This document discusses deconstructing personal learning networks (PLNs) as a way to understand 21st century students' learning styles. It describes analyzing 50 undergraduate students' PLNs, which visualized their learning interests, connections, and tools. Word clouds of the PLNs showed academic interests centered around professors, friends, and family. Social interests focused on Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. There was diversity in how students constructed their PLNs. Analyzing PLNs provided insight into students' preferred learning environments and connections.
Energy Resources. ( B. Pharmacy, 1st Year, Sem-II) Natural Resources
Deconstruction of Personal Learning Networks
1. Deconstruction of Personal Learning Networks
(PLNs) as an approach in understanding the
learning styles of 21st century students
Maria Victoria G. Pineda
De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines
Email: mavic.pineda@delasalle.ph
http://slideshare.net/mobilemartha
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23. Perspectives
There are limitless ways of
generating knowledge because of
emerging technologies.
(Attwell, 2006)
There is a need to reexamine
how knowledge is
viewed, created or recreated.
(Cormier, 2008)
“There is no beginning or end for the
rhizome, it is process as cultural
code, multiple and fractal in nature”.
(Bussey, Bjurstrom, & and Sannum, 2010)
24. Agenda
Introduce the PLE
The PLE represented as a rhizome in the
PLN
Personal Learning Network (PLN) as a new
way of understanding the learning process
A different approach to PLN analysis
Results of the analysis
tonrulkens’ flickr.com
Conclusions source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/47108884@N07/4523314906/sizes
Photo
photostream,
25. What is a PLE
A personal learning environment
(PLE) is a system that provides
support tools to learning and
recognizes the meaningful role of the
individual in her personal learning
environment. Attwell (2007)
visually represented as a mind-
mapping exercise by a labeled
network of nodes and bubbles, as a
personal learning network (PLN)
diagram.
27. What is a PLN?
According to Couros (2010, p. 125)
“personal learning networks are the
sum of all social capital and
connections that result in the
development and facilitation of a
personal learning environment.”
31. Students define their own learning
interests.
There is deeper reflection on the
information they give.
The freedom to build the PLN
permitted exhibition of one’s learning
style.
Photo source: hikingartist.com at http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/
32. Profile of the students
50 sophomore
undergraduate students
taking a degree on
Information Systems
Highly immersed in
various social computing
& online tools
Everyone had the
orientation on the PLN
Photo source: hikingartist.com at http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/
33. The methodology
Analyze the Observation
Disintegrating labels and
Drawing of the myriad
the shoots & terms used
the PLNs stems of the by the ways the
PLNs students in PLNs were
their PLNs. drawn.
35. 1. Disintegrating the shoots and
stems of the rhizomes
The analysis showed that a DLSU
sophomore student would have an
average of five (5) shoots of constructed
learning interests and eighteen and (18)
stems of learning contributors.
some have great dependencies on tools
some would have rich social circles
some putting balance in their active
offline and online engagements
38. 2. Word cloud results
In the academic category word
cloud, it showed that students value
individuals such as professors (40%);
friends (38%); family, siblings and
parents (34%);
classmates, colleagues and
schoolmates (32%). DLSU which
refers to the university, including the
school, was also significant to 30% of
the students.
39. 2. Word cloud results
The word cloud shows that
Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Youtube, Yahoogro
ups, Yahoo Messengers, forums are the
mostly sought and used social arena for
interactions. This includes group work and
collaboration.
There is high level of variety of general
interests.
Youtube and blogs have been arbitrary
learning facets, moving from academic to
social to general interests.
The students made use of
Tumblr, Blogger, Mindmeister, Photobucket,
Wordpress and Facebook to host their PLNs.
43. •Variations in the PLN Diagrams
3. Variations in the PLN
diagrams
First example given in the class
44.
45.
46.
47.
48. 3. Variations in the PLN
diagrams
Some have used dominant colors like
pink or green as if the PLN has a
persona.
Some have huge webs of interests.
Some have numerous stems of social
connections.
Some have obviously more personal or
hobby interests than their academic
interests.
Students who have high level of interest
in knowledge acquisition would exhibit
many fractals of shoots and stems.
Diversity is very evident.
49. New discoveries
The PLN as a rhizome is a representation of a
student’s set of learning interests + artifacts +
technologies + person experts contributing to
the learning momentum & its environment at a
given time.
The PLN can be used to generate a learner’s
interests, strategies, priorities or even set of
pleasures that contribute to her personal
learning goals.
50. Some limitations
The focus was on the learning
interests of the students only.
Relative to the time when the
student’s have composed this.
Lacks end of course reflection on the
PLN process
51. Conclusions
The PLN may be considered as the blueprint of a
student’s preferred learning connections and
learning support tools.
Accommodation of rhizomatic model of
education in HEIs.
◦ The better the learner is able to define and construct
her personal learning environment, the more she is
capable of increasing the shoots and stems of her
learning.
School systems will have to change the rules
and ways in facilitating guidance to students.
It is also recommended to have the teachers
create their own PLNs and allow their interests
complement their teaching.
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Increasing nodes & networks
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53. Maraming salamat po.
Victoria G. Pineda
Information Technology Dept.
De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines
Email: mavic.pineda@delasalle.ph
http://slideshare.net/mobilemartha
54. Acknowledgment
The author would like to express
gratefulness to the Social Media class
of the College of Computer Studies of
De La Salle University this first
trimester of SY 2011-2012, for sharing
their PLN diagrams in this study.
The author also made use of Tagcrowd
tool in generating the word cloud and
sourced some of the images from the
Flickr photostream of the HikingArtist.
55. References
Attwell, G. (2007). Personal Learning Environments: The
future of e-Learning. eLearning Papers, 2(1).
Bussey, M., Bjurstrom, A., & and Sannum, M. (2010).
Explorations in intercultural work integrated
learning:Educational process for a topsy-turvy world. Futures
, 39-47.
Cormier, D. (2008). Rhizomatic education: Community as
curriculum. Innovateonline
, http://www.innovateonline.info/pdf/vol4_issue5/Rhizomatic_
Education__Community_as_Curriculum.pdf [viewed 21
October 2011].
Couros, A. (2010). Developing personal learning networks for
open and social learning. In G. Veletsianos (Ed.), Emerging
Technologies in Distance Education, 109-128. Athabasca:
Athabasca University Press.
Fiedler, S. and Väljataga, T. (2011). Personal learning
environments: Concept or technology. International Journal of
Virtual and Personal Learning Environments, 2(4) 1-11.
Notes de l'éditeur
In this era, information and communication technologies made it possible for many learners to have convenient access to rich content, principal works and information that have not been conveniently available before. there is a need to reexamine how knowledge is viewed, created or recreated.More than the formal settings of the classroom or the university alone, there are limitless ways of generating knowledge because of emerging technologiesThe students themselves become producers of knowledge as technologies become ambient. [4] And learning becomes multi-episodic, taking place in concurrence, in multiplicities, different facets, transforming and expanding.
With the advent of the net-generation people, PLE recognizes that learning as a continuous process needs support tools. And the PLE/PLN is constructed by the learner herself. She or he is responsible in organizing the things he wants to learn or she is learning.It also recognizes that there are several sources of learning, most of them are informal learning.
Personal learning network or PLE is a new approach in learning. It is a philosophy, a pedagogy. It provides learners space under their own control. It provides a more holistic learning environment providing bringing together sources and context or even separately.
In most traditional studies, surveys are used to determine students’ profile, access to ICT and perception to learning. It is the teacher or researcher who defines the choices of answers for the students. study may be grounded on data but essentially talked about the perception of the students based on the parameters set by the researcher.data that have gone to a longer reflection time would be more meaningful like how the students constructed their PLNs. Hence, data in a survey may be factual but may constitute of reflexive answers, very much dependent on the recent activity recollection of the responder.
So the approach in this study was to extract the learning interests from the students themselves. The students were oriented and taught about personal learning environments.
We have to guide our students to exercise prudence, know-how, and wisdom in the knowledge they pull, develop better informational skills, and engage astutely online or offline