Personal Learning Environments

as a Teaching and Learning Tool

Amanda McAndrew, Jacie Moriyama, & Aisha Jackson

Academic Technology Consultants

University of Colorado at Boulder

COLTT

University of Colorado at Boulder

August 4, 2011

Objectives

• Provide a theoretical foundation for Personal Learning

Environments (PLEs) as a teaching and learning tool.

• Define Personal Learning Environments (PLEs).

• Explore ideas for implementation in your course

Formal Learning

• Deliberate

• Strongly structured by discipline or field

• Strongly structured in curricular terms

• State regulation

• Accreditation influences

• Quality assurance mechanisms

Non-Formal Learning

Informal Learning

• Non-intentional

• Not structured by discipline or field

• Not planned or has no formal designation

• No quality assurance mechanisms

PLEs

Figure 1 Adapted from Continuum of Learning from Formal to Informal (OECD, 2010)

What are Personal Learning

Environments?

• An approach to learning directed by your own

needs and interests

• Facilitated by a collection of tools

(EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, 2009)

Your own “Personal Web”

What’s in a PLE?

Tools (Help you create)

Services (Help to organize &

manage your PLE)

Communities(Allow for sharing and

collaborating)

Blogs

YouTube

Flickr

Podcasts

RSS aggregators

Google Reader

iGoogle

NetVibes

Scoop.it

Symbaloo

Mendeley

Twitter

Facebook

Google+

Management Autonomy Empowerment Access

CONNECTIVISMThe connections that enable us to learn are

more important than our current state of

knowing.

(Siemens, 2006)

Learning how to Learn

• Forming a network to draw on for knowledge

• Distinguishing between the important and unimportant

• Being able to process various POVs

• Deciding what to learn

• Ability to make connections and recognize patterns

• Understanding when knowledge is a game changer

Learning is situated.

Learning is a function of the

activity, context and culture in

which it occurs.

Lave & Wenger (1990)

A community of practice is the situation.

Learning takes place in all different contexts

and situations but in a community of practice

you can gain and apply the knowledge in the

same place.

Situated Learning and PLEs

• Developing a PLE is placing yourself in a

situation and building a community of

learners where you can:

• Receive information

• Organize information

• Reflect on the information

• Contribute to the community

• Collaborate with the community

Situated Learning, Connectivism

and PLEs

• Encourages learning after the class is over

• Creates a continuous space to be active in

a community of practice

• Allows for a method of learning from

multiple people, places, and communities.

IDEAS FOR THE

CLASSROOM

Benefits to Learners

• Personal Learning Environments can change the “model inwhich students consume information through independentchannels such as the library, a textbook, or an LMS, movinginstead to a model where students draw connections from agrowing matrix of resources that they select and organize.”

• (Educause Learning Initiative, 2009)

Suggestions for Implementation

• Set expectations and explain why

• Provide guidance on topic choices for students

• Review the technology options

• Provide them with a couple of examples

• Communicate assessment

Example activities

• http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/drexler.html

• http://www.scoop.it/t/ple-on-ple

Assessment possibilities

• Participation, Creation, Distribution

• Develop a rubric based on information literacy (CARS)

• Assignment that requires demonstration of content

learned

• Reflection pieces

CONSIDERATIONS

Time

LMS and PLE

• Software

• Administered through

an institution

• Structured

• Regularly backed up

• Facilitates directed

learning

• Approach to Teaching

and Learning

• Personal Construct

• Unstructured

• Service dependent

• Fosters self-directed

learning

Be selective

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=2441&picture=tool-kit

Be your own filter

Changing Landscape

Situational

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=2435&picture=hammer-and-spanner

Transient

Information Literacy

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=1983&picture=old-typewriter

Questions & Discussion

Works Cited

• The networked student model for construction of personal learning environments: Balancing teacher control and student autonomy by Wendy Drexler

• Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation by J. Lave & E. Wenger

• Personal Learning Environments: User-Centric Learning Spaces by Nancy Rubin

• Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age by George Siemans

• Context and main concepts by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

• 7 Things you should know about Personal Learning Environments by EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative