Drawing on this week’s reading, do you think that the development of a Personal Learning Environment (as opposed to an institutional learning environment would be a positive or negative development?

The PLE (Personal Learning Environment) and ILE (Institutional Learning Environment) should work together and not be separated. However, my focus during this period of my formal education is on the ILE and recommendations it provides. There are a plethora of new educational software systems and different technologies to carry out educational activities. At this stage of my education, I do not feel comfortable engaging in ongoing decision-making to maintain, organize, and grow in new learning environments. I require the guidance of an educator and ILE to become aware of the widely used and recognized Web2.0 technologies and social networks.

            A popular trend is the use of mobile devices known as mLearning to learn and educate. During this course, I will be learning as much as I can about using my iPhone 6 for education. I want to connect with my learners from the beaches of Kelowna or my Mac at home. Looi & Toh (2014) posit that technology-enabled learning should give every learner a mobile device. MLearning supports ELearning like ILE supports PLE. ILE must consider the existing eLearning landscape and application of 2.0 Web tools that enable an online implementation of the student-centred learning paradigm. As stated by (Conde et al. 2013, p. 1), “PLE’s need to coexist with the traditional ILE learning platforms and to learn management systems. Mobile learning should facilitate the use of mobile devices to support these two learning ecosystems.” I can use such a system to combine institutional tools with others used to learn in a mobile system and reflect the activities carried out on them into the institutional side.

            EDAE 6373 increases my motivation to learn and participate because of the ILE, PLE, and mobile tools. I am enjoying building and managing a PLE while fostering a meaningful learning experience. As suggested by (Kop 2010), learning autonomy is not a particular quality or level of independence in learning but a relational interplay between contextual and personal factors. I require work on my autonomy, also known as discipline. However, my takeaway from researching this discussion question is that I am aware that educators must have the skills, among others, to orchestrate learning with the support of new technologies and mobile devices, whether from ILE’s or PLE’s.

Laurie

References

Conde, M.A., Penalvo, F.G., Alier, M., Casany, M.J., & Piguillem, J. (2013). Mobile devices applied to computer science subjects to consume institutional functionalities through a personal learning environment. International Journal of Engineering Education (IJEE), 29(3), 610-619.

Kop, R. (2010). The design and development of a personal learning environment: researching the learning experience. European Distance and E-learning Network Annual Conference 2010, June 2010, Valencia, Spain, Paper H4 32. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1rJCJ_c-aCXRUh6czBuTnk1cEU/edit?usp=sharing

Looi, C.K., & Toh, Y. (2014). Orchestrating the flexible mobile learning classroom. In M. Ally & A. Tsinakos (Eds.), Increasing access through mobile learning. Athabaska University.