Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) are systems and applications that help individuals manage their own learning. Today, it is mostly digital but there are many elements to a PLE. The following is an illustration of my personal learning environment.
In the creation of my Personal Learning Environment, I wanted to depict that my PLE is a very small piece of the connected world. The black dot (in the connected globe) represents my PLE as compared to the amount of connections worldwide. As my PLE grows, so to will the connections I have with others around the world.
The magnified area of the illustration describes my PLE. I am in the middle and attached to each of the main categories of my learning environment. As well, each of these categories are connected to each other as certain elements and applications of the PLE can be used in many or all of the areas. An example is the use of Google Docs. Not only is it a creating, reflecting and sharing tool, it could be used for all other technology based areas. The learning environment is split into seven main areas: Networking, communication and online communities, organization and storage, presentation and multimedia, creating, reflecting and sharing, research, traditional media, and face-to-face. Each of these is important to my network of learning in some form or another.
While designing the illustration, I tried to think of as many ways that I obtain, share and store knowledge. I now realize how far behind I was in the use of technology. Before I started the MET program, most of my learning came from traditional (conferences, newspapers, magazines, etc) and face-to-face methods (colleagues, professional learning communities, meetings, friends, and, of course, family). Yes I used Google Apps and YouTube but only on a very limited basis. Today, I have so many more connections. My learning has grown exponentially in many different areas. Social connections such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LInkedin were not a part of my strategy, either personally for professionally. Presentation material was only evident in PowerPoint. YouTube was only for watching movies, iTunes was for music downloads and reflection did not exist. This program, and this artifact, truly has changed my views on learning and technology.
It was valuable to look at my colleagues’ illustrations for the creation of my PLE. It helped me gather my thoughts about what was important. Although all different, most of the illustrations from my colleagues had some similarities. The two main similarities included the following: The individual person was at the centre of the environment, and the social networks were often the same - as expected as we are in the same course - (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, either WordPress or Blogger).
I looked at many of my colleagues’ work on this concept. Here are some thoughts.
Kjersti Withers put everything into a mixing bowl. This is the best example I saw in how the PLE is a mixture of different ingredients. Although some may be more important - as shown by the size of Facebook and Pinterest - all are essential to the final project.
Kimmy Davis had an excellent diagram where she is juggling all of her learning networks. It is easy to tell about her love for Facebook - not only in this diagram but from her posts. She is experienced and very confident with this social network. I agree with her analysis in that it is hard to keep everything in air. There are so many elements to social media, it is hard to know which one to use at any particular time.
Megan Apgar was one of the diagrams I used to help in my design. It was one of the first designs that split her environment into categories. Although the categories were different from mine, I used the idea of connected categories to enhance my diagram.
Joanne Matibag discussed the fact she did not want to use some elements because she just started using them. It really got me thinking about my lack of a PLE before I started the MET program. I listed many of the elements I do not use often but I feel that these are still important to my learning. Like her, I will get better with more practice. The ones I will not use, I will discard.
Amy Mitchell’s illustration is the one that mostly resembles mine. As well, it was similar to Megan Apgar in that she has herself at the centre and uses categories to distinguish the areas of importance. Although both of their categories are different than mine, it adds a sense of organization to the PLE. I need this type of organization.
Brian Betteridge’s illustration is one of the only diagrams that adds traditional methods to his PLE. I use this idea as categories in my PLE. The use of professional colleagues in a face-to-face setting, in my opinion, is still one of the best ways to engage in learning.
The creation and analysis of this assignment has shown how far I have come as a connected teacher. Although the path is never-ending, I can now, at the very least, move ahead with 21st Century education and bring this knowledge forward into my school and school board.
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