Horizon2007:Shortlist 3c
From Horizon Project
Time-to-Adoption: Four to Five Years
Personal Learning Environments
Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) are very much a concept than a reality, and there is not a great deal of agreement on what a PLE is. Much of the discussion and development of PLEs has taken place on blogs. Personal learning environments are described as systems for enabling self-directed and group-based learning, designed around each user’s goals, with great capacity for flexibility and customization. PLEs are conceived as drawing on a variety of discrete tools, perhaps chosen by the learner, which can be connected or used in concert in a transparent way.
Some elements that might be found in a PLE are already in place; for example, conceptual diagrams suggest that social networking tools such as tagging, blogs, iTunes, wikis, del.icio.us, and others should be part of a PLE. While the concept of PLEs is still very new and fluid, it does seem to be clear that a PLE is not simply a technology but an approach or process which will differ from person to person. It involves sociological and philosophical considerations and cannot be packaged, passed out and handed around as a cell phone or tablet computer could. Widespread adoption of PLEs, once they actually exist, may require a shift in attitudes toward technology, teaching, and learning.
Bona fide examples could not be found, as PLEs are still highly conceptual and if they have found their way into classrooms, the documentation of those efforts is still forthcoming. One challenge to the adoption of this approach is that a PLE is by its very nature different for each individual. Adoption represents a major change to the traditional group-based practice of instruction. Other identified challenges include coordination and administration of different PLEs within one institution, becoming part of existing e-learning domains, persuading teachers and students to use PLEs, and integrating other factors, many social and personal in nature, into the formal learning process.
Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression
- PLEs may enable visual learners to obtain material from a different source than auditory learners do.
- Students’ “play” on the web or with other new media may become something they can integrate into their learning, and they may similarly be able to integrate learning into play.
- Creative and scholarly works may become more unique as the writers/researchers/artists integrate their own individuality more and push against conventional limits on what constitutes knowledge and expression.
For Further Reading
- History of personal learning environment: Wikipedia Definitive overview of the development of the PLE, with contributions from the CETIS team. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_personal_learning_environments
- The Personal Learning Environment: A Report on the CETIS PLE Project Mark Johnson et al., August, 2006). This report is a comprehensive discussion of PLEs. Topics covered include implementation of technologies, transformations of pedagogies, and different ways of learning.http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/uploads/5/57/PLE_report_Final4.doc
- Personal Learning Environments. A wiki on the subject, maintained by Mark van Harmelen. It includes numerous links to other papers and discussion of different kinds of PLEs, including blogs and e-portfolios. http://octette.cs.man.ac.uk/jitt/index.php/Personal_Learning_Environments
- Personal Learning Environments: Challenging the dominant design of educational systems. (Scott Wilson, et al. Undated). An academic paper with discussion of issues that pertain to the design of a PLE. Its focus is on the technological side and what the needs in that area are, rather than on pedagogical or social practices. http://dspace.ou.nl/bitstream/1820/727/1/sw_ectel.pdf
More resources tagged at http://del.icio.us/tag/hz07 -- If you have more, add or tag them in your own del.icio.us account with our official tag of hz07
Discussion
Add your thoughts, suggestions, examples to add here, and indicate who wrote it-- e.g. [Alan]
Discussion
I think this is to misunderstand the nature of the PLE to claim that it is 3-5 years away. Technologically it is largely here and it is instead a change in practice and attitude that is required. In fact codifying these changes in software would largely be at counter purposes to some of the main drivers behind the PLE, the freedom of the user. It is disappointing to me to see this put so far off in the future, as I think it gives people more reasons to not strive for it now. - [Scott Leslie]
Considering that we are 10 years entrenched in Course Management Systems, is it really likely a significant number of edu institutions could move that fast? There is not even a consensus what it actually is or much to look at beyond prototypes. [Alan Levine]
I agree with Scott. The main challenge in implementing PLEs is the conceptual shift required, primarily at institutional level, about how the internet is actually being used by current and future learners, and how provision can compliment this rather than stymie distributed identities, networks and practices. I've added the wikipedia page as its an excellent overview. [Josie Fraser]
