Personal Learning Environments for Physiotherapists
There is much talk about the Personal Learning Environments (PLE) in the e-learning world and how they may influence the future of our education system.
A PLE is:
a system that helps learners take control of and manage their own learning. This includes methods for learners to set their own learning goals, manage their learning, manage both content and process, and communicate with others in the process of learning.
In contrast, a virtual learning environment (VLE) or learning management system (LMS), such as Blackboard or Moodle which are used in educational institutions, is:
a software system designed to help teachers by facilitating the management of educational courses for their students, especially by helping teachers and learners with course administration. The system can often track the learners’ progress, which can be monitored by both teachers and learners.
Notice the difference? A VLE/LMS is all about controlling how you learn. A PLE is about giving you control over how you learn. It allows for personal or autonomous learning that is learner driven, problem based and motivated by interest. This is currently a challenging concept in the education system but very relevant to continuing education, professional development and lifelong learning. PLEs have the potential to support lifelong learning based on the idea that learning will take place in different contexts and situations and will not be provided by a single provider.
The PLE is a concept, not a product. It is a concept based on a collection of loosely coupled Web 2.0 tools and social software which may be used for working, learning, reflection and collaboration with others. A PLE uses what ever devises the learner chooses to use and may be composed of one or more sub-systems, such as a desktop application or one or more web-based services. For example my PLE is a combination of my Netvibes feed aggregator and Tweetdeck, my Twitter client.
My Netvibes feedreader delivers information to me by RSS feeds including journal updates, physiotherapy news, e-learning news, e-health news, Physiopedia updates and recent activity in my social networks (Facebook and LinkedIn). Whereas Tweetdeck tells me what my Twitter buddies are chatting about and information that they are recommending to each other. I take the information from these two sources, digest, reflect and act . My actions might involve adding new news, research or other pertinent information to Physiospot, writing new articles or adding new evidence to Physiopedia or sharing, communicating and collaborating with people in my networks. From these actions I learn, every day, I am continually professionally developing.
The opportunity is there for us all to make the most of new web technology for our ongoing learning and development, are you making the most of this opportunity? What is your PLE?
Read an interesting history of the PLE here.
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