On Learning and PLE

Have you ever tried peeling a pineapple? Yes, you can buy it pre-cut into slices in nice plastic boxes. But have you actually tried peeling one yourself? And if yes, how did you go about it? I remember the first time I bought a pineapple. I brought it home and for a while was staring at it, not really knowing how to go about it. I know the easiest way to do it was to just take a knife and start cutting the rough skin. But I wanted to do it "the right way". So, I went on Youtube, typed "peeling a pineapple" and followed the instructions given by a somewhat experienced pineapple slicing guy. As simple as that. It might sound trivially, but to me it was something.

A 70-year-old woman (my mother) was getting ready to come and visit me in Oman. We set the day, and I bought her the ticket. She was to fly through Amsterdam. Sounds easy, right? Well, not for someone who does not speak a word of English. She did not know anyone in the small town where she lives who had been to Amsterdam. I had never been through the Amsterdam airport myself, so I could not help her. What did she do? She "googled" a forum of people who travel a lot, posted a question (in her native language) and within a few minutes got tens of replies from very supportive travellers of all ages! People gave her advice on where to go, somebody even drew a nice map of the Amsterdam airport with all its terminals! My mother made that trip all by herself!

These are just two very simple examples of how people learn nowadays. We look for information on the net because, as my students say, you can find everything there. Can we truly call it learning? Can we say that every act of reaching for technology to answer questions we might have is, in fact, learning? Well, let's define "learning" first. I am not going to describe in detail three main theories of learning (behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism) as this may require a separate post, but Attwell (2007) mentions two ways of looking at learning: a much narrower approach in which learning takes place within an institution and is done by qualified teachers, and a wider definition of learning "as a purposeful activity which leads to changes in behaviour" (Attwell, 2007).

If we assume that the latter is true, then there is a great deal of learning happening every time we reach for a mobile phone to ask a question on social media, to watch an instructional video on Youtube or to join a group of friends who share the same interests.

Lifelong learning is not something new. Back in 1993, Perelman L. J. said that "expertise has a shelf life measured in days: everyone must be both learner and teacher" (Perelman, 1993). Industrial revolution driven by computer technologies creates instability on the job market (Attwell, 2007). Days of lifelong professions are gone. Employers (or even governments) do not want to bear the responsibility of upgrading skills of their employees because it is costly. Therefore individuals have no other choice but "maintain their own employability" (Attwell, 2007). He further states that if learning is not continuous, then it is episodic where people intertwine periods of formal education with on-the-job training.

However, formal education only constitutes 20% of how people learn. Informal learning process is what adds value to the initial, professional and lifelong learning processes (Costa, 2010). It is more important than ever before to augment formal learning environment with informal learning which could become a cost effective way of competence development. And since formal learning technology and applications are not widely available for those who are not enrolled on an educational programme or working for large companies, Personal Learning Environments could provide a solution by extending access to educational technology for everyone who wants to manage their own learning (Attwell, 2007).

So, what are Personal Learning Environments? Castañeda and Soto (2010) define PLE "as a set of tools, information sources, connections and activities-experiences- that every person uses to learn assiduously."  Castañeda et al. (2017) describe PLE as a structure and process in which a learner organises daily abundance of information, resources and connections into a personalised learning space or experience. Through these processes, the learner develops "an individualised digital identity". In other words, PLE is a model for learning in a digital world where all the available resources, people who create them, links between the resources and their authors as well as procedures of changing, sharing, updating, and remodelling the information and knowledge facilitate our development as homo sapiens.

With ever-changing technologies our PLE cannot be unchanging state of affairs. And this is what is great about it. By constantly revising and reviewing what we knew yesterday, which could become obsolete tomorrow, we push our boundaries of knowledge further than ever before. So below is my PLE. For today.

References:

Attwell, G. (2007). The Personal Learning Environments - the future of eLearning? eLearning Papers, vol. 2 no. 1. ISSN 1887-1542.

Castañeda, L., Dabbagh, N., & Torres-Kompen, R. (2017). Personal Learning Environments: Research-Based Practices, Frameworks and Challenges. Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research, 6(1), 1-2. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.7821/naer.2017.1.229

Castañeda, L., & Soto, J. (2010) Building Personal Learning Environments by using and mixing ICT tools in a professional way. In: Digital Education Review, 18, 9-25. [Accessed: 22/10/2017] Retrieved from: http://greav.ub.edu/der

Perelman L. J. (1993), School's Out, Avon/Education