"The Personal Learning Environment concept is relatively new and is often used interchangeably with Personal Learning Network. The earliest reference is attributed to George Siemens in his 2004 paper, Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. Downes and Attwell have also popularised the concept with Downes describing the PLE as "a tool that allows for a learner (or anyone) to engage in a distributed environment consisting of a network of people, services and resources" (2006, p23).
Semantically, a personal learning environment and a personal learning network differ, with a network referring to connections and the interaction between them, and an environment referring to a broader definition that includes more passive tools and settings. The network and its broader socially constructed environment are interdependent, constantly shaping each other and unable to be separated."
Does Connectivism continue to play an important role in the development and emergence of new pedagogies, where control is shifting from the tutor to an increasingly more autonomous learner
I'm questioning the appropriateness of cooperation versus collaboration. See more on the distinction at http://brain.brainery.net/mcblog/?p=255 especially the Eames post.
For me this was an illuminating article which reinforced much of what I'd gleaned from readings and the need to look on conflict as a 'positive' which may open new perspectives. ----- New Technologies Can Keep You Connected and Help You Manage Information Overload. Learners become amplifiers as they engage in knowledge-building activities, connect what they learn, add value to existing knowledge and ideas, and re-issue them back into the network to be captured by others through their PLNs.
Bruce W. Tuckman produced one of the most quoted models of group development in the 1960s. It makes interesting reading at this stage of the MOOC when some roles have become quite transparent