Resources

Moving away from "one for all" learning to "one for me" Personalised Learning Environments

Today's learning management systems not only allow learners to obtain and select content, but also allow them to adopt tools according to their purposes, create their own learning portals, tag content or register RSS feeds that provide relevant news feeds. The keyword web 2.0 makes it all possible: Moving away from the standard "one for all" learning management systems to "one for me" Personalised Learning Environments (PLEs) consisting of collections of tools and services which are bundled to individual and/ or shared landscapes of knowledge, experiences and contacts. The articles offered by the e-Learning Papers discuss these Personalised Learning Environments.

The article "Understanding the Learning Space" explores the relationship between digital technologies and current moves to provide a more personalised learning experience. A descriptive model of the relationship between learners, the educational spaces they operate in and digital technologies is presented and analysed. The institution and teacher control the learning space in the traditional model of education. Now, however, the design of the learning space and the uses of the technology are controlled by the learners. The authors also made recommendations that will encourage a better understanding of the learning spaces and the better use of digital technologies.

"On the way towards Personal Learning Environments: Seven crucial aspects" provides seven crucial aspects of personal learning environments derived from the consequences and challenges of PLEs and their rising usage. According to the article, learning with PLE leads to changes concerning: (1) the role of the learner as active, self-directed creators of content; (2) personalisation with the support and data of community members; (3) learning content as an infinite "bazaar"; (4) the big role of social involvement; (5) the ownership of learner's data; (6) the meaning of self-organised learning for the culture of educational institutions and organisations, and (7) technological aspects of using social software tools and aggregation of multiple sources. These aspects may serve as the basis for learners, teachers and educational institutions decisions for (or against) the technological concept of PLE and taking into account its pedagogical implications.

In "Designing for Change: Mash-Up Personal Learning Environments," the authors propose the concept of a mash-up personal learning environment, which, as the authors argue, can provide adaptation mechanisms for learning environment construction and maintenance.

The article "Didactic architectures and organisation models: a process of mutual adaptation" can help to understand whether "eLearning 2.0," eLearning based on the tools and approaches typical of web 2.0, can be useful in different frameworks and organisations. The paper looks at whether it is possible to identify a mutual process of adaptation among the organisational and training models termed as didactic architectures. The authors present four different organisational models (industrial society, post-industrial society, enterprise 1.0 and enterprise 2.0), and the corresponding evolution of didactic architectures (web based training, eLearning 1.0, online education, eLearning 2.0).

The iClass project has been designed as an innovative system adapted to the needs of individuals. Two articles on the iClass project are presented. "Self-Regulated Personalized Learning (SRPL): Developing iClass's pedagogical model" reviews the development process of the pedagogical vision and model during the project. And "Formative Interfaces for Scaffolding Self-Regulated Learning in PLEs" analyses how self-regulated learning processes can be supported with the help of PLEs.