How To Create a PLE to Stay Relevant in 2013 “Our understanding of learning has expanded at a rate that has far outpaced our conceptions of teaching. A growing appreciation for the porous boundaries between the classroom and life experience…has created not only promising changes but also disruptive moments in teaching.” EDUCAUSE Review, 2012 This quote from Disrupting Ourselves: The Problem of Learning in Higher Education (Bass, 2012), gives a good a reason as any for educators to develop a Personal learning Environment [PLE]; a space where we can keep up with the experimental modes of learning, instruction, changing pedagogy and instructional methods that surfaced in 2012. In a previous post I introduced the concept of PLEs and touched on why educators may want to consider developing a PLE for 2013. In this post I’ll outline how educators can develop their own PLE, where to start, and I’ll provide specific action steps, and what tools to use. We need to disrupt ourselves: The model of higher education is at a turning point.
personal-learning-environments - home 10 Little Known Social Media Tools You Should Be Using -- Now Editor's note: A version of this article previously appeared at KISSmetrics.com. Social media is everywhere. It's in our homes, places of worship, schools and, of course, our businesses. And as the number of social networking sites grows, so does the number of services that are created to measure, track and monitor those services. To help you cut through the clutter, here are the 10 must-use social media tools that can not only help you make sense of your social media efforts but make them more effective. 1. With it, you can get a snapshot of your month-to-month content with the calendar feature. Who should use it and why: Any business owner who manages a multi-author website should give EditFlow a look. 2. Who should use it and why: From a social media manager to a small-business owner, basically anybody who is interested in finding out how effective his or her tweets are based upon the number of people they touch should consider using TweetReach. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
PLE : iTeachU Information Fluency provides a model for educational activities; the Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is the place where those activities happen. Just as learning activities and their products map to the three areas that comprise Information Fluency, those activities and their products can be mapped to different tools and resources. About the “PLE” Personal The PLE is personal because the people, applications, tools, resources, and services are chosen to match our individual, idiosyncratic needs. Each is adopted and discarded according to our needs and whims. Learning Many have given up on the call to rename the PLE to the Personal Living Environment. Environment In practice, the PLE is an environment, not a network. Visualizing the PLE Visualizing the PLE has become something of a pastime for education technology geeks. Similarly, Martin Weller clusters tools and services around himself, clustered by (primary) function: Parts of the PLE (for me) Connect Collect Reflect Share The PLE is People!
Developing a PLE Using Web 2.0 Tools Continuing my search to find out more about new techniques for eLearning has brought the PLE, the Personal Learning Environment, to my attention (see previous posts on PLEs ). In short the PLE seems to be an update to the VLE, but with a greater emphasis placed on the student and the learning materials, and less on the Institution ‘structure’ and management needs. Read this: What is a PLE? Much searching brought me to this presentation by Sarah Guth where she uses Web 2.0 tools (wiki, blog, podcast, etc) to encourage the students to self-develop their own PLE. Although this is based around a PLE for a language learning course, the principles can be applied to any kind of online activity/course. Developing a PLE (Personal Learning Environment) for Language Learning Using Web 2.0 Tools This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License . Learning Tools: what do you use? PLE … what is it?
32 Tips For Using Google+ Hangouts In The Classroom Google Plus’s Hangout feature, launched in late 2011, has fast become an essential tool in a wide range of fields, from business to technology, and especially in education. Integrated scratchpads, screen sharing, instant uploads, chat services, and direct links to nearly all of Google’s other services make Hangouts the perfect tool for teachers who want to reach out to students outside of the classroom, making it simple to connect, share, and learn as a group. While much of the Hangout system is fairly intuitive, there are things that educators need to know before diving in to ensure that the experience is both fun and productive for all involved. The following can act as a great primer for Hangouts newbies, offering up tips that address everything from tech problems to proper Hangouts preparation. CHOOSE A TITLE THAT LETS STUDENTS KNOW WHAT THE HANGOUT WILL BE ABOUT.Students shouldn’t head to a Hangout with little idea of what will be discussed or addressed.
Stages of PLEs (v2) The Stages of Personalized Learning Environments (PLE) needed to be updated again. Why? Because of the considerable feedback we received from participants in our 5 W's of Personalized Learning eCourse about our first and second versions of the chart. Some of the feedback was about consistency and flow across the stages. What worked in what stage? We definitely want to thank those that critiqued the stages for us and helped us with this version three that we hope will be the final version. We are hearing from many districts around the country that the Stages of Personalized Learning we developed are the foundation of their personalized learning initiative. In attempting to transform teaching and learning to personalized learning, consider where you are currently and envision which stage you can see feasible for your school, district or community. All feedback is welcome and appreciated.
My Personal Learning Environment Lately I've been fascinated by the concept of personal learning environments. As an instructional designer and trainer, I've spent a lot of time trying to develop learning experiences for other people. But through my own personal experiences with Web 2.0 tools, as well as my ongoing belief in constructivist theories of learning, I've come to believe that the future of staff development lies in our ability to go beyond structured training to facilitating informal processes and learning experiences that occur on a daily basis. While there may always be a place for very structured "event-based" learning, I think that we can get more "bang for our buck" if we think about how to help staff use a variety of tools to construct their own learning experiences. To get an idea of what I mean by a personal learning environment (or PLE) , here's a working definition from Ron Lubensky who has written a nice summary on the concept: Note that I mention that informal learning is a big part of the PLE.