Tonight I logged in to Google Docs and edited a document that I am working on with my team from a computer troubleshooting course. My team members will respond by editing the same document. We will email each other and disuss the progress of the document. Then I logged in to Google Sites and made some adjustments to my PBL site that I am working on for another class. I fully expect that the other students will read and comment on my progress (to some extent). I will use their feedback to improve my project. Obviously, many people, myself included, are already immersed in e-learning. Previous to reading an article about PLE (personal learning environment) I hadn't really considered the learning situation I am actively involved in. The PLE model allows us to think of this learning environment not only as a means of communicating with other students and our professors, but as a means of learning and organizing in one's own personal way with the input and objective criticism of the public domain.
After reading the Personal Learning Environment Framework at Mohamed Amine Chatti's site the real attraction to PLE for me is the concept of putting students " in charge of their own learning processes, challenging them to reflect on the tools and resources that help them learn best." (Chatti, et al, 2007).
Learning how to be an online learner has been the biggest challenge for me while taking many of my ed tech courses online. At first I was very frustrated and felt that the personal connection was lost in this model, but having a greater comfort level with it at this point, I feel that I am learning how to use online resources to organize data, connect with others, and discern reliable info from unreliable info. Being given the freedom to work on projects at your own pace, and absorb info the way it makes sense to you, allows for learning in a way that makes sense to the individual. I am seeing now that each person involved in my courses has their own methods for completing projects, keeping up with work and connecting with others. Whatever works for the individual is acceptable.
I wonder how this model of learning applies to the younger grades. Of course, allowing for open-ended projects (even when they're not based online) is already allowing students a certain amount of educational freedom within a structured environment, but at what age do students learn to be truly aware of their learning styles and when are they able to have a certain amount of autonomy over the learning process? It would be interesting to conduct a study of gradewide online projects within a PLE framework to see where the greatest success lies in terms of pre-college age students.
I totally agree with you and I was also in the same situation. Taking online courses for the first time was really frustrating and there was a lot of miscommunication. Experiencing different situations helped me to adapt my personal learning environment. I feel like what we can do as intentional teachers is prepare our students for college by using as many as different tools properly so they don’t feel frustrated when they enter college. This is important as students can easily lose their confidence and motivation when experiencing new situation.
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