Sims Learning Connections

Personal Learning Environment (PLE)

Keywords: personal learning environments, PLE, personal knowledge management, PKM, personal information management, PIM, personal learning toolkit, PLT, online learning environment, Personal Work and Learning Environment (PWLE), OLE, social software, self-directed learning, life-long learning, informal learning, learning ecosystems, learning networks

Synonyms: personal knowledge management (may be closer to relate term than truly synonym…hard to say as neither term has a generally accepted definition)

Related Terms: e-portfolio, virtual learning environment, VLE, digital lifestyle aggregator, DLA, continuing professional development, CPD

Resources

Introductions and Summaries

1. Personal Learning Environments wiki hosted at the School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester. Primarily maintainted by Mark van Harmelen.
2. The present and future of Personal Learning Environments, by Ron Lubensky
3. Wikipedia: History of personal learning environments
4. eLearning Technology: Personal Learning Tools and Technologies, by Tony Karrer

Definitions

1. What is a Personal Learning Environment? from LTCwiki. A summary of several definitions, plus related discussion.
2. “…a single user’s e-learning system that provides access to a variety of learning resources, and that may provide access to learners and teachers who use other PLEs and/or VLEs.” (Mark van Harmelen, “Personal Learning Environments,” icalt, pp. 815-816, Sixth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT’06), 2006. )
3. “…a collection of tools, brought together under the conceptual notion of openness, interoperability, and learner control. As such, they are comprised of two elements – the tools and the conceptual notions that drive how and why we select individual parts.” (George Siemens, “PLEs – I Acronym, Therefore I Exist,” 15 April 2007 blog entry)
4. “An ecosystem of connected educational resources facilitated by a (large) set of tools and fueled by collaboration opportunities facilitating the consumption of content that enables an increased understanding of specific knowledge domains.” (Lee Kraus, PLE: not personal and not learning, 14 June 2007 blog entry)

By Author

1. Dave Cormier
2. Graham Attwell (Pontydysgu)
   1. “Personal Learning Environments,” icalt, pp. 815-816, Sixth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT’06), 2006.
   2. Presentation at Scaffolding learning – web 2.0 and e-portfolios conference, University of South Denmark, 7 May 2007. Highly recommended.
3. George Siemens
4. James Farmer
5. Mark van Harmelen (University of Manchester)
6. Michelle Martin
7. Mohamed Amine Chatti
8. Oskar Casquero
9. Ray Sims
10. Scott Wilson (Bolton University, JISC, CETIS)
11. Stephen Downes (National Research Council, Canada)
    1. Presentation at eLearning Guild 2007 , 11 April 2007, Boston
    2. Presentation at MIT, 10 April 2007, Cambridge MA
    3. Becta: Emerging Technologies 2007 – Chapter Two
12. Steve Barth
13. Terry Anderson
    1. Social Software and Personal Learning Environments. Presented in various slightly modified forms to education audiences in Canada, Israel, Norway and the UK in spring 2007.
14. Will Richardson

PLE and Community Learning Examples

• Alan Levine: a rare nearly prose-only description of a PLE, no network diagram
• Ecto: a hosted online learning environment
• Christopher D. Sessums
• Colloquia
• David Delgado
• D’Arcy Norman
• Elisa Caramori
• Harold Jarche: a process view
• Jared M. Stein
• Jeremy Hiebert: a hybrid between a process and resource view
• Marg O’Connell: an annotated screen-shot in flickr
• Martina (a student in Italy): a process view focused on cognitive aspects of learning
• Mohamed Amine Chatti
• Michele Martin: a tools and resources bubble chart divided into sections for “Gathering Information,” “Processing Information,” and “Acting on the Learning”
• PLEX: a PLE proof of concept software application
• Questler: a community learning site with a strong social network flavor
• Ray Sims: a tools and resources view mindmap for Ray’s v1.0 PLE with applications on Linux
• Two Brains: a community learning site

Projects and Seminars

1. The PLE project at Bolton University (CETIS page description) (project page) “This project was funded by the JISC Distributed eLearning Programme and ran from August 2005 to the end of July 2006.” Scott Wilson et al.
   • The CETIS Personal Learning Environment Blog is still somewhat active
2. SCoPE online seminar, 4 – 24 June 2007

Tags and Feeds

1. Bazaar Project: PLE category
2. del.icio.us: PLE
3. del.cio.us: PLE_Workshop_2006 — event held on 7 June 2006
4. Technorati: Personal Learning Environments
5. Technorati: PLE