McElvaney - 1 views
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Free and easy-to-use technologies offer new ways to find, organize, create, and interact with information.
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The 2009 Horizon Report defines personal webs as "customized, personal web-based environments . . . that explicitly support one's social, professional, [and] learning . . . activities via highly personalized windows to the networked world" (Johnson, Levine & Smith, 2009, p. 19), and heralds them as an emerging learning trend.
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This paper explores personal web technologies (PWTs) and their learning applications. Examples are given of commonly used, customizable technologies such as: social bookmarking, personal publishing tools, aggregators, and metagators.
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learning needs extend far beyond the culmination of a training session or degree program. Working adults must continually update their skills and behaviours to conform to the constantly changing demands of the workplace (Lewis & Romiszowski, 1996)
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some needs may best be addressed by the individual him/herself.
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PLE) to manage their own learning resources; whether these are wikis, news feeds, podcasts, or people.
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The use of PWTs for learning directly supports several principles of connectivism, a learning theory outlined by Siemens (2006): (i) Knowledge rests in networks, (ii) Knowledge may reside in non-human appliances, and learning is enabled / facilitated by technology, and (iii) Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities (p. 31).
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If individuals can sufficiently develop their ability to find, organize, and manage these connections, their available knowledge does not have to be limited by the confines of their own skulls.
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To navigate the Internet more efficiently, individuals can assemble a virtual toolbox from an ever-growing list of free, and often open-source, technologies to aid in aggregating, organizing, and publishing information online.
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To create a personal web for learning, it is first necessary to explore what personal web technologies are, where to find them, and how to use them.
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Social bookmarking and research tools allow users to save web pages, articles, and other media (usually to an online storage location) and organize them in personally meaningful ways.
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n general, the length and full-featured capabilities of blogging offer learners the opportunity to explore topics in depth and reflect, while the speed and simplicity of micro-blogging lends itself more towards posing questions and collaborative brainstorming (King, 2009).
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esides enriching and enlivening a post, these tools make it possible for an individual to publish artifacts that are ill-served by text-only displays.
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Micro-blogs, such as Twitter (twitter.com), allow users to post short messages from their computer or mobile phone.
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Users can also 'follow' other members to receive a stream of their posts.
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asily "ask and answer questions, learn from experts, share resources, and react to events on the fly"
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ndividuals who follow multiple blogs and/or regularly visit news or media sites may find juggling the disparate streams of information overwhelming. For this reason, it can be helpful to subscribe to these streams (or “feeds”) by using an aggregator.
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Metagators, also called portals or start pages, can aggregate feeds, social networks, and widgets to create a central, personalized location for an individual's Internet usage
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Netvibes and iGoogle
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Widgets are small, adaptable, programmable, web-based gadgets that can be embedded into a variety of sites or used on mobile phones or desktops (
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Due to the fact that they are user-created, there is no exact definition of a PLE (PLE, n.d.). In general, a PLE is the sum of websites and technologies that an individual makes use of to learn.
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PLEs may range in complexity from a single blog to an inter-connected web of social bookmarking tools, personal publishing platforms, search engines, social networks, aggregators, etc.
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http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wiki/index.php?title=Ple
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Once an individual creates a PLE or PLN, there is no need to sit in front of a computer to access it. The majority of PWTs have mobile-friendly versions available, allowing individuals to take their learning to go.
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Instead of limiting learning to traditional environments, mobile versions of PWTs give learners more options on where and when to learn.
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However, there is a catch: PWTs may clash with traditional, linear, teacher-centered instruction (see Figure 2)
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Learners who use PWTs must learn to question sources, verify information, compare and contrast various perspectives and become more independent
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need to focus on building critical media and information literacy skills, so that students can effectively navigate the online maze and avoid being fooled by false or misleading information.
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students have already experimented with a personal web technology, such as social networking, but, "few of them are being taught how to leverage its potential and benefit from the deep learning that can ensue"
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In higher education, PWTs could be of great use for researching, developing PLNs, and creating online portfolios.
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An undergraduate student who uses a research tool such as Zotero will graduate with a searchable, organized collection of annotated resources that could be valuable in the workplace or in future academic undertakings.
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As the individual becomes increasingly connected to their PLN, they may become increasingly disconnected to those who are physically around them, such as family and friends
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Using PWTs to incessantly check for new articles, status updates, and activity may become a drain on one’s attention and productivity
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Valuable or innovative ideas put forth by lesser-known individuals can easily become lost in the noise.
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ndividuals who wish to learn from their personal network must strive to create a diverse PLN populated with voices that may dissent, challenge, or provoke. Otherwise, the PLN cannot foster critical and creative thinking,
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anything they publish on the Internet may be found by supervisors, peers, teachers, a
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uture hiring managers (Harris, 2007)
