7 (seven) things about PLE's

Reflection of: 7 things you should know about PLE's

The Educause Learning Initiative's 7 Things You Should Know about Personal Learning Environment offers some general information about PLE's and their implications to education.  The one bit of information that I found very useful was point number 7.  What PLE's do for students is to provide them with a framework for their learning.  Part of learning is doing research to see what the experts say and it's implications for real life.  The goal of research (to me) is learn what has been done, find the meaning and build upon it with your own questions and subsequent research.  A key element for teachers is to equip students with the ability to decipher what is credible, scholarly and meaningful research.  Often, I find that students read something on a screen and accept it as fact.  How often have we heard students say that they, "heard it from a friend."  Or if a teacher presents something to a student then the student takes what the teacher is saying or presenting as gospel.  What PLE's do is challenge the student to think critically about what they are reading and using in their own learning/research.  Not only will students read critically but in the process of reading form more questions for them to research and learn.  Another useful and practical lesson learned from PLE's is the ability to receive, evaluate and learn from criticism.  PLE and Web 2.0 were made for each other in that teachers, students, experts or really anyone on earth can comment or collaborate with a student.  The ability to receive correction is crucial to life.  The next step is to evaluate the source of the criticism.  Is this from a trusted source or not?  And finally the most important part of criticism is the ability to learn from it and not repeat the same mistake.

For a resource about evaluating research

PLE's overall seem to be the natural next step in education.  Where the student is responsible for using the internet to collaborate, research and create.