Posted by: | 22nd Jun, 2009

PLE – Production Tools

uManitoba’s LTC wiki on Personal Learning Environments lists several examples of “Production Tools”: wikis, blogs, podcasts and video/YouTube.

So, how do these contribute to a PLE for me?

Well, this is a blog I’m using for reflective practice in one of my MET courses. If it weren’t for the assignments and expectations of this course, I probably wouldn’t post as much as I am, let alone as much as some of my more reflectively-abled classmates. Also, this blog is intended to be an ePortfolio for ETEC565, which gives it added functionality within my PLE. I did start blogging earlier this year (http://cellodav-blogtolearn.blogspot.com/), but I haven’t been very good at posting regularly.

I’ve used a couple of different UBC wikis as collaborative tools during the MET program, and set about creating a Teaching and Learning wiki at Laurentian with a colleague last year. Growth has been fairly slow, but the grassroots formation of an informal “Pedagogy Research Group” on campus may provide a community that has the interest to use and expand on this resource.

I haven’t created any podcasts yet, nor have I posted any videos on YouTube. These are tools I expect to explore in ETEC565.

Thoughts…

These different tools may contribute to my PLE, but they are somewhat scattered. There are LMSs out there that incorporate blogs and wikis, but they persist only for the duration of a course or program. For a Learning Environment to be Personal, it must persist as long as I want or need it to. What I need to keep my PLE organized is some sort of flexible, customizable interface into which I can plug in or embed all the services I use so that they’re “fingertip” accessible.

Next…

I’ll look at my use of Collaboration and sharing tools.

Cheers,
David

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Responses

David, good post. I agree with your notion that a PLE has to persist beyond a course. I also think that a PLE will have some productivity functions in it–not just a feed reader.

What kind of tasks would you as a student (or professional) want to accomplish within a PLE?

I haven’t thought much about details, but for starters, how about:
– compose simple documents
– write blog postings
– clip,save, and organize online resources
– connect with others to chat, message, etc.
– schedule things on a calendar
– make to do lists
– create journal entries or reflections (more private than a blog?)
– save and organize random stuff I’ve created (presentations, videos, audio files, docs, etc.)

What do you think?

Jeff Bohrer on June 24th, 2009
at 10:21 am

Hi Jeff:

Thanks for your response. I agree with you that a PLE platform(?) should be a production/creation space as well as a portfolio and a personal communications hub. I would suggest that it should have both a private and a public interface – the public being a space in which I can share selected artefacts and allow others to initiate contact. The private space being my work-space.

I’m still working through the different classifications of tools as laid out by uManitoba – so please keep in touch. If you know of examples of PLE platforms that have or are being tested out, I’m interested.

David Macdonald on June 24th, 2009
at 5:49 pm

David,

If you’re interested in podcasting, I recommend checking out podomatic.com. I know a lot of educators use this service with students.

Sean

Sean McMinn on June 25th, 2009
at 6:39 pm

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