Using PLEs to encourage peer learning and learner autonomy

Chris HarwoodCentre of English Language Communication

CDTL 2011

Overview

• Student needs analysis• What is a PLE?• The pilot • Student feedback• Recommendations

• Discussion

Student needs analysisNovember 2010

Internet access

• How?

• 97% laptop

• 42.3% smartphone

• 39.1% intend to buy a smartphone in the next 6 months

• Where?

• 90.9% access internet and learn online on campus (but not in the dorm)

• 97.8% access internet and learn online at home or in their dorm

• 22.6% access internet and learn online on the MRT or bus

• 41.2% access the internet and learn online in retail Wi-Fi hotspots

Online materials

• 89% like to choose what online materials are important to them.

• 85.8% like to use resources from a number of different websites.

• 91.5% of respondents like a mix of materials they have found and materials the tutor has chosen.

• 78.1% claim to need help finding good websites to support their learning. Curate.

Organizing online resources

• 92.3% prefer• resources from a

number of different websites to be in one space.

• 90% thought it would be useful to have an online space with specially selected websites, video tutorials and other resources for their course that they could add to and personalize

What is a PLE?

http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2010/07/anatomy-of-ple.html

What is a PLE?

How does a PLE work?

“ The PLE is a unique interface in the owners digital environment. It integrates their personal and professional interests (including their formal and informal learning), connecting these via a series of syndicated and distributed feeds.”

Terry Anderson 2006

Types of Learning

• Formal

• Formal learning is planned learning that derives from activities within a structured learning setting.

• Informal

• 1. learning that derives from activities external to a structured learning context.

• 2. unstructured learning

within a structured learning environment.

What does the educator do?

PLEs are “systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning. This includes providing support for learners to set their own learning goals, manage their learning; managing both content and process, communicate with others in the process of learning and thereby achieve learning goals.”

Mark van Harmelen 2007

Social learning

• Personal learning networks (PLNs) using peer to peer social networking such as ‘Facebook’, ‘Twitter’, and ‘Linkedin’ are crucial to the learning processes within PLEs. PLNs are spaces where learners can connect and exchange ideas and negotiate meaning and understanding about whatever they are learning about.

Learning theories• Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher

mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

• Wenger, Etienne (1998) 'Communities of Practice. Learning as a social system', Systems Thinker. Retrieved 12th October, 2012, from

http://www.co-i-l.com/coil/knowledge-garden/cop/lss.shtml.

• Siemens, G. (2008a). About: Description of connectivism. Connectivism: A learning theory for today’s learner, website. http://www.connectivism.ca/about.html

What is SymbalooEDU?

It is a software application that enables learners to organize, integrate and share online content in one setting or Personal Learning Environment.

It also enables each user to connect, share content and update shared content.

How does it do this?• By allowing users to create and customize tiles using

URLs.

• These tiles can be constructed into mixes shared and updated.

Learning can occur anywhere Social networks, facebook, twitter, MySpace etc.

Integrated curriculum activities such as blogging,.

Collaborative cloud tools, Google docs, Dropbox etc.

IVLEsAll these learning applications and storage systems can be accessed by the student at anytime using a smartphone, iPad, or notebook as long as they have internet access.

The pilotJanuary to April 2011

Constructing the webmix

Academic writing

Essay writing

VocabularyGrammar

Resources

Design and distribution of the webmix

Student feedbackApril 2011

How often did they use the platform?

• 4.8% used the platform ‘every day’

• 6.4% ‘three times a week’

• 10.1% ‘once a week’

• 31.4% ‘three times a month’

• 47.3% ‘once a month’

Did students find ‘symbalooEDU’ useful?

• 47.3% accessed the links on the platform ‘once a month’ and 27% claimed it was ‘not very useful’

• 73% thought ‘symbalooEDU’ was a useful resource. Indeed 43% believe the platform to be so useful that they adopted it as their homepage bookmark browser.

The reasons for this positive student uptake of the platform are varied.

• 87% of respondents thought it was easy to access specific information about writing

• 91% thought it useful to have all web links in one place.

• 82% liked the mix of video, audio and textual learning support

• 90% liked having access to specific online info selected by NUS tutors.

• 74% explored the websites in more detail.

The students thought the webmix was useful in different ways

• 40% grammar content

• 30% writing content

• 23% collocation and dictionary tools

• 7% social media facebook etc.

Personalizing the webmix

• 54% of respondents said they added other websites to the webmix

• 35 % of respondents accessed ‘Facebook’, ‘Twitter’ or their blog using ‘symbalooEDU’ showing that more than a third of students adopted the platform in to their daily digital lives.

Recommendations

• Very useful tool to support learning with encouraging feedback but…

• needs to be more carefully woven in to the curriculum

• Tutor training/sales

• Social media need to be imbedded into the curriculum

References• Van Harmelen, M. (2006). Personal Learning Environments. In Proceedings of the

Sixth International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT’06). Retrieved March 3, 2011, from http://csdl.computer.org/comp/proceedings/icalt/2006/2632/00/263200815.pdf

• Wheeler, S, (2010) Anatomy of a PLE. Retrieved 12th October, 2011, from http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2010/07/anatomy-of-ple.html