ability to set learning goals and plan appropriate study strategies

• Finding suitable learning materials

• Seeking help from peers and collaborating to gain feedback or assurance

• Being able to reflect on their learning progress and adjust their study strategies accordingly

An introductory course to SRL

• Learning outcomes:• Understand the

fundamental aspects of SRL

• Outline a series of SRL examples

• Assess your own SRL skills

• Understand how you can use the ROLE tools to apply SRL to your learning

http://tinyurl.com/role-srl-course

SRL in ROLE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTa1vOH6JjA

Social search widget: Binocs

• The Binocs widget allows search for a variety of content formats (e.g. videos, presentations) and content repositories (e.g. YouTube, SlideShare, Wikipedia).

• Search results are ranked according to users’ ratings.

Bibliography search widget: ObjectSpot

The ObjectSpot widget searches through:

• Bibliographic repositories, such as Google Scholar, CiteULike, DBLP.

• Repositories of OER (Open Educational Resources), such as OpenLearn, Jorum, iTunes U.

Collaborative authoring widget: EtherPad

• The EtherPad widget enables real-time document collaboration for groups of users.

• When multiple authors edit the same EtherPad document simultaneously, any changes are instantly reflected on everyone's screen.

© www.role-project.eu

Activity 1: Find and share learning resources

http://tinyurl.com/jtel2012-role1

Finding more widgets

ROLE Widget Store

Google Gadget Directory

Building your PLE in iGoogle

iGoogle allows anyone with a Google account to assemble their own collection of widgets.

The ROLE Sandbox

The ROLE Sandbox offers a facility for building a PLE and using it collaboratively.

© www.role-project.eu

Activity 2: Start building your PLE

http://tinyurl.com/jtel2012-role2

© www.role-project.eu

Questionnaire: Tell us what you think about PLEs!

http://tinyurl.com/jtel2012-survey

4th ROLE Widget Enchantment Competition

Submissions Start

(Widget Specifications): 28 May

Submissions End: 29 July

Winners Announcement (Round 1):

03 August

Submission Deadline (Widgets):

07 October

Winners Announcement (Round 2):

12 October

© www.role-project.eu

Thank you!

The ROLE projecthttp://www.role-project.eu

The ROLE courseshttp://tinyurl.com/role-course

http://tinyurl.com/role-srl-course