Introduction of PLE

Introduction

There are many changes in the field of e-learning in recent years. The biggest thing which makes a difference is the learner generates content. As an example,the content of the book titled with "Web_2.0_and_Emerging_Learning_Technologies" is constructed by learners who take part in the collaborative project sponsored by professor Curt Bonk from Indiana University,USA ^[1].

The technology and tools which support the learner to produce content have made rapid proliferation almost world wide from the emergence of blog. These technology and tools can be divided into two types. One of them is mainly to help the user to create content, such as Flickr, YouTube, Slideshare, and Haokanbu from China, etc. And the other is mainly to help the user to adopt new way to manage knowledge and improve efficiency, such as RSS,Tag,Social Bookmarking,etc. The generic term for these different concrete technology and tools is social software which distinct feature is supporting group interaction^[2].

(Blogs and wikibooks are parts of an PLE, but of course not everything. I consider PLE more a concept, rather than a website, software or any online community named. In addition to some examples of web 2.0 software and websites, maybe a deeper illustration of the emerging concept should be provided.)

In addition, the development of open source also exercises a great influence on education^[3]. Open source projects such as MIT's OCW, OpenCourseWare Consortium, Wikipedia, including Linux and OpenOffice,etc., which offer more opportunities for more users.

All these changes have showed that the learner has more power on controlling learning environment himself which described by Stephen Dowens(2007) is that the management of learning migrates from the institution to the learner^[4].This is the base and the premise of what the personal learning environment(PLE) is trying to explore.

(A personalized learning environment (PLE), as the name suggests, is personal and differs individually. In an introduction of the concept of PLE, I expect first a general idea and later some details and examples, which might be clearer for readers who have no idea of PLE before.)

References

[1]Curt Bonk(2007),The Web 2.0 and Participatory e-Learning(Course Announcement),Retrieved December 8, 2007 from: http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/Syllabus_R685_Fall_of_2007.htm

[2]Futurelab(2006),Social software and learning, Retrieved December 8, 2007 from: http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications_reports_articles/opening_education_reports/Opening_Education_Report199/

[3]oedb(2007),How the Open Source Movement Has Changed Education: 10 Success Stories,Retrieved December 8, 2007 from: http://oedb.org/library/features/how-the-open-source-movement-has-changed-education-10-success-stories

[4]Stephen Downes,(2007),Learning networks in practice，Retrieved December 8, 2007 from: http://partners.becta.org.uk/page_documents/research/emerging_technologies07_chapter2.pdf