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Changing The Rules From Textbooks To PLEs Cambiando Las Reglas de Juego de Los Libros de Texto Al PLE
Changing The Rules From Textbooks To PLEs Cambiando Las Reglas de Juego de Los Libros de Texto Al PLE
To cite this article: Manuel Area & Ana L. Sanabria (2014) Changing the rules: from textbooks to
PLEs / Cambiando las reglas de juego: de los libros de texto al PLE, Cultura y Educación, 26:4,
802-829, DOI: 10.1080/11356405.2014.979068
Universidad de La Laguna
(Received 3 May 2013; accepted 8 November 2013)
PLE is especially related to the perception of control over the content, plan-
ning, personal data and access rights. This means that students see their
ePortfolios as PLE when they feel they have control over the intangible
aspects, those such as making decisions on the objectives and the content of
their contributions, the planning and management of personal data and access
rights. Control over tangible elements such as technological mastery of the
digital tools used are not a determining factor.
Another key aspect is the social dimension of PLEs as spaces where the
construction and collective interaction of knowledge takes place, developed in
the context of a Community of Practice (CoP) understood as groups of people
who are united by shared motivations and interest in a topic (Lave & Wenger,
1991; Wenger, 1998). In response to this social factor authors such as Reisas
(2012) and Buchem et al. (2011) underline the value of Activity Theory (AT) as a
valuable tool for the analysis and evaluation of PLEs, as well as for their design
and management. The main contribution of the work by Buchem et al. (2011) is
precisely the analytical tool they developed (Figure 1) to study the various
contributions that have been published on PLEs. His proposal uses the basic
components of Engeström’s AT model and identifies the relevant PLE dimensions
as social practice.
To summarize, we present a model that integrates the structural elements and
processes which teachers can use as a guide during the design and management of
PLEs within the contexts of formal education (see Figure 2). We have also
Technological
Cognitive (learning
Tools
strategies)
Object
Subject
Interest, motivation (intrinsic)
learning process (reflect, interact
and share)
Opening, distribution and Communities of Practice (CoP) Student, teacher, peer and
connections: psychological, Personal Learning Networks (PLN) institutional roles
sociological, pedagogical and Increased opportunities forlearning
technological
Figure 1. Basic components and dimensions of a PLE as social practices (Buchem et al.,
2011).
Changing the rules / Cambiando las reglas de juego 807
Access to information
Reading, Reflection, (blog, wikis, databases,
Build system to etc.)
benefit from the PLN: relationship with
networks information objects
Reading,
PKE: Personal
Reflection, Knowledge
Development, Environments
Creation, PLEP: Personal
Contribution, Learning Environments
Participation and Participation
Figure 2. Integrative proposal developed by Adell and Castañeda (2010) Buchem et al.
(2011), Dabbagh and Kitsantas (2012).
can identify three types of PLE formats that are used as academic products. These
are the following:
In summary, within the context of formal education, PLEs can take different
shapes: as a web environment that centralizes links into the areas or sites where
the student mainly works, finds their information or uses to communicate; as a
graphical representation, similar to a mind map, of their presence on and use of
the internet; or as a compilation, an ePortfolio of their content production in
cyberspace. These formats are not necessarily incompatible, but sometimes appear
interspersed in a PLE that has been developed by students as an academic task.
The form it takes is irrelevant, what matters is that in an educational context the
creation of a PLE should not be conceived as an isolated and one-off task, but as a
project that each student carries out autonomously and as an ongoing task that
continues throughout the school year, consistent with the teaching methodology
and learning objectives developed by the teacher.
DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP
PLE as an educational
objective
Finally, DI requires that the subject consider to what extent they are the
receiver or generator of information, products or digital objects that have the
potential to become valuable and interesting content for others. This final question
regards competence and mastery of skills that express, share and communicate
knowledge. This is clearly a more complex intellectual activity than the other ones
as it consists of becoming a node or source of information for others. Owning this
skill involves mastering the code and language of information representation so
that the subject can express themselves through written texts (both microtexts and
narrative or opinion texts), icons, images, audio-visual language using graphic
representations such as charts or maps, infographics and timelines through hyper-
text and multimedia formats.
Table 1. Literacy dimensions in digital culture and their relationship with PLE.
INSTRUMENTAL Technological mastery of the set of applications that
dimension allows one to navigate, connect and act using different
resources and technological environments from the
digital ecosystem. It also includes the ability to manage
specific tools and applications to create a PLE
(Symbaloo and similar), understood as the
centralization into a single virtual space of all the links
the subject normally uses or which provides him with
valuable information.
COGNITIVE dimension Dimension associated with the type of activities or
intellectual operations the subject carries out with the
information they obtain from the internet. These can
vary in complexity and cognitive nature: from knowing
how to perform searches and finding specific
information for given purposes, to comparing data or
opinions, making personal synthesis, memorizing facts,
analysing digital products, documents or events,
building their own discourse, etc.
SOCIO- Refers to the subject having the skills to interact socially,
COMMUNICATIONAL communicate their ideas, opinions or information that
dimension they have available, provide feedback, being able to
integrate and develop tasks collaboratively on the
internet, etc. This dimension is related to the mastery of
social participation skills and skills needed to build
PLN (Personal Learning Networking) integrated into
their PLE.
AXIOLOGICAL dimension This dimension refers to the system of values, attitudes
and beliefs of the subject in regards to information,
technology and knowledge use in collaboration with
others. This dimension is associated with ideology and
its conception of society and cyberspace as a space for
construction and human coexistence. A belief system
and democratic values do not arise spontaneously, but
are largely the result of the experiences in interacting
with others on the internet.
EMOTIONAL dimension Dimension relative to emotional experiences that,
generally and particularly, facilitate use of technology
in social interactions in digital environments. Empathy,
gratification when affects are exchanged, feelings of
belonging and social integration, the emotional bonds
established between certain individuals on the internet,
etc., are some of the defining features of this dimension
that are projected on the group of subjects that make up
the PLN.
The underlying pedagogical and ideological concept of PLEs has been long-
standing. The main educational principles of the New and Modern School lie
within this concept, as do contributions made by the psychology of constructivist
learning developed during the twentieth century.
Changing the rules / Cambiando las reglas de juego 813
It is clear that the PLE, being a learning approach that emphasizes informal,
individual and self-managed experience using the entire digital ecosystem, can
sound provocative and rebellious to institutionalized education. The PLE
approach, at least in some shapes available in the blogosphere, could be inter-
preted as carrying an educational cyberpunk concept that vindicates personal
learning experiences based on the commitment to share and build knowledge on
the internet as a social subject, without the need for any control or external and
formal institutional regulations.
In this sense a radicalized, ideological vision of PLEs could lead to adopting
self-regulated approaches to learning, questioning the need for formal educational
institutions. Distance learning or home-schooling is in some countries experien-
cing a surge in interest and support; it would thus not be surprising if we were to
encounter PLE proposals that reinterpret, adapting to these digital times, Illich’s
(1975) thesis on deschooling, written several decades ago.
For this reason it might be contradictory to propose integrating PLEs into
formal education as it would seem to students to be an academic task imposed by
the teacher and therefore susceptible to evaluation and subject to a control process
and external regulatory actions.
From our point of view, using PLEs in secondary, higher or any other type of
formal education context supposes the creation of an alternative model to the
current banking model of education, one where the student is compelled to play a
greater decisional role and accept more responsibility for the sources, process and
products they use to obtain and recreate knowledge.
This could be the main pedagogical contribution of PLEs, at least in the short
to medium term: incorporate an academic task structure or project into formal
educational process where each student has to learn from their own experiences,
both individually and in connection with their peers, forcing them to make the
cognitive effort to give shape to informal content, to transform the events,
episodes or occurrences that they experience in cyberspace into an educational
world map that makes sense, and which has a logic and significance. PLEs in
school education open future lines for research and study. These possible projects
include the analysis of: the digital content and resources that students integrate
into their PLE; the criteria and dimensions needed to evaluate the extent and
quality of learning students show through their PLE; the use of new devices and
applications for the development and management of a PLE or the creation of
digital environments where students can share and/or collaboratively construct
PLEs, both with their peers or with students from other institutions. The role and
functions of the teacher as an agent who motivates, regulates and controls the PLE
creation process can also be analysed.
In conclusion, the term PLE, despite its current theoretical vagueness and
imprecision and its insufficient generalization and practical implementation, is a
concept that will, most probably in the coming years, permeate discussions about
alternative pedagogies, where we will see versions produced from a remodelling
of the de-schooling approach as well as from the pedagogical modernization of
formal education systems.
814 M. Area and A. L. Sanabria
Notes
1. In one of his early works on PLEs Atwell (2007b) noted that educational institutions
are linked to the industrial society and uses this idea to justify the need for another
learning approach which focuses more on the learner than on mass education.
2. The metaphor is obviously inspired by contributions from Baumann (2006).
3. See the compilation of bibliographic references on PLE by Daniel K. Schneider,
available at http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Personal_learning_environment.
4. See also the works by Álvarez (2012) that structure PLEs within the competency
framework developed by Ala-Mutka (2011), the work of Reig (n.d.) who develops an
interesting proposal under what he calls PLEP (Personal Learning Environments and
Participation) and by Peña (2013) who addresses PLEs within the context of what he
calls augmented research.
Changing the rules / Cambiando las reglas de juego 815
Tecnológicas
Cognitivas (estrategias
aprendizaje)
Alfabetización (competencias)
control (autonomía,
empoderamiento) propiedad
(personalización, identidad)
Interés, motivación
(intrínsecas) proceso de
aprendizaje (reflexionar,
interactuar y compartir)
(1) El PLE como entorno digital personalizado generado con una herra-
mienta tecnológica o aplicación informática definida. El objetivo funcio-
nal de este PLE es que el estudiante elabore un sitio web concreto con un
determinado software o aplicación informática donde recopile enlaces o
links de diversa naturaleza (blogs, portales webs, bases de datos, redes
sociales, campus virtuales, sitios web, etc.) unificándolos en un único
espacio o entorno virtual. De este modo el PLE se convierte en una
página web configurada por una selección de links o enlaces, a modo de
favoritos, que genera de forma personal el sujeto. Al respecto existen
distintas herramientas o aplicaciones que posibilitan la creación de estos
PLE como son Netvives, Symbaloo y similares. Realmente los PLE
configurados por estas herramientas más que un entorno de aprendizaje,
son entornos personalizados de navegación (EPN) por la web.
820 M. Area and A. L. Sanabria
F1:
Lectura Reflexión Gestión de la Información. Accesoa la
Construir sistema Aprendizaje y Resolución de información (blog,
para beneficiarse de Problemas wikis, base de datos
las redes Buscar, gestionar, analizar …)
información PNL: relación con los
objetos de información
Figura 2. Propuesta integradora elaborada a partir de los autores Adell and Castañeda
(2010) Buchem, Attwell, y Torres (2011), Dabbagh and Kitsantas (2012).
Por ello, el PLE debe ser considerado no sólo como una estrategia o enfoque
didáctico, sino también como un proyecto formativo destinado a que el alumnado,
por una parte, tome conciencia de su identidad o personalidad propia en la red, y
por otra, desarrolle las competencias como sujeto plenamente alfabetizado en la
cultura digital. De este modo, el PLE no sólo es un producto didáctico elaborado
por el estudiante, sino también un proyecto educativo de formación y
alfabetización del ciudadano del siglo XXI.
Este proyecto educativo cuya finalidad es ayudar a que el alumno se socialice
y desarrolle prácticas sociales como ciudadano digital implica que éste desarrolle
dos planos o ejes formativos: la identidad digital y la competencia digital.
LA CIUDADANÍA DIGITAL
como meta educativa del PLE
Notas
1. Precisamente AttwelL (2007b) en uno de sus primeros trabajos sobre PLE señalaba
que la escuela está vinculada a la sociedad industrial y utiliza esta idea para justificar
la necesidad de otro enfoque de aprendizaje basado más en el sujeto que aprende,
que en la enseñanza masificada.
2. La metáfora, evidentemente, está inspirada en las aportaciones de Baumman (2006).
3. Véase la recopilación de referencias bibliográficas sobre PLE realizada por Daniel
K. Schneider y disponible en http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Personal_learning_
environment.
Changing the rules / Cambiando las reglas de juego 827
4. Véase también los trabajos de Álvarez (2012) que estructura los PLE apoyándose en
el marco de competencias elaborado por Ala-Mutka (2011), de Reig (s.f.) que
elabora una propuesta de interés bajo lo que denomina PLEP (Entornos Personales
de Aprendizaje y Participación) y de Peña (2013) donde aborda el PLE en el marco
de lo que denomina como investigación aumentada.
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