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Description of my Personal Learning Environment (PLE)
Experts
This section indicates how I access various experts (who I consider to be an expert would be an entirely different discussion). Then it goes further to clarify some of the tools or settings I use to conduct this interaction. It is important to pay attention to the direction of the arrows on the connecting lines. For instance, if my interaction with an expert allows me to share ideas and in doing so influence him/her than the arrow will be pointing in both directions.
Experience
Under this section I attempt to classify the sources and external influences of my personal experiences as these experience contribute to my learning. Additionally I show the tools I use for connecting with these external influences. Some experiences I would come into contact with directly and others would be through a tool, let’s say Skype.
Environment
The environment (learning environment) I believe in some way affects my learning. Where I live affects the experts (which includes other learners) I interact with. This will in turn affect the experiences I have. Here I also define the environment more broadly including ‘the air I breathe’ as that does in some affects my learning. For instance, if it is too cold I may not walk to the library to get a book but would rather stay at home and access online resources.
Light Blue Triangles
What I try to show here are the three many tools that I use to store, filter and connect to information from these various locations. They are delicious.com, iGoogle, and Google Reader.
Finally, I attempt to filter the information that has reached me. I generally choose to not be accepting of everything that I read or hear of, believing that critical thinking and analyzing of information and content are important skills of a networked learner.
