PLE_BCN Conference – Day 1

Ok, I am using some time to keep some first impression from the 1st day of the PLE Conference. Looking from the bird’s eye view, I am just trying to figure out what are we talking about here today and what “trending topics” are.

• Institutionalising PLEs: There is much discussion about the role of institutions in PLE, questions posed being “how much institution a PLE can bear” and “howe much PLE can an institution bear?”. Some people say that some institutional support is positive for PLEs, e.g. because institutions can help with data protection and they can provide ressources. Some people say that “personal” is the opposite of “institutional” so there is not room for an institution in a PLE. Ok, you probably heard that discussion before…
• Naming PLEs: There is still an issue of how to label the different formas and variations of learning environments. Someone came up with an acronym iPLE to name insitutionalised PLEs. Someone suggested contrasting PLEs with HPLE – hybrid PLEs. Some people say institutionalised PLEs may be an oxymoron, some propose to call them rich learing environments. Some people say that “open learning environment” would be a better name.
• Defining PLEs: And as ever again in almost every session I attended people come to the basic question being what is a PLE after all. How can we delineate PLE from other learning environments? Is institutionalised PLE still a PLE? Where do we draw the line? What criteria do we use to draw the line? I want to address all these questions tomorrow in our workshop on the PLE definition.
• Designing PLEs: Also many times the issues of how we design PLEs and what pedagogical strategies we use have been addressed. As far as pedagogy we didn’t move to far I am afraid. Learner-centered design, supporting interactions, focusing on activities… I think we’ve all heard it before. So I am hoping for some more on that tomorrow.

These are just some of my mental notes. Let’s see what’s going to be on tomorrow…

• PLE
• PLE_BCN