Your new post is loading...
It's clear that more and more schools are aiming to prepare students for a global marketplace that requires networked learning experiences, an understanding of digital citizenship, and a way to navigate and organize a stream of information and resources from a variety of different sources.
...
"This sort of [networked] learning actually helps students organize themselves in a very busy world," Mr. Hollinger said. "Before, when students were working, they would get lost in the hubbub of everything that happens online. We found it was essential for them to be able to create a space [for those resources]."
Via Peter B. Sloep
Many have argued that maintaining employability in a knowledge society demands that learning doesn't stop when graduating, rather it requires that the formal, school-based learning be succeeded by a life of continuous learning, mostly in informal settings. Sensible though this may be, there is a problem. Formal learning breeds an attitude of dependence, listening to your teachers and complying with school rules. Informal learning is largely independent, self-guided learning, which requires almost the opposite attitude of being selective about what others claim and making up your own rules. Therefore, if lifelong learning for the knowledge society has any chance to take root, schools (starting at the secondary level already, K-12) should help their students and pupils to become independent learners. Since this requires nothing less than a change of philosophy, it goes without saying that actually doing so is not easy.
The article's idea of teaching children to create and maintain their own personal learning environment therefore is a much to be welcomed initiative. Thus far, PLEs have mainly caught on in the realm of professional development, with people as Jane Hart and Harold Jarche arguing for the important role they can have in the corporate world. However, this article shows that people in secondary education have perfectly understood that children already should be trained to do so.
The article makes much of the use of Symboloo, with which I am not familiar. But it is important that the children are not taught the tricks of a particular tool but rather become familiar with the idea of creating and maintaining a PLE, irrespective of its implementation in a particular tool. (@pbsloep)
PLEs are the environment of the future