By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Implementing Elgg in HE :: Blog :: A Shared Learning Environment?
Does the personal learning environment leed to be supplemented by a 'shared learning environment'? Stan Stanier writes, "I can't help feeling there's something missing or simply something wrong with the terminology? We cannot escape the fact that, in order to learn, we need other people. Both formal and informal learning requires human interaction." To me, it does not follow that because an environment is personal that all other people are shut out; what is it that he thinks all those links are connecting to. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Boundary Characteristics of Game, Simulation, Drama and Role Play Learning Environments
Article proposing a theoretical framework for understanding pedagogical games. I liked the division of four types of 'space': physical space, virtual space, augmented space, and imaginary space (one wonders what Kant would have said). The list of "Boundary Characteristics" (boundary conditions?) of games is also interesting, through probably incomplete. The idea of these boundary conditions is that they are range-like properties of a game that may have pedagogical implications. Take, for example, the 'permeability' of a game. Does outside wisdom and knowledge impact game performance, the way it does in Jeopardy (and not so much in checkers)? Do existing power structures impact game performance (the way, say, playing golf against your boss is different from playing golf against your best friend). More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. An Ecological Approach to Repository and Service Interactions
"Ecology is the study of systems that are complex, dynamic, and full of interacting entities and processes... We think that ecology and the ecosystems it studies may offer a useful analogy to inform the task of understanding and articulating the interactions between users, repositories, and services and the information environments in which they take place." I'm inclined to agree, and even if I weren't, the discussion of "why technical architectures need help" on page 3 would convince me. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Present and Future of Personal Learning Environments (PLE)
This came out last December, but I don't remember linking to it. It showed up in my email this week. It's certainly too good to let pass by. The author offers a very nice overview of the concept of the personal learning environment (PLE) and developments to date. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Personal Work and Learning Environments (PWLE) - More Discussion
An article worth reading. I will mention in passing that I am opposed to the trend coming from the corporate learning side of the house to treat PLEs as work tools. What is it about people in corporate learning that they feel the need to perpetuate the attitude of servitude it seems all learners must adopt. We don't exist to work for a corporation; our learning, our minds, our most valuable asset of all, ought to serve our own purposes first and foremost. But I guess it's employers, not employees, paying the bills for corporate e-learning consultants, and thy wanna hear what they wanna hear. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Personal Learning Environments Are Also Social...
I listened to David Vincent, the Open University pro-Vice-Chancellor, speak of the university's work on PLEs this morning in Heerlen. This post adds some background, especially in light of Vincent's describing the PLE as serving "social needs" (or "social values", as opposed to "public" and "institutional" needs and values). Hirst writes,"I do think that there are containers - or frameworks - that allow a range of personal and social tools" - and I guess OU is developing one - "as well as information feeds and storage, to be collected together in some way (via linking or embedding) to offer the user a single 'place to go' to access these tools; a (personal) learning workspace, if you like". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Personal Learning Knowledge Work Environment
Karyn Romeis coins the term 'lifewide learning' to capture the idea expressed in this post, that "I consider my office, my television set, my university classes, team development days, conversations with my far cleverer colleagues (both on and offline) to be a part of my PLE." For Tony Karrer, focused more on work than on life (why the separation between being a knowledge worker and being a weekend spelunker?) the idea becomes that "there should be no separation between my Personal Learning Environment (PLE), my Personal Knowledge Management system, and my day-to-day set of tools that enhance my knowledge worker productivity". More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Ray'S Personal Learning Environment Workflow
Ray Sims attempts to create a PLE workflow. I think this is a noble effort but misguided - the nice thing about a buffet is that we don't all have to approach it the same way, and that's the benefit of a PLE. Look at the list on page 2 - should people do all these things? In this order? And a lot of learning isn't workflow driven or even goal driven (this whole 'goal-driven behaviour' thing is a mark of the self-improvement set, but as the old saying goes, it is often the journey, and not the destination, that matters). Learning is a process, not a goal, and a learning environment is a space, not a process. If the description of a PLE cannot include my aimless and pointless readings of histories of the Roman Empire, then it misses the boat. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Ecto Online Learning Environment
Is Ecto a Personal Learning Environment? It claims to be, on its home page: "Ecto is a hosted, open networked Personal Learning Environment. Use Ecto to transform learning into an interactive, collaborative, and student centered activity." Ecto, of course, began life three years ago as a learning management system (LMS). I have it a quick workout, but I don't see anything really PLEish about it. It's a way to retrieve remote content, sure, but item by item - and I had to cut and paste the Flickr URL. It allows for the creation of groups, but is no different that dozens of services in that. More...