Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies/Facilitative Tools of PLE

Facilitative Tools

Different definitions of PLE reflect different perspectives of us to explore PLE. One of them is from the perspective of emerging technology and tools which can facilitate the learner to construct his personal learning environment. For example, Sean FitzGerald held the view that "A Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is a collection of free, distributed, web-based tools, usually centred around a blog, linked together and aggregating content using RSS feeds and simple HTML scripts"^[1]. George Siemens also held such view that PLE is "a collection of tools, brought together under the conceptual notion of openness, interoperability, and learner control"^[2].

Even though many people view PLE from the perspective of emerging technology and tools, but there is still some difference between them. The main difference is that some people are from the learner's point of view on how to construct PLE . And the other are from the software designer or developer's point of view on how to construct PLE. Such an example is that the PLE project at Bolton University has released the PLE software PLEX^[3] 2006 .

Here list some emerging technology and tools mainly from the view of the learner on how to construct PLE.

1. Tools facilitate the user to create content.

Tools facilitate the user to create content also can be divided into two categories. One of them is like Blog,Flickr,Yutube,etc., and the other is like wiki or google docs or some services which mashup based on google maps or google earth, such as Panoramio.

As for these two kinds of tools, supporting the user to produce content is common characteristic , but the way of how to organize the user content is very different. The former is mainly according to the user identity therefore every one has an unique URL website used to accumulate his own content. However，the latter is mainly according to the content logic itself .

You can list a lot of the name of the tools by media type which the tool mainly supports. For example, here list some tools in China.

• Video
  • tudou,http://www.tudou.com/
• Audio
  • 8box,http://www.8box.cn/
• picture
  • yupoo,http://www.yupoo.com/

2. Tools facilitate the user to communicate.

Apart from Email as main online communication tool, some new forms of communication tools appeared in recent years,such as Skype and Twitter which is still called microblog by some people. There are also some similar products of Twitter in China such as jiwai,zuosha,fanfou,etc.

3. Tools facilitate the user to share social network.

There is another service called social network sites(SNSs) which mainly help users to share their social network . Boyd, d. m., & Ellison, N. B. (2007) argue that the public display of connections is a crucial component of SNSs^[4]. According to the report of 《Sharing Privacy and Trust in Our Networked》(OCLC 2007) SNSs primarily designed to facilitate interaction between users who share interests,attitudes and activities, such as Facebook,Mixi and MySpace ^[5].

4. Tools facilitate the user to work effective.

Tools like RSS Reader and Tag offer a new way for user to manage information and knowledge effective.

As for each kind tool list above, there are many concrete tools or services the user can select. Here some examples who adopt these tools to construct their PLE:

• David Delgado and his PLE,http://eduspaces.net/davidds/weblog/category/ple
• Michele Martin and her PLE,http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog/2007/04/my_personal_lea.html
• Ray Sims and his PLE,http://simslearningconnections.com/ple/ray_ple.html

Reference

[1]Sean FitzGerald, http://seanfitz.wikispaces.com/creatingyourple

[2]George Siemens,http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/archives/002884.html

[3]PLEX(2006),http://www.reload.ac.uk/plex/

[4]boyd, d. m., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 11. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html

[5]OCLC(2007),Sharing Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World,Retrieved December 9, 2007 from: http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/sharing.pdf