It is what the learner does in their Personal Learning Environment that is important.
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John Pallister
Oct 19, 2008, 8:28:25 AM10/19/08
to ePortfolios and PLTs
I feel the need, prompted by Cristina’s Post, http://tinyurl.com/5flo7d
to over-cook the PLE thinking a bit more!
I distilled, from an earlier attempt at summarising the PLE
discussions that I had followed , http://tinyurl.com/57eugd that it is
what the learner ‘does’ in their Personal Learning Environment that
really determines what they will learn. What they do in the
environment is more important than the environment itself. [I take the
environment as meaning where they work/operate/learn, in its broadest
term.]
Individual will learn something from any environment that they operate
in. It is our job to create/contrive the physical environment and then
cajole, encourage and support our learners to ensure that they
encounter the experiences and stimuli that we hope will result in
learning taking place. Not any old learning, but the learning that we,
or ‘somebody’, thinks will be important to them.
While the physical environment provides learners with access to the
tools and resources it will be the ‘teaching’ that will provide the
experiences, activities and support that will supply the opportunities
for learning. The ‘teaching’, in whatever form it takes, will: create
the climate for learning; wet the learner’s appetite; create the need
for learning; encourage learners to recognise when learning has taken
place and encourage them to take responsibility for their own
learning. It will need to create the space that will allow learning to
happen and hopefully and provide learners with an experience that will
enable them to be creative and that they will enjoy.
The bad news, or the big challenge, is that this is unlikely to be
what the majority currently accepted as teaching, where large groups
of students arrive every hour, expecting to be entertained, expecting
to be taught a separate subject and expecting to be examined every 5
minutes. Re-stating the obvious, but creating a Personal Learning
Environment for every learner, that is delivering the required shift
in emphasis from teaching to learning, will need commitment,
imagination and resource.
So leaving the hard bit, for now, and moving on! How the learner
operates in this new environment, how they behave, how they use their
initiative, how they interact with others, how they manage their time,
how they support others, how they employ their different learning
styles and how they deploy their different intelligences will affect
how and what they learn.
To be able to survive and learn in the environment Learners will need
to develop a set of skills, the Personal Learning and Thinking skills,
the Functional Skills and, another skill set, yet to be defined, that
will enable learners to use the tools and approaches that we are
beginning to recognise as having potential to support learning.
Back into the loop; learners need to work in an environment that
provides the appropriate opportunities for them to operate as
independent learners – the environment needs to exist before they can
work in it – what they do in the environment determines how and what
they learn – to function in the environment they will need to develop
a specific set of skills.
How do we break-in to the loop?
to over-cook the PLE thinking a bit more!
I distilled, from an earlier attempt at summarising the PLE
discussions that I had followed , http://tinyurl.com/57eugd that it is
what the learner ‘does’ in their Personal Learning Environment that
really determines what they will learn. What they do in the
environment is more important than the environment itself. [I take the
environment as meaning where they work/operate/learn, in its broadest
term.]
Individual will learn something from any environment that they operate
in. It is our job to create/contrive the physical environment and then
cajole, encourage and support our learners to ensure that they
encounter the experiences and stimuli that we hope will result in
learning taking place. Not any old learning, but the learning that we,
or ‘somebody’, thinks will be important to them.
While the physical environment provides learners with access to the
tools and resources it will be the ‘teaching’ that will provide the
experiences, activities and support that will supply the opportunities
for learning. The ‘teaching’, in whatever form it takes, will: create
the climate for learning; wet the learner’s appetite; create the need
for learning; encourage learners to recognise when learning has taken
place and encourage them to take responsibility for their own
learning. It will need to create the space that will allow learning to
happen and hopefully and provide learners with an experience that will
enable them to be creative and that they will enjoy.
The bad news, or the big challenge, is that this is unlikely to be
what the majority currently accepted as teaching, where large groups
of students arrive every hour, expecting to be entertained, expecting
to be taught a separate subject and expecting to be examined every 5
minutes. Re-stating the obvious, but creating a Personal Learning
Environment for every learner, that is delivering the required shift
in emphasis from teaching to learning, will need commitment,
imagination and resource.
So leaving the hard bit, for now, and moving on! How the learner
operates in this new environment, how they behave, how they use their
initiative, how they interact with others, how they manage their time,
how they support others, how they employ their different learning
styles and how they deploy their different intelligences will affect
how and what they learn.
To be able to survive and learn in the environment Learners will need
to develop a set of skills, the Personal Learning and Thinking skills,
the Functional Skills and, another skill set, yet to be defined, that
will enable learners to use the tools and approaches that we are
beginning to recognise as having potential to support learning.
Back into the loop; learners need to work in an environment that
provides the appropriate opportunities for them to operate as
independent learners – the environment needs to exist before they can
work in it – what they do in the environment determines how and what
they learn – to function in the environment they will need to develop
a specific set of skills.
How do we break-in to the loop?
cristina costa
Oct 19, 2008, 10:20:50 AM10/19/08
to eportfolio...@googlegroups.com
John,
I totally agree. You express your thoughts so well.
And I have sympathy with the teachers who try to break into the loop and can't. There's a strict curriculum and policies reminding them of the contrived settings in which their teaching has to occur and the results that are expected to be gathered out of that activity.
I have been reading Ivan Illich and one things he says very clearly is that in a schooled society learning is thought to be the result of teaching. Teaching, mentoring, guiding ...whatever we want to call it... helps, but it's not all. There needs to be this desire to learn and to be involved by the learners. This can be spiced up by the teachers, but the latter need to have more autonomy to develop that same flexible learning environment, which in my opinion needs to be more casual, more dynamic, not framed into 50 minute classes. As you pointed out, this does't match the paradigm of timed classes, expected formal examination and of a static, universal curriculum. It requires personalization and costumization of a flexible curriculum, which should become more open as learners also become more mature in their choices and knowing.
I think most teachers will be up for it - there a culture changing - but the structure needs to be in place.
just my two cents again - this is such an interesting iscussion that I don't seem to be bale to shut up! ...
cris
I totally agree. You express your thoughts so well.
And I have sympathy with the teachers who try to break into the loop and can't. There's a strict curriculum and policies reminding them of the contrived settings in which their teaching has to occur and the results that are expected to be gathered out of that activity.
I have been reading Ivan Illich and one things he says very clearly is that in a schooled society learning is thought to be the result of teaching. Teaching, mentoring, guiding ...whatever we want to call it... helps, but it's not all. There needs to be this desire to learn and to be involved by the learners. This can be spiced up by the teachers, but the latter need to have more autonomy to develop that same flexible learning environment, which in my opinion needs to be more casual, more dynamic, not framed into 50 minute classes. As you pointed out, this does't match the paradigm of timed classes, expected formal examination and of a static, universal curriculum. It requires personalization and costumization of a flexible curriculum, which should become more open as learners also become more mature in their choices and knowing.
I think most teachers will be up for it - there a culture changing - but the structure needs to be in place.
just my two cents again - this is such an interesting iscussion that I don't seem to be bale to shut up! ...
cris
--
Cristina Costa
Site: www.knowmansland.com
Blog: http://knowmansland.com/learningpath
Skype: navysternchen
Twitter: cristinacost
Cristina Costa
Site: www.knowmansland.com
Blog: http://knowmansland.com/learningpath
Skype: navysternchen
Twitter: cristinacost
John Pallister
Oct 20, 2008, 11:36:16 AM10/20/08
to ePortfolios and PLTs
A parrallel discussion on Digital Literacy that will be worth
following and contributing to http://fraser.typepad.com/socialtech/2008/10/notes-towards-d.html
- consistent with the idea that it is what the learner does in their
PLE that is important; they need to be Digitally Literate to Function
in the environment; they need to know how to communicate, how to keep
themsleves safe etc - Josie is right, the whole area is not getting
the discussion it deserves - NOR are PLTs, Functional Skills and all
related topics.
John
On 19 Oct, 15:20, "cristina costa" <cristinac...@gmail.com> wrote:
> John,
>
> I totally agree. You express your thoughts so well.
> And I have sympathy with the teachers who try to break into the loop and
> can't. There's a strict curriculum and policies reminding them of the
> contrived settings in which their teaching has to occur and the results that
> are expected to be gathered out of that activity.
>
> I have been reading Ivan Illich and one things he says very clearly is that
> in a schooled society learning is thought to be the result of teaching.
> Teaching, mentoring, guiding ...whatever we want to call it... helps, but
> it's not all. There needs to be this desire to learn and to be involved by
> the learners. This can be spiced up by the teachers, but the latter need to
> have more autonomy to develop that same flexible learning environment, which
> in my opinion needs to be more casual, more dynamic, not framed into 50
> minute classes. As you pointed out, this does't match the paradigm of timed
> classes, expected formal examination and of a static, universal curriculum.
> It requires personalization and costumization of a flexible curriculum,
> which should become more open as learners also become more mature in their
> choices and knowing.
> I think most teachers will be up for it - there a culture changing - but the
> structure needs to be in place.
>
> just my two cents again - this is such an interesting iscussion that I don't
> seem to be bale to shut up! ...
>
> cris
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 1:28 PM, John Pallister <jpallis...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> > I feel the need, prompted by Cristina's Post,http://tinyurl.com/5flo7d
> Twitter: cristinacost- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
following and contributing to http://fraser.typepad.com/socialtech/2008/10/notes-towards-d.html
- consistent with the idea that it is what the learner does in their
PLE that is important; they need to be Digitally Literate to Function
in the environment; they need to know how to communicate, how to keep
themsleves safe etc - Josie is right, the whole area is not getting
the discussion it deserves - NOR are PLTs, Functional Skills and all
related topics.
John
On 19 Oct, 15:20, "cristina costa" <cristinac...@gmail.com> wrote:
> John,
>
> I totally agree. You express your thoughts so well.
> And I have sympathy with the teachers who try to break into the loop and
> can't. There's a strict curriculum and policies reminding them of the
> contrived settings in which their teaching has to occur and the results that
> are expected to be gathered out of that activity.
>
> I have been reading Ivan Illich and one things he says very clearly is that
> in a schooled society learning is thought to be the result of teaching.
> Teaching, mentoring, guiding ...whatever we want to call it... helps, but
> it's not all. There needs to be this desire to learn and to be involved by
> the learners. This can be spiced up by the teachers, but the latter need to
> have more autonomy to develop that same flexible learning environment, which
> in my opinion needs to be more casual, more dynamic, not framed into 50
> minute classes. As you pointed out, this does't match the paradigm of timed
> classes, expected formal examination and of a static, universal curriculum.
> It requires personalization and costumization of a flexible curriculum,
> which should become more open as learners also become more mature in their
> choices and knowing.
> I think most teachers will be up for it - there a culture changing - but the
> structure needs to be in place.
>
> just my two cents again - this is such an interesting iscussion that I don't
> seem to be bale to shut up! ...
>
> cris
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > I feel the need, prompted by Cristina's Post,http://tinyurl.com/5flo7d
> > to over-cook the PLE thinking a bit more!
>
> > I distilled, from an earlier attempt at summarising the PLE
> > discussions that I had followed ,http://tinyurl.com/57eugdthat it is
>
> > I distilled, from an earlier attempt at summarising the PLE
>
> - Show quoted text -
Joe.W...@sqa.org.uk
Oct 20, 2008, 11:54:05 AM10/20/08
to eportfolio...@googlegroups.com
World is getting more and more joined up.
I had just left a comment on Josie's Blog when this posting arrived and earlier today recommended that a colleague on twitter join this group as he is looking at Google Docs as mechanism for e-portfolio personal learning environment for school pupils.
Spooky
I am enjoying range of contributions to discussion
Joe Wilson
Business Manager HN/VQ Business and IT
Scottish Qualifications Authority
Tel 0845 213 5389
Mobile 07834 843011
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The Optima Building ,
58 Robertson Street , Glasgow ,G2 8DQ
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John Pallister
Oct 20, 2008, 1:42:33 PM10/20/08
to ePortfolios and PLTs
Hi Joe - I think that you have spotted one of the interesting
characteristics of this new participative Web thing, all of the
questions that have similar foci gravitate towards each other. The
community that then comes into being has a common interest. Now I was
in a traffic jam tonight pondering on your post that I had picked up
on the Train. I have very little experience of traffic jams living in
County Durham. I began to draw an analogy, giving fishing a bit of a
rest, I thought that all the cars in the queue has the same interest,
to get out of Darlington. A bit like the community that many of us
belong to, a community that wants to make things better for our
learners; a community that wants to harness the best of the available
technology; a community that can see the potential of social software
to support and engage our learners; a community that recognises that
our learner s need a specific set of skills to enable them to survive
and thrive....
But the questions and issues continue to assemble, continue to join
the traffic jam - the answers and solutions, unfortunately, are in
short supply! I wonder if anyone with 'clout' is listening to these
communities? A lot of professionals giving their ideas and thinking
for free, what a bargain for some listener! - half and hour to move
3 miles! come on Darlington!, Oh and the train was a bit too busy for
my liking, the Wifi was a bit too slow...
> postmas...@sqa.org.uk
> **********************************************************************
characteristics of this new participative Web thing, all of the
questions that have similar foci gravitate towards each other. The
community that then comes into being has a common interest. Now I was
in a traffic jam tonight pondering on your post that I had picked up
on the Train. I have very little experience of traffic jams living in
County Durham. I began to draw an analogy, giving fishing a bit of a
rest, I thought that all the cars in the queue has the same interest,
to get out of Darlington. A bit like the community that many of us
belong to, a community that wants to make things better for our
learners; a community that wants to harness the best of the available
technology; a community that can see the potential of social software
to support and engage our learners; a community that recognises that
our learner s need a specific set of skills to enable them to survive
and thrive....
But the questions and issues continue to assemble, continue to join
the traffic jam - the answers and solutions, unfortunately, are in
short supply! I wonder if anyone with 'clout' is listening to these
communities? A lot of professionals giving their ideas and thinking
for free, what a bargain for some listener! - half and hour to move
3 miles! come on Darlington!, Oh and the train was a bit too busy for
my liking, the Wifi was a bit too slow...
> **********************************************************************
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