Beyond the boundaries of CMS Personal learning environments (PLEs) as a creative space for teaching and learning Prof. Tim Pychyl Department of Psychology.

Beyond the boundaries of CMS Personal learning environments (PLEs) as a creative space for teaching and learning

Prof. Tim Pychyl Department of Psychology

Flavia Renon MacOdrum Library

Maire GossMary-Beth HaleyJulie LepineStudents of PSYC 6104W, ALDS 5204W

CMS/LMSPros

Structured Perennial Flexible Asynchronous

Cons Teacher centered Course based

PLEs v. LMS: is there a difference? http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9zSd5Gs6Mw&feature=related

Both are valuable to the student learning experience

A bit about PLEsA Personal Learning Environment is a facility for an individual to access, aggregate, configure and manipulate digital artifacts of their ongoing learning experiences (Ron Lubensky, 2006)

The Anatomy of personal learning environments (PLEs)

PLEs: another model

The nature of PLEsPersonal Learning Environment (PLEs) are a concept and not a system

There is still some work that needs to be done to operationalize this vision of a lifelong learning environment into a product(Anderson, 2006)

Recently I came across an interesting PLE tool…..

Grade 7 student’s PLE: Welcome to my PLE http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEls3tq5wIY&feature=related

Part of a thesis project (Wendy Drexler, 2010)

Where do PLEs fit into higher education?

Symbaloo PLEsA few samples from the Seminar in University Teaching

Symbaloo, a visual gathering toolhttp://www.symbalooedu.com/

What are PLEs and why should we care?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqSH5TMYlz4&feature=related

University teaching PLEs: finding your own voice …in an organized way

1. Identify teaching/learning & professional development goals that best suits your needs (teaching philosophy, personality,…)

2. Select information sources that will help you meet your anticipated goals

3. Select e-tools that will help you find and organize this information most effectively and efficiently (preferably in one location)

Some pieces of the teaching puzzle

PLE software/tools

The trends:

Individual (mashups,webtops)

Institutional

PLEs and Ubiquitous technologyDevelopments in: Cloud computing Mashups Widgets…

Other types of PLEs:

Webtops or web portals

What? Type of mashboard

http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Webtop

Examples: iGoogle, NetVibes, PageFlakes, Elgg…

http://mashable.com/2007/06/29/personalized-homepages/

The PLEX project, an institutional PLE: an attempt at creating a personal learning environment integrated with a LMS

A group at the University of Bolton created PLEX in an attempt to operationalize PLEs

PLEX (open source software/beta) http://www.reload.ac.uk/plex/

Note: not much has been written about the use of this product (still in Beta version)

In conclusion

Some points to reflect on…The change from a traditional Learning Management system (LMS) to include Personal Learning environments involves both a technological as well as a major pedagogical paradigm shift.

Some points to reflect on…According to Schaffert & Hilzensauer (2008), seven crucial elements are involved:

Role of the Learner 

Personalization

Content

Social involvement

Ownership

Educational & organization culture

Technological aspects

For inspiration: sample roadmaps for PLEs

Examples of PLE structures:http://edtechpost.wikispaces.com/PLE+Diagrams#tosh

1. Tim Hand (conceptual map)2. Michelle Martin (educational developer)3. Katherine Pisana (university student/tool oriented)4. Alec Couros (networked teacher model)

Questions and comments…Thank you for your participation