Three things

There are three things we need to know about learning for this generation. The first is that learning needs to be personalised. As I argued in a previous post, learning must be differentiated, because one size does not fit all, and standardised curricula and testing are not fit for purpose in the 21st Century. Personal learning is unique to each learner. The tools and devices students choose, and the pathways they decide to take are in many ways beginning to challenge the synchronised and homogenised approaches we still practice in schools, universities and organisations.

Secondly, learning needs to be social. Much of what we learn comes from contact and communication with others. Increasingly, such contact and communication is mediated through technology, and social media tools are ideal for this purpose. The celebrated Russian psychologist Lev Vygotskii proposed the idea of learning being extended when children are mentored by a knowledgeable other person. His Zone of Proximal Development theory has been central to our understanding of how we learn in social contexts. Yet in recent years, with the proliferation and equalisation of knowledge and the strengthening of social connections through digital media, new theories such as connectivism and paragogy have emerged to challenge the central place of ZPD in contemporary pedagogical theory. We need to ask whether we now need knowledgeable others such as subject experts to help us extend our learning when we have all knowledge at our fingertips. Now many learners are exploiting the power of social media to build and engage with equals in personal learning networks.

Thirdly, learning needs to be globalised. As we develop personal expertise, and begin to practice it in applied contexts, we need to connect with global communities. Students who share their content online can reach a worldwide audience who can act as a peer network to provide constructive feedback. Teachers can crowd-source their ideas and share their content in professional forums and global learning collectives, or harness the power of social media to access thought leaders in their particular field of expertise. Scholars who are not connected into the global community are increasingly isolated and will in time be left behind as the world of education advances ever onward.

Photo by Steve Wheeler


Three things by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Skills for Learning 2.0

I have been thinking and writing about 'Learning 2.0' for some time now. This is the argument that there has been a paradigm shift in the way students learn - from 1.0 to 2.0, from passive to active, from individual to social and from consumer to producer. This shift seems to run parallel to the development of the web over the last decade, and resonates with many who observe 21st century, digitally mediated learning in all its forms.

The University of Toronto's Mark Federman is a major contributor to this discourse. The writings of Federman's late Canadian compatriot Marshall McLuhan clearly pervades his work. During a live television programme on 21st Century learning recently, he was asked whether the three 'R's (Reading, Writing and aRithmetic) would still be relevant to this generation of learners. Federman's response was slick and insightful, even though it had probably been scripted well in advance of the TV show. He declared confidently that for this generation, the three 'R's would not be as important as the four 'C's. Asked to expand on this, he listed the four 'C's: Connection, Context, Complexity and Connotation. Although these are essentially characteristics of modern life, we can contextualise them as skills or literacies. Here are my thoughts and  interpretation of Federman's framework, illustrated above with one of my most recent slide graphics.

Firstly, learners need to be able to connect. In today's fast paced and change ridden world, learners need now, like never before, to be able to connect through technology to peers, experts, content and services. One of the most valuable assets a 21st Century learner has is their personal learning network (PLN). And we are all 21st Century learners, even if we are not enrolled on an accredited study programme. A lot of what is learned (some claim up to 70 per cent) is informal, and with a powerful enough network of connections to a PLN, there is no limit to what a learner can achieve.

Secondly, learners need to be able to contextualise their learning. Bill Gates once famously stated that content was king. This is no longer the case. Now context is king, because situated learning is powerful, and access to content is just the start of learning. Learning can be contextualised in so many different ways, and this is why personal learning tools are so important. The capability to personalise learning environments, exercise agency over the tools and systems you wish to use, and the ability to apply learning to your own individual situation, are extremely important components of successful learning today.

Thirdly, learners need to be able to work with complexity and be able to interpret, filter out extraneous content, and make meaning. They need to be prepared for uncertain futures, none of which can be accurately predicted. In short, they need to be able to see the wood from the trees. There are many tools available today that learners can use to harness the power of web based content, including aggregation, curation and tagging tools, all of which can simplify complexity and allow learners to gain a purchase on chaos.

Finally, learners today need to be able to make meaning from the mass of content they are bombarded with each and every day. Many learners make meaning through discussion, but increasingly we are witnessing a shift toward user generated content, where learners are creating their own videos, blogs, podcasts, slidesets and other digital artefacts to make meaning.

Graphic by Steve Wheeler


Skills for Learning 2.0 by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The importance of being networked

In yesterday's blogpost Separation and connection I talked about the nature of social media and their capability to amplify human contact. Specifically, I made the point that Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) are enabled and strengthened when we make connections through social media tools. One of the key reasons educators need a PLN is to keep in touch, to maintain dialogue with their community of practice. Never before have there been so many opportunities to make contact with educators world wide, many of whom have wonderful creative ideas to share. Indeed, the fact that many social media users are altruistic and are willing to share their ideas for free to their community should be enough to convince most educators to join in. Clay Shirky had it right when he wrote:

'...the use of social technology is much less determined by the tool itself; when we use a network, the most import asset we get is access to one another. We want to be connected to one another, a desire that ... our use of social media actually engages.' (Shirky, 2010: p. 14).

The last line gives it away. We have an innate need to talk to others, to share and compare, reify our own ideas, learn from each other, and gain a sense of belonging to a group of like minded others. This is a deep seated human trait that many psychologists down through the years have researched. Think of Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of human needs (1954), and note that 'belonging' to a group and gaining respect from others are fundamental to his theory. In previous blog posts I have highlighted the need for professionals to share their content for free, and many are doing so. The advantages are enormous, bringing the altruism of others into play. When I share my slides and blogposts under a Creative Commons licence that enables repurposing, somewhere, someone has translated my content into Spanish, opening up a huge new audience for me in Latin America. None of this would be possible without social media, and the ability to connect into a world wide body of colleagues who are striving for exactly the same ends as me. To enrich, extend and enhance learning experiences for their students.

References
Maslow, A. H. (1954) Motivation and Personality (Third Edition). London: Harper Row.
Shirky, C. (2010) Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. London: Allen Lane.

Image source


The importance of being networked by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Reciprocity learning

I watched this morning's PLE conference (#pleconf) unkeynote by Grainne Conole and Ricardo Torres Kompen, which was streamed live from Aveiro, in Portugal. In it, they represented a number of perspectives on personal learning environments, including a discussion on the differential between institutionally managed Virtual Learning Environments (or VLEs) and the free tools that learners are now using on the web. Particularly emphasised was the power and capability of the personal learning network (or PLN) which can not only save you time when you are looking for the answer, but can also lock you into a huge network of like-minded individuals, from where you can 'distribute your knowledge'. We are indeed 'distributed beings', said Grainne, perhaps invoking the work of Mark Curtis.

There was much food for thought, but the conversation that struck me the most, was between them and one of the delegates in the hall, Ilona Buchem (aka @mediendidaktik). Grainne and Ricardo had crowdsourced much of their presentation, through a series of video clips, blogs and tweets. Reflecting this willingness to participate, Ilona suggested that much of the power of the PLN is owed to the willingness of participants to share their knowledge with each other freely. The old adage 'you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours' has never been so well applied as it is to does to the PLN. This kind of reciprocity occurs because people are willing to share, and in so doing, are free to then gain access to the sharing of the other members of their community. It's a kind of membership fee of the largest community on the planet - the network of networks that many millions of people are making use of to connect to each other, to ideas, knowledge and experiences beyond their own immediate physical sphere.

The psychologist Leon Festinger developed social comparison theory - a theory that attempted to explain how people relate to each other psychologically. He suggested that we compare ourselves to others often subconsciously, and then attempt to improve our own positions and gain more accurate self evaluation. It is very much rooted in the traditions of symbolic interactionism (see for example the work of Charles Cooley or George Herbert Mead). Social comparison, in Festinger's terms, is not considered to be a form of competition, but more likely will be to elicit a feeling of belonging within our chosen community. It goes farther. Most would agree that the act of self-disclosure at the start of a relationship can garner a similar response from others. Self disclosure reveals something personal or subjective about yourself. If I remark that I come from Plymouth in South West of England (personal information), the person I am conversing with is more likely to reciprocate by telling me where they are from, or may even remark on their interest in England, or Plymouth, some allied topic such as Sir Francis Drake or the Mayflower. It breaks the ice to self disclose.

In the same way, reciprocity learning relies on the willingness of both parties to give freely. I have written before about the merits of giving your stuff away for free. You never fail to be rewarded. We are, in Mark Zuckerberg's terms, living within a gift ecology - where without freely offered knowledge, and a little give and take, we would all be much poorer.

Image by Chris Ishikawa (NB: Chris made his cute animal image free for use under a CC licence, so his photo gains a wider audience on this blog. Other photographers chose not to offer their cute animal photos in the same way, so they miss out on you appreciating their artistry. Just saying....)


Reciprocity learning by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

We're better connected

I recently presented at a conference with my Plymouth University colleagues Peter Yeomans and Oliver Quinlan. We had planned to present a version of this paper at the annual EDEN Conference held in June in Portugal, but for one reason or another, none of us were able to make it. This is probably the first time we have presented as a team, and I hope it is the first of many future conference appearances together. The result can be found as a 20 minute YouTube video - Connected: Supporting Student Blogging and Communities of Learning - complete with audio track and slides below:



Pete, Oliver and I spoke about the work we have been doing with undergraduate teacher students in Plymouth, using a variety of social media, including blogging and Twitter to support and encourage critical and reflective learning. The important concept we wanted to talk about was communities of learning, and how students can use social media tools to participate in them. Peter talked about the power of social media to create a Personal Learning Network (PLN) and also discussed the ways students manage their online presence. Oliver presented some case studies of how students have successfully harnessed the power of social media tools to gain a foothold in the teaching profession and promote learning. The final section of the presentation, which I presented, dealt with some of the pedagogical theory and implications. I talked about connectivism, paragogy, heutagogy and other emerging theories that seek to explain how we learn in new digitally rich environments. We hope you enjoy listening to the presentation and following the slides. We look forward to reading any comments you may have on the presentation.


We're better connected by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Tools of the trade

I was quite impressed by Joyce Seitzinger's Professional Learning Environment (PLN) model that she presented at Deakin University in Melbourne this week. The first slide on the left shows a quadrant model in which she has used a work/office metaphor to define four discrete functions of a PLN. The first, the Staffroom is quite public, calling on high levels of communication and high profile, and involves the use of microblogging tools such as Twitter. This will work provided the user subscribes to a requisite number of other relevant user accounts, and can share their ideas and converse freely. It will fail if the user does not follow or is not followed by enough other subscribers to enable the benefits of the network effect.

Joyce calls the second quadrant the Filing Cabinet, because essentially, it is low profile and low in terms of the efforts put into communicating with others, and it provides a repository for the user (and their PLN) to store, categorise and possibly share content they think is important to them. Social tagging sites such as Diigo and Delicious can offer this kind of filing cabinet organisation, but so too can wikis and other collaborative tools, which would I imagine, raise the level of engagement and profiling of individuals who organised and shared their content in this manner.

The third quadrant is the Newspaper, which again Joyce sees as low profile and low in terms of communication. I assume that this is because most of the tools she identifies as falling into this category of PLN deployment is push technology (RSS feeds, Google Reader etc). I would imagine that if Joyce placed blogs into this category, (and in the model's present form I see no reason why they shouldn't be there), then a higher profile and higher level of engagement between user and PLN would ensue.

Yet she leaves blogs and other authoring tools to insert into the final quadrant, the Portfolio. This is the quadrant in which a lot of high profile activity is conducted, but I would argue that it is also high in engagement. The question still open to me is whether this model would change from it's current form to represent Personal Learning Networks. Or is there any real difference between these and Professional Learning Networks?

It is worth noting that only the first quadrant of this PLN model is actually performed synchronously, that is, in real time. That may give some a clue as to the latent potential of tools such as Twitter to connect people powerfully and instantly across the globe and to give all of us access to a worldwide network of experts and enthusiasts in any subject for which we have an interest. Everyone should have a PLN, because in today's connected world, without it you are not fully equipped as a professional.

Images courtesy of Joyce Seitzinger


Tools of the trade by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Connected educators

Are you a connected educator? Are you a teacher who has managed to harness the power of social media to connect with peers and experts around the globe? Coming hand in hand with these connections is a whole new culture of learning and teaching. Steven Anderson (@web20classroom) has a lot to say about the connected educator. They are transparent in their thinking, he suggests, and that means that they are not shy in sharing their ideas or giving away their content for free. Connected educators know that in doing this they become global educators, with their content being amplified across a worldwide community of practice. On the #authorspeak Twitter hashtag today there was a lot of commentary about connected educators. Connected educators are transparent in their thinking and tend to reflect more deeply on what they learn, simply because they have had to make the effort to connect with new knowledge.

Nicholas Provenzano (@thenerdyteacher on Twitter) was a major contributor. He said that the Connected educators are co-learners, co-leaders and co-creators of content and that they are never isolated. There are many avenues to connect with people from all over the world, he argued. He added that the Connected Educator uses social media to connect with others around the globe and engage in conversations online.

Kyle Pace (@kylepace), another contributor to the discussion, made the important point that the connected educator with a well developed network depends on that before going to Google. I would imagine that this is because a personal network is hand chosen, and therefore infinitely more trustworthy and relevant to one's own professional needs and interests. He knows that the Professional (and personal) Learning Network (PLN) as an important resource for learning in a connected world.

My own contribution on Twitter #authorspeak today was that connected educators are in a more powerful position than those who are isolated. They have a greater ability to check their facts, call on support and find out new things when connected to their personal learning networks than they do isolated. I also think that the ability (or perhaps more appropriately willingness) they have to share knowledge has become a part of the cultural capital of the connected educator. Sharing - the gift economy on which much of social media are founded - is probably the most important part of a connected educator's role. It is abundantly clear to me that connectivity is one of the essentials in the 21st Century teacher toolkit. We are now learning more from each other than we could ever learn on our own. So I will return to my original question. Are you a connected educator?


Note: The #authorspeak hashtag was a Twitter backchannel of a live presentation by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

Image source


Connected educators by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Amplified

Below is an interview I did for the EU funded Links-Up Expert Testimonial video series on Web 2.0 and e-Learning, in the bright sunshine of Dublin, during the EDEN Conference. Halfway through, watch out for my Roy Orbison impersonation. I talk about amplified content, sharing and collaborating online, and personal learning networks. I also discuss disruptive technologies, risk taking, learner control and the changing landscape of learning.




Amplified by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Parrot fashion

There is a story of a woman who wanted a talking bird so she went to the pet shop bought a parrot. After a few weeks, she returned to the pet shop and complained to the owner that the parrot wasn't talking. 'Does he have a mirror?' asked the shop owner, 'parrots love mirrors. They see themselves and start up a conversation'. So the woman bought a mirror and the next day she was back again. The bird still wasn't talking. 'How about a ladder?' suggested the shop owner, 'parrots love climbing up and down ladders. A happy parrot is more likely to talk.' She bought a ladder. Next day she was back again, because the parrot still wasn't talking. 'Does the parrot have a swing?' asked the shop owner. 'If not, that might be the problem. He will relax if he swings, and then he'll start talking'. The woman sighed, bought the swing and left the shop. The next day she walked into the shop and she looked very upset. 'The parrot died' she reported. The shop owner was shocked. 'Did the parrot say anything... anything at all?' he asked. 'Yes,' said the woman 'right before he died he asked me if they sold any food down at the pet shop.'

The point to this story is that you can spend your life looking into mirrors, worrying about your appearance; You can focus on ladders to try to advance your career; and you can try as many swings as you like to try to entertain yourself. But if you starve yourself of a social life, your relationships will die, and your life experience will be the poorer for it. We live in an increasingly connected world, which is profoundly influencing education. And social media are the enablers. Yet many teachers and students see social networking tools as frivolous entertainment or ego massage. They can be much more than that, and if they are developed appropriately, they can be valuable tools for education.

How many students and teachers are missing out on a broader social experience, because they have disengaged with social media? How many students have a narrower view of learning because they have no professional learning network to call upon? And how many teachers are failing to develop themselves professionally because they think Twitter and other social networking tools are a waste of time? It's true that Twitter can make you feel a little like a parrot talking to itself in a mirror if you don't give it enough time to develop connections and reach the critical mass necessary to become a useful PLN. But if you invest time and effort developing a network of critical friends and knowledgeable experts, it will pay you back a hundredfold.

In a previous blogpost I argued that Twitter is not about content, it is all about connections. There is more to learning than simply taking in knowledge, and more to a course than its content. Connections are important, because they lead to richer social contexts. The ability to connect into and engage with global communities of practice is unprecedented. The conversations to be enjoyed and insights to be gained on Twitter are immense, and their value is immeasurable. Developing your professional learning network is time consuming, but what is the alternative?

Well, I suppose you could always learn parrot fashion.

Main story by Bob Gass. Image source by Riza Nugraha



Parrot fashion by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

My awesome PLN

Earlier today I tweeted this - "I'm relying on you PLN. Without you I am just a single mind."... and of course, I meant it. My PLN is my community of interest and the mirror of my practice. Nobody learns in a vacuum, not even Robinson Crusoe. I cannot begin to describe the amount of new things I have discovered, and continue to discover every day, on Twitter and on other online social environments. It's a treasure house of ideas. It's like having a cafe within reach at all hours of the day. Better still, it's like having a cafe where all your friends, most respected colleagues and also your favourite sages and teachers are always available to sit down and share their ideas with you. The power of this PLN (personal learning network) should not be underestimated. The PLN has always been there of course, but never before has it been available to us in such a widely distributed, accessible and immediate format. The social web has transformed learning networks and is gathering pace as social media and handheld devices continue to evolve in tandem, providing anytime, anyplace learning that was inconceivable for most of the last century. As heard on the BBC Click Technology programme today, social media is the water cooler and the street corner of the Internet. We live in very exciting times.

My PLN is awesome. Sure, I have had a hand in selecting many of the people I follow on Twitter and those I link up with on Facebook, so I have shaped it. But PLNs also take on a life of their own, and people keep popping up who attract me to follow them. This kind of serendipity is what helps to make my PLN awesome. As I continue to learn from others, so the onus is on me to share what I have learnt. There can be nothing precious about this. Anyone who hoards knowledge in today's connected society is deluding themselves that that can actually benefit them in any way. It won't. Give what you have learnt away. Share it with your friends. Make it free to all those who are interested. You won't lose anything, but you will build stronger social and intellectual ties with your community of practice and interest, and as you share your own knowledge, you will discover that it comes back to you with interest.


My awesome PLN by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Once more unto the Tweeps...

Once in a while I like to have a little fun with literature as can be seen in my blogpost in tribute to the genius of Lewis Carroll: A Web 2.0 Wonderland. For those who enjoyed such frivolous wordplay, here is a famous speech from one of William Shakespeare's plays, liberally peppered with hyperlinks to just a few of my favourite Twitter pals - some of those who have contributed significantly to my Personal Learning Network over the last year or so. These are all Tweeps worth following if you have any interest in education or learning technology. I have taken a lot of poetic licence with it. but if your name/link is not in this collection, please don't take up arms against me. Be nobler in the mind. Either your name didn't quite fit in to the scan (I can only take so many liberties), or I may yet include you in a future confection.... I hope you enjoy reading this and perhaps find a few new Tweeps to follow.

Once Moreland unto the breach, dear friends, once Moore;
Or Kruse the Hall up with our English dead.
In peace there's Domingo becomes a man,
As Michie stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war Bozarth our ears,
Then imitate the Aspin of the tiger;
Disguise fair nature with Hart-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a Terrell aspect;
Let Clay through the portage of the head
Like the brass Cronin; let the Bray o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a Gallen rock
O'erhang and Jakob his confounded base,
Smithers with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the Kuchel wide,
Hold hard the Baird and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is Finch from fathers of war-proof!
Frasers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from Vaughan till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
DisConnor not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call'd fathers did Barrett you.
Be Couros now to men of Grosseck blood,
And teach them how to Winn. And you, good Yeomans,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The Mitchell of your pasture; Lewis swear
That you are worth your Rubin; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you Levine and base,
That hath not noble Costa in your eyes.
I see you Dan like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's a Flynn:
Folley your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Kelly, England, and Saint George!'


Henry V, Act III.


Image source by Raul P


Once more unto the Tweeps... by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Show your appreciation

This year's Edublog Awards are bigger and better than ever with over 400 nominations in 23 catagories. There are awards for best individual blogger, best individual tweeter, best new blog, best teacher blog, most influential blog post and even an award for the best use of a PLN (Personal Learning Network). I feel both honoured and humbled that this year my peers have once again decided to nominate me in the best individual blogger and best individual tweeter (as @timbuckteeth) categories. I don't really care who wins, it's just very pleasant to know that people appreciate what I'm doing in these spaces, and I'm sure most of the other nominees will feel the same.

Perhaps the most prestigious award, as always, is the Lifetime Achievement award. In this category, there are a number of luminaries, including some very good friends of mine such as Alec Couros, Alan Levine and Jane Hart. But I predict the winner of this category is going to be Sir Ken Robinson - his work, more than anyone else's this year, has influenced our thinking as educators, and he has been doing this successfully for a very long time now. If you are a regular blogger, tweeter, or social media enthusiast, you will be familiar with many, if not all of the nominees. Now it's time to vote. It's time to honour those who have contributed to our understanding and sharpened our practice in the use of tools for learning. I wish all those who have been nominated success - they are all winners for reaching the final stage. Let's all vote to tell them just how much we appreciate their contributions. Voting closes on 14th December.

Image source

Personal Learning Resources

Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) are made up of more than web tools. People and non-digital resources are also important components. My Personal Learning Network is essentially the people I connect with in order to learn what I need when I need it. Twitter, Facebook and other social networking tools are simply the means through which I do it. But as I have tried to articulate in earlier blogposts, my PLE is more than people and tools. The picture to the left shows some of the books I have collected together within my Personal Learning Resources (PLRs) and demonstrates that I don't rely completely on digital media to learn within my information society. They are a sample of the text books I have chosen to study because they are the ones that inform me the best within my own community of interest.

It is said that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at the books they have on their shelves. Well, an examination of this picture will reveal that I'm fascinated by e-learning and digital media in all forms and I'm also interested in social interaction and various dimensions of human culture. The Skin of Culture by De Kerckhove is over 15 years old, but is a seminal text that argues technology is how humankind defines itself. Smart Mobs by Howard Rheingold, is another seminal text, focusing on how groups of people connect and collaborate through the use of mobile technology. More recent books focus on social media and collaboration, including Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody, Seth Godin's Tribes and The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki. Each in their own way are defining volumes of the social media age. Tapscott and Williams' Wikinomics, first published in 2007, shows how mass collaboration through Web 2.0 has changed forever the way we create knowledge and do business. Other books, such as David Crystal's Txting and Mediated by Thomas De Zengotita, provide incredibly useful contexts about how mobile devices and media shape the world around us and create the digital terrain within which we work and learn.

I could go on, but in each case, I highly recommend each and every one of the books you see on my bookshelf. They make up an important part of my PLE and have given me inspiration and provided clarity to my thinking.

NB: Yep, I know a couple of my own books have crept in there too, but what self-respecting academics do not have their own books on their shelves? Besides, Connected Minds is a compendium of great essays from other people in my PLN - I was merely the editor, so it doesn't really count. Now it's your turn....What text books do you keep on your shelf?

Personal learning resources by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

It’s Personal: Learning Spaces, Learning Webs

It’s Personal: Learning Spaces, Learning Webs

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

My slides for the upcoming PLE/PLN Online Symposium hosted by the University of Manitoba are now available for viewing above. In 'It's Personal: Learning Spaces, Learning Webs', I attempt to compare and contrast a number of learning philosophies, and define some of the (un)boundaries of informal and self organised learning - the fertile ground within which personal learning approaches flourish. Above is the scary baby from the cover slide: I will present this slide show with live commentary on Thursday from the Cork Institute of Technology over the Elluminate platform. I'm looking forward to hearing comments from those who are interested in this fascinating area of learning development.

PLEs join us online

I'm an invited speaker for the online PLE/PLN Symposium that has been organised by George Siemens and Stephen Downes for next week. I will be working in the Cork Institute of Technology in Ireland, and will be speaking via the Elluminate platform, next Thursday (15th October) at around 1600 BST. I'm looking forward to talking about my own concept of personal learning environments and personal webs in my talk which is entitled: 'It's Personal'. I will post my slides later on slideshare, but in the meantime here's a taste of what's to come taken from the symposium website:

A symposium will be held from October 13th till October 16th 2009 on Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) and Personal Learning Networks (PLNs). The interest in Personal Learning Environments has grown with the emergence of Web2.0 technologies. Learning technologists can see how PLEs can help learners to organize their own personal learning, rather than that formal education institutions control the technologies that are being used and the way in which they are being used. Speakers will include developers and researchers of PLEs. All events will be hosted in Elluminate and recorded for archives. A discussion forum will be hosted in Moodle for asynchronous interactions.

Other speakers include George and Stephen, along with Josie Fraser, Rita Kop, Mark van Harmelen, Scott Wilson and Graham Attwell. The full list and schedule are available on the symposium website. I hope you are able to join us for all, or at least some of the talks which I am sure will be thought provoking and stimulating.