DIGITAL LIBRARY
LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS AND MLAKEDUSOLN ELEARNOVATE PLERIFY PROTOTYPE
Mlakedusoln Elearnovate (UNITED STATES)
About this paper:
Appears in: ICERI2013 Proceedings
Publication year: 2013
Pages: 1996-2001
ISBN: 978-84-616-3847-5
ISSN: 2340-1095
Conference name: 6th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation
Dates: 18-20 November, 2013
Location: Seville, Spain
Abstract:
Personal Learning Environments PLE have been around since early 2000 though more informal and personal in nature. The way we work using a variety of applications to produce a digital end-product is, in a small and unorganized way of applying the PLE principle for personal purpose. The Windows or Browser-based Bookmarking method is yet another way as is the Desktop collection of applications for different purposes. The concept takes on a more serious meaning when the intention is to build a digital product and the by-product must be transmitted to a group of people for simple or complex solutions such as knowledge transmission to update information, transmission of mission-critical information, continuing education, skills-building, influence behavior or solicit response to a call to action . Building on the author’s prior publications on personal and resource-based managed learning environments from 2002, she followed the basic principles of a personal learning environment as an analyst working as an Instructional Designer, Course Developer and E-Learning Builder for 2 health-related topics for the University of California Davis in 2005-2007. The idea to use a PLE germinated out of an experience at building an online course in a work environment lacking supportive tools to curate, research, create, build and deliver a course online. Applying the PLE concept using the windows bookmarking feature at the same time comprehensively organizing these resources, aided her to reach 'expert-like' knowledge status while intensively researching two unfamiliar topics of Telemedicine and Pandemic Flu. By organizing sets of resources and applications and extracting content during the build, she was able to singly research both topics she had little knowledge of when the project began. She was able to manipulate and enhance the course content with mixed media simply because she had access to tools, applications, live databases and knowledgebases. Through this real-life work experience she was able to demonstrate and prove that PLE's, when used for digital creation are in fact empowering to a professional tasked with curating, collecting, transmitting, and effecting knowledge, to build skills and facilitate meaningful learning and/or influence behavior. After completing those two projects in 2007, she further iterated versions of the PLE concept for creators calling it the PLErify Tool ultimately resulting in the free version available at http://elearnovate.org. Built to show the basic tenets of the PLE concept and using a template for organizing web resources, the free version resulted in a better-designed and user-friendlier version than the windows bookmarking method she used as a course designer at UCDavis. Built for high level use, PLErify choice of resources were based on relevance, ease of use, mainstream acceptance and universal file formats which characterize products from known companies. Over the years the company built professional partnerships and affiliateships with known computing technology and web services companies provisioning the tools for Research, Data Visualization, Authoring and a Learning Management System LMS. While the prototype is free, the paid subscription model currently in development will be made available for all devices e.g. desktop, laptop and tablets. Through this integrated system, the PLErify Tool aims to make digital creators out of C-level professionals and academics.
Keywords:
Learning Environments, Personal Learning Environment, PLErify.