Monday, March 7, 2011

Virtual Learning Environments & Personal Learning Environments

This week I read a very interesting blog entitled:

Edufountain: Virtual and Personal Learning Environments My Thoughts

It’s from John Fontaine’s blog:
Fountains of Fontaine
Education, Technology, Baking & Other Things
The blog has a lot to say about Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) and Personal Learning Environments (PLE).  Different VLE’s are of a lot of interest to me as I currently help teach Blackboard ( a very popular virtual learning management system) to faculty at Pace University.  Using a VLE as both a student and a professional I see them as great tools. They are constantly making changes to them and new improvements keep coming down the pike. Stephen Downes said that “VLE’s are inherantly closed and inflexible”, but I don’t agree with this at all. As John Fontaine points out, are people who feel this way just having a misunderstanding of what is possible? I think this is the case. As I mentioned, with my job, I get to see faculty using Blackbaord all the time, and I hear them whine and complain…”this can’t do this, and I want to do that, or why can’t it do this?” And it’s frustrating for me, because for the most part it’s a function that can be done.  Everyone is just so quick to harp on the system that they don’t really stop and see what it can do. How it can be used and how it can be used to really improve their students’ learning process.
                The tools on systems such as these does continue to grow and now you can incorporate them all into one area, whether you want to use the tool provided by your LMS or you want to incorporate an ad-on into the system.  I think one of our main issues with this is that “people do often see the VLE as a simple tool, or perhaps as imperfect copies of other tools”, but I don’t think these teachers are being trained properly. I truly believe that VLE enhances learning for students. Speaking as a student myself I think the VLE supports instruction and done correctly is extremely effective.
It’s funny that the blog posts makes mention of a recent editorial from GW Hatchet arguing to make Blackbaord mandatory. This is funny because I’m always saying it should be mandated for teachers. I would love to see a survey of students and see their thoughts on this. I know based of myself and some of my friends that they love the idea that everything can be posted at your fingertips, or everything is conveniently located in one area, and you can discuss online with ease, etc.
I think its interesting to note that the blog was also trying to compare the differences between the VLE and the PLE. Under the PLE they put things like mobile phones, bookmarks, RSS, Readers, Social Networking Sites, etc. In my opinion these things are all being converged. What I mean by this is that all these tools can be used in conjunction with the VLE and honestly that’s how I see it being used as its most effective! I’m looking forward to seeing both PLE & VLE expand…how about you?

3 comments:

  1. Great to bring up blackboard! Some teachers I've had make FULL use of blackboard (using everything from groups, online classes instead of in class sessions some weeks, wikis, file exchange, etc.) and there are some professors who won't accept anything turned in online and everything must be on paper. I don't know if it should be mandatory yet, but I think it's heading in that direction. I like the classes that are split evenly, half online and half in class, the best of both worlds. You get that face-to-face time with the professor and you're still given space to complete the work independently and at your own pace. Great post!

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  2. You bring up a great point...training. As you mentioned when training people, they are so quick on putting something down. Comments like, 'Are you sure this is going to work?' can be annoying because once they learn they get so comfortable. I guess they could give the blame on lack of training instead of on the technology itself.
    Blackboard is appearing more and more around school districts. Which allows for the VLE and PLE to merge together. As you said the devices in the blog can be used both ways and therefore we, as teachers, should take that opportunity. Good link

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  3. Hi Lbonilla,

    You raise many interesting points. Training is key, of course. I completely agree. I also appreciate that you see a convergence occurring, I think this is also true. Although I would argue that the convergence is slow and large organizations like Blackboard are often playing catch up will the more nimble PLE, which can be frustrating.

    I do have a question for you: If a student uses VLE to blog or keep bookmarks, what happens to these repositories when the student is no longer enrolled in the VLE? Does the proprietary nature of the VLE limit student growth?

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