We started this semester by looking for articles, books and blogs about the so called Personal Learning Environment. The vague idea I had of it then, now has a clearer 'shape': that of my own PLE mindmap.
To develop my personal PLE, I started from a definition suggested by our teacher in her blog: “a combination of the formal and informal tools and processes we use to gather information, reflect on it and do something with it, which is essentially what we mean when we talk about learning” (Martin, 2007).
I decided to divide my map into two main branches: formal learning and informal learning. Then I made a brainstorming of all the activities and tools that I use, consciously or not, to learn, both in formal contexts, namely at university, and in my everyday life. Of course, as this mindmap refers to language learning, I tried to focus on language acquisition activities and tools. Many of them seem at first sight to have nothing to do with language learning, but when I write, for example, "Online newspapers" or "Movies", I obviously mean that they are in English (or in French).
After this first step I tried to categorize these activities and tools according to their function. One group is made by those tools I use to "gather information", and the other one by those that help me to reflect on this information and do something with it. I think this second phase, which I called 'processing information', is very important in the process of learning. When you 'do something ' with the information you have, you absorb it, that is, you fully understand it and you remember it. For example, there's no point in reading and learning by heart a lot of grammar rules if you don't apply this knowledge by writing and speaking, making mistakes and correcting them.
While building my PLE mindmap, I realized that there's one tool that has a major role in my learning, at least in the last years. Of course, I'm thinking about the Internet. This is why I chose to visually separate it from the other tools and to link it to other, more detailed, subbranches. The posts of this blog explain why I consider the Internet an effective learning tool. I included my personal blog among the 'processing' activities because it is where I reflect upon what I learn.
Creating this mindmap was itself a way of 'doing something' with what we learned in this last English course. It reminds me of what is called Metacognition. "KNOWING HOW TO LEARN, and knowing which strategies work best, are valuable skills that differentiate expert learners from novice learners. Metacognition, or awareness of the process of learning, is a critical ingredient to successful learning." (Julie Halter, SDSU)
Although we are at the very end of our university career, we will keep on learning thanks to different experiences in our lives. Regardless of the amount of knowledge that we gathered during our school years, we can now claim to be 'expert learners'.
To develop my personal PLE, I started from a definition suggested by our teacher in her blog: “a combination of the formal and informal tools and processes we use to gather information, reflect on it and do something with it, which is essentially what we mean when we talk about learning” (Martin, 2007).
I decided to divide my map into two main branches: formal learning and informal learning. Then I made a brainstorming of all the activities and tools that I use, consciously or not, to learn, both in formal contexts, namely at university, and in my everyday life. Of course, as this mindmap refers to language learning, I tried to focus on language acquisition activities and tools. Many of them seem at first sight to have nothing to do with language learning, but when I write, for example, "Online newspapers" or "Movies", I obviously mean that they are in English (or in French).
After this first step I tried to categorize these activities and tools according to their function. One group is made by those tools I use to "gather information", and the other one by those that help me to reflect on this information and do something with it. I think this second phase, which I called 'processing information', is very important in the process of learning. When you 'do something ' with the information you have, you absorb it, that is, you fully understand it and you remember it. For example, there's no point in reading and learning by heart a lot of grammar rules if you don't apply this knowledge by writing and speaking, making mistakes and correcting them.
While building my PLE mindmap, I realized that there's one tool that has a major role in my learning, at least in the last years. Of course, I'm thinking about the Internet. This is why I chose to visually separate it from the other tools and to link it to other, more detailed, subbranches. The posts of this blog explain why I consider the Internet an effective learning tool. I included my personal blog among the 'processing' activities because it is where I reflect upon what I learn.
Creating this mindmap was itself a way of 'doing something' with what we learned in this last English course. It reminds me of what is called Metacognition. "KNOWING HOW TO LEARN, and knowing which strategies work best, are valuable skills that differentiate expert learners from novice learners. Metacognition, or awareness of the process of learning, is a critical ingredient to successful learning." (Julie Halter, SDSU)
Although we are at the very end of our university career, we will keep on learning thanks to different experiences in our lives. Regardless of the amount of knowledge that we gathered during our school years, we can now claim to be 'expert learners'.
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