Why Personal Learning Environments are important
20-January-2006
permalink comments (1) forum (1) email thisThe debate on personal learning environments is taking off. See this contribution by Terry Anderson.
But, like Oleg, Terry misses miss the point. he is right to see PLEs as a disruptive technology, as a technology which threatens formal learning ...entrenched in Learning management Systems.
Counterpoising PLEs to LMS systems is interesting - at least form a management ands curricular point of view.Still as Oleg makes clear the two can live side by side.
There are three main reasons for the importance of PLEs.
the first is in providing learning systems for the vast majority of people who are not enrolled on formal learning programmes.
The second is in recognising and helping learners organise informal learning. I read somewhere recently - I cannot remember where and I have no evidence it is true - that 90 or so per cent of funding is spent on formal learning - whilst 90 per cent or so of learning is informal. It feels about right. PLEs can help people recognise their own informal learning and organise that learning.
PLEs also allow people to form their own (transitory) networks for learning. Learning is a social activity and takes place in communities of interest and communities of practice. Wilfred points out rightly that in many on-line learning communities learners have too weak a sense of ownership. PLEs can provide that ownership.
Technorati Tags: communities of practice, e-learning, e-portfolios, eportfolio, informal_learning, Personal_Learning_Environments
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