So… there’s a debate raging! Should we be encouraging learners to develop and use their own personal learning environments (PLEs) rather than hemming them in to an institutional VLE?
James Clay, Matt Lingard and Steve Wheeler have added some great points to the debate – check out their blogs if you haven’t already! In a thoroughly digested nutshell; many people feel that VLEs are controlled by the institution, can inhibit creativity and student control and limit the learning context. However they are also relatively secure, safe and provide a useful one-stop portal for learners and instructors. PLEs can broaden the learner’s network and learning context and may allow for more creativity and social presence. However, the majority of educators are not empowered to foster this kind of learning with their students.
I’d like to stick my neck out and say that, for us users of personal learning environments, there is no debate. We keep abreast of the tools available, we share case studies, we try things out and we make considered and educated judgements about what tools we use for our own learning and what we encourage and enable others to use. There may be exceptions to this – and if so, I’d be interested to hear them. Has anyone wanted to use a Web 2.0 tool in their teaching and/or learning and been prevented (either directly or indirectly) from doing so because of institutional policy?
Now let me stick my neck out a second time (ouch), and propose that, for the majority of the educational community (as highlighted in James’s post), there is also no debate. This is because the debate won’t mean anything to them and, as it’s taking place on Twitter and the blogosphere, they won’t be aware of it anyway.
For me, the debate is…
As the builders, users and advocators of personal learning environments (whatever we feel about VLEs), what is OUR role in the expansion of the learning experience?
Do we:
- Rest on our laurels, proud of our rare abilities to build networks and have serendipitous learning conversations using a variety of media
- Beaver away at our own projects, disseminate good practice and continue to gain status and credit within our own personal learning networks (and gather evidence towards our National Teaching Fellow applications)
- Stand outside the library every day with a placard giving out free doughnuts and shouting “The PLE is coming and it will save you all”
- Focus on finding innovative ways of getting the message out there to educators about learning technologies in general and Web 2.0 in particular – regardless of whether tools sit within or without the institutional walls…?
I’d like us to share stories of how we’ve taken the message out to the wider educational community; not just what we’ve contributed but also what we’ve learned along the way. What alienates people? What pulls them in? How can we present ourselves in a way that says to our fellow educators ‘I’m just like you’ rather than ‘I’m an expert’?
That’s the debate I’m interested in.
18 responses so far ↓
Just testing as my last post to your blog a few mons ago got swallowed by anti-spam monster:(
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lindsayjordan Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I think I’ve fixed the monster now…! Lots of changes made to Edublogs since my last post :-0
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OK- seems to be working.
I’m an educator (not learning tech) in medical education. I’ve been using any tools we have access to in Blackboard as appropriately as I can in the last few years eg a course blog, wikis and forums. I also use Delicious as nothing comparable within Blackboard.
With regards to PLEs I want to get my colleagues in medical education on the band-wagon first. Then I can really figure out what are the best solutions to present to students without driving them up the walls with something different every week. So I have given a presentation at a medical education conference on how I think social media and networks can support scholarship in medical education. And I will try and write something for one of the journals too. And I try to encourage others locally in meetings.
So hope that helps!
AM
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lindsayjordan Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 7:30 am
Hi Anne Marie – thanks and yes it does!
I’m coming to a close with my work with distance learning programmes and I’ve been reflecting a lot recently on the impact of my work over the last two years, which has, in the main, involved working with educators who initially had little interest in enabling collaborative learning. I am still as passionate about online social learning as ever, but my experience has given me a deeper appreciation of ‘the conservative impulse’ and the dangers of evangelism.
I’ve learned a lot about supporting educators (and learners!) who fear computers and/or hold a ‘delivery’ view of learning, and by reflecting upon this experience I hope to firm my resolve to continue to support people across the community and resist the tempation to merely seek out and work with colleagues with similar values and interests to myself.
It’s hard, because we all appreciate recognition for our work, and I suppose I’ve felt that it is far easier to get recognition from working with an enthusiastic educator to design and run a successful online role-play assessment activity than from supporting one member of staff in logging in to the VLE for his module and responding to a couple of student queries in the forum. The latter achievement took twice as long and required more patience, more understanding and, I would argue, more skill. It was exceptionally rewarding on a personal level, and on reflection perhaps this kind of journey would actually go down very well at conferences and in journals
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Anne Marie Cunningham Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Hi Lindsay
Thanks for your reply. In some ways I am sceptical about what can really be achieved through collaborative or social learning. Do you have any good references which show that adults in courses can learn well this way? It does make sense to me for work-based learning but sometimes I am less sure about the relevance to undergraduate courses.
Thanks
AM
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I have a couple of points, but to start I like the idea of learning techs outside the library with placards
I think that Paragraph 2 outlines an attitude that many in the sector have (I know that you are reporting on the debate). Technology is not conscious, a VLE cannot inhibit, control or limit, only the processes and the way it is set up does that. What would happen if we gave students admin rights (some have, the world didn’t end), what if we extinguished the firewalls. Conversely, PLEs will not solve the problems of bad / dull teaching nor will it engender or foster deep learning in students who are only interested in strategic learning and getting the piece of paper.
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lindsayjordan Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Thanks Lawrie for raising this point – which is an important one. We probably need to remind ourselves that Moodle & Blackboard are not in themselves virtual learning environments; they are tools that can be used to CREATE virtual learning environments. I suggested in response to one of Steve Wheeler’s posts (a which prompted some interesting discussions and well-made points) that perhaps the term ‘VLE’ has run its course of appropriateness. Literally speaking, blogs, Twitter and other social media tools can all become virtual learning environments. And what does ‘virtual’ mean these days anyway?
You’re absolutely right – technology does not grant immunity from shallow learning, nor dull teaching
Check out the ‘What Promotes Learning’ tab for some crowd-sourced technology-independent insights 
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Lawrie Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 8:39 am
It would be nice to give a list of criteria to some students (e.g. somewhere to discuss the course, somewhere to ask questions of tutors and other students, somewhere to submit or do assignments etc) and ask them to put together a learning environment (deliberately left out the P and V).
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Your introduction is interesting in setting a particular conseption of the debate.
I would argue that the choice is between leaving the learners and educators adrift in a morass of half useful tools with little support and no reliability (risking their personal data and learning matterials to the four winds) or provide a fully functional supportive framework which is specifically designed to meet the specific requirements of the dialogue between educator and learner within a ’safe haven’; and which also allows students to separate the informal social environment from the formal learning environment – something which I understand many students desire.
While the tools available for crafting a PLE are certainly available and capable, one must not underestimate the time and effort required to gain the skills and experience to utilize those tools effectively for teaching and learning. For those of us embroiled in the technical on a daily basis and for a significant time, it is all too easy to expect anyone and everyone to be able to reach the same competencies easily. I’m awar the same argument could have applied long ago with reading and writing itself, and I don’t doubt that the tools are getting easier and the skills in the general population are improving – but while there is still a significant majority for whom an RSS feed may as well be part of a rocket engine, I see a vital role for the VLE in meeting the needs of institutions.
(forgive spelling and grammar – the iPhone is nice but it is like writing through a keyhole!)
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lindsayjordan Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 6:50 am
Thanks for this, Nick – I apologise for the insufficient summary of the debate so far; on reflection I probably shouldn’t have attempted it
You raise some excellent points (that I agree with).
This debate has opened up some great discussion on many issues, including the benefits and challenges of open education, but it’s a shame that we’re simply not in a place yet where the debate actually matters – as you suggest; for the majority of educators, “an RSS feed may as well be part of a rocket engine”.
What are we doing about this? I know we’re doing a lot about it in or own circles, but what could we be doing to reach across the diverse educational community and gain some widespread understanding of what tools are available to enable and enhance social, collaborative learning?
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Nick Sharratt Reply:
August 14th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
It’s actually a key bit of the objectives I’m setting for my team currently to be improving the use of the technology and TEL opportunities within the faculties we support.
I think it’s human nature that most people stick with what they know rather than explore the possible – it’s the responsibility of those of us who’s job it is to see tech and match it to the business opportunities to raise awareness and competencies.
As I see it, the Sharepoint based portal we have at UoP allows almost all the benefits from the 3rd party systems advocated by edupunks, without the related business risks. However, very few in UoP seem to have embraced just how powerful and flexible Sharepoint is ; or that as “owners” of thier own sites, module leaders can basically do ANYTHING they’d like to without the need for central IT agreement – they just need to see it’s possible and invest time in learning how….which is where my team comes in ; central IT support, but aiming to liberate the educators rather than stiffle.
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Hi,
Like most things, it’s not one or the other. Imagine the tutor/teacher having to visit everyones PLE’s to see where they are up to? We are usually teaching cohorts of students in a learning community. What happens to the online learning community of a unit if PLE’s replace VLE’s? Sure there is a place for PLE’s, but also VLE’s, IMHO.
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lindsayjordan Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 6:55 am
Hi Shane,
I work with distance learners and I know exactly where you are coming from. Their VLE is their classroom; their common room and their students’ union. Without it it would be extremely difficult to establish a sense of a supportive inner community.
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Good post Lindsay. As an e-Learning tech I actively try and do point 4
“Focus on finding innovative ways of getting the message out there to educators about learning technologies in general and Web 2.0 in particular – regardless of whether tools sit within or without the institutional walls…?”
This is for a number of reasons, many of which have been covered elsewhere. In my opinion the most important reason for not (just) using the VLE is that it doesn’t equip students with the networking and ICT tools that will become increasingly important in the knowledge economy. Products like twitter, blog apps, rss etc are really useful tools for finding/ publishing / discussing/ promoting etc etc etc. By sheilding students from having to explore and evaluate these tools in the context of their education (and then workplace) not only misses an important opportunity to become literate in such information sources but it also discourages things like ’self reliance’, ‘exploration’ and ‘creativity’.
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