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On the way towards Personal Learning Environments:
                          Seven crucial aspects
                                    Sandra Schaffert & Wolf Hilzensauer
                                            Salzburg Research


Summary
The practice of learning and teaching is not pre-determined, but always related to the tools and
systems used in the process. The development and rising success of social software applications
such as weblogs and wikis and so-called Personal Learning Environments (PLE) changes, enables
and challenges learning with the Internet. PLE, especially in contrast to traditional Learning
Management Systems (LMS), received significant attention and are about changing the paradigm of
learning and teaching. This paper tries to underpin a better understanding of the underlying concepts
of both approaches and, on the other hand, to emphasise the consequences and challenges of PLE
and its rising usage for learning.

We have identified seven aspects where these changes are most obvious and/or important. To sum
up, 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.

The vast number of tools, supporting collaboration on the web is an indicator that PLE and social
software tools are not only a flash in the pan, but lead to a new notion of learning and a measure for
sustainable competence development. Nevertheless, the existing approaches and ideas for PLE
need further development and elaboration. With the discussion of the related shifts from LMS towards
PLE and their challenges, this paper may serve as the basis for learners, teachers and educational
institutions decisions for (or against) the technological concept of PLE, on a general level and taking
into account its pedagogical implications.

Keywords
Virtual Learning System, Learning Management System, Personal Learning Environment, Social
Software, PLE, LMS



Introduction: Different technological concepts for learning environments

The rapid technological progress influences the methods and possibilities of learning and teaching.
With any new media technology, there has been contemporaneously a tendency to imitate existing
educational paradigms (Geser 2007, 37). Besides the development of computer based trainings
(CBT) and Web based trainings (WBT), which were the first attempts to support learning with
computer and new media, the development of learning management systems (LMS) tried to simulate
classroom learning with ICT. A LMS supports the management of learning content and learning
activities, but with a focus on the traditional roles in a learning environment (teacher/learner).

In contrast to LMS, the Personal Learning Environments (PLE) are based on the idea of a user-
centred learning approach, using Social Software tools. Social Software can be defined as software



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that connects people and ensures collaboration and communication. The term Social Software can
be used for describing a wide range of software applications, but it usually refers to some of the most
recent developments in Web-based applications like Wikis, Weblogs, instant messaging (e.g. AIM 1 ,
ICQ 2 ), Social Bookmarking (e.g. del.icio.us 3 ), media sharing (e.g. Flickr 4 , YouTube 5 ), social
networking systems (e.g. MySpace 6 , Facebook 7 , LinkedIn 8 ) (see Schaffert 2007) or so-called
“location-aware services” (Plazes 9 , Twitter 10 , Jaiku 11 ) 12 .

With the new possibilities of social interaction, the importance of content seems to decline to some
extent. As a vast amount of content is already (out) there (in the internet), social interaction
apparently becomes more important. The enormous amount of content that is currently available with
applications such as the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia 13 , social networking sites, or the Weblog
index Technorati 14 with its more than 112 million indexed blogs serves as testimony. Social Software
provides the flexibility that is needed particularly in informal and collaborative learning settings, where
people with different prior knowledge, learning interests and learning activities learn collaboratively
with or from others. This is the most important part of our daily learning activities. As a consequence,
it is necessary to bring together pedagogical know-how and expertise about learning processes,
taking today's established learning culture into account.

Based on the development of Social Software applications and the shift from the consumers to
prosumers, the term and concept of “personal learning environments” (PLE) was introduced.
According to Wikipedia, the term was first mentioned on a session at a JISC/CETIS conference in the
year 2004 and a “virtual learning environment” vision of Scott Wilson can be seen as a first attempt to
describe this new concept of a personal learning system interacting with Social Software applications
and institutional services (cf. Wikipedia 2008).

Some authors see the PLE as the sum of all used tools (e-mail, browser, websites and applications)
but according to a majority it is a technological realisation where Social Software applications and
Web services are combined, e.g. as mash-up in a single portal for the purpose of learning. PLE are
Web sites or services were learners are able to produce learning content or reflections and store
documentations about their learning processes (e.g. Weblog postings). Furthermore, users should be
able to aggregate data from their learning communities, e.g. through RSS feeds of interesting
Weblogs. Examples for PLE applications are Netvibes 15 or WordPressMU 16 (a multi user Weblog),
but also I-Google 17 or Flock 18 could serve as a PLE.

But even if these tools are handled or named as PLE, they are currently not able to connect and
include interfaces to LMS or build on typically learning support as giving (automatic)
recommendations for further learning steps according to prior knowledge and interests. Presently,
there is no PLE is more a concept or vision, even if several projects deals with the development, for

1
  http://www.aim.com/
2
  http://www.icq.com/
3
  http://del.icio.us/
4
  http://www.flickr.com/
5
  http://youtube.com/
6
  http://www.myspace.com/
7
  http://www.facebook.com/
8
  http://www.linkedin.com/
9
  http://plazes.com/
10
   http://twitter.com/
11
   http://www.jaiku.com/
12
   In recent times, social software is put on a par with Web 2.0. We would like to point out, that according to Koch and
Richter (2007) the term “social software” relies on the human interaction (identity management, relationship management
and information management) of the user, whereas Web 2.0 is related to the notion of users becoming active participants in
the web. In other words, according to them, social software can be seen as a sub-class of Web 2.0, but it is not equal.
13
   http://www.wikipedia.org/
14
   http://www.technorati.com/
15
   http://www.netvibes.com/
16
   http://mu.wordpress.org/
17
   http://www.google.com/ig
18
   http://flock.com/


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example the projects TENCompetence 19 or MATURE 20 , both co-financed by the European
Commission.

An Overview about seven crucial aspects for learning on the way from LMS towards PLE

Teachers and educational institutions have a special interest in supporting and fostering learning
processes and activities of their learners. Especially if the institutions offer virtual learning phases to
their students, the selection of tools and systems is an important factor. This decision may limit the
learning and teaching processes, for example by the limited possibilities of interaction amongst the
participants or by lacking of opportunities for learners to create their own content.

The decision to favour PLE for the actual learning processes while using LMS for purely
administrative processes leads and influences (obviously) new learning and teaching settings.

Terry Anderson (2006) tries to point out the differences (and advantages) of PLE vs. LMS. He
identifies six advantages, which are listed as: identity (learners have existence beyond formal
school), ease of use (customisation by the user him/herself), control and responsibility of ownership
(content belongs to the user), copyright and reuse (the owner and not the institution has to make
these decisions), social presence (support of communication and “online culture”) and capacity of
speed and innovation (new applications evolve rapidly and new features invade the PLE
conglomerate in the learning setting).

There are several others presentations, statements or discussion to be found in the Web or on
conferences. The following table provides an overview about seven crucial aspects of the shift from
LMS to PLE that we identified as important changes and challenges. The chosen aspects and
arguments build on our review of publications, presentations and discussions which are ongoing and
the crucial aspects the experts are discussing (e.g. Attwell 2007) and own investigations in the field of
web-based innovations for learning (e.g. Schaffert, BĂĽrger, Hilzensauer & Schaffert 2008.

Therefore we distinguish between technological concepts as LMS or PLE and learning or teaching
concepts and methods. From our point of view LMS and PLE are both technological concepts that
both allow several pedagogical methods or personal learning strategies. But as we will illustrate, the
technological concepts are limit or guide the concrete learning setting. So, this contribution can serve
as basis for decision of learners, teachers or educational institutions for (or against) the technological
concept PLE on a general, conceptual level and its pedagogical implications.

                              LMS                         PLE                          challenges & shifts
     1   role of learner      learner as consumer of      active, self-directed,       shift from consumer to
                              pre-defined learning        creator of content           “prosumer”, self
                              materials, dependent on                                  organisation is possible
                              the “creativity” of the                                  AND necessary
                              teacher
     2   personalisation      ... is an arrangement of    ... means to get           competence for usage of
                              learning assignments and    information about learning several tools and a self
                              materials according to a    opportunities and content organisation is needed
                              (proposed or pre-defined)   from community members
                              learner's model, based on   and learning services
                              an underlying expert        fitting to the learner's
                              system                      interests (via tags/RSS)
     3   content              developed by domain         the infinite “bazaar” of     necessary competences
                              experts, special authors,   learning content in the      to search, find and use
                              tutors and/or teachers      Web, exploring learning      appropriate sources (e.g.
                                                          opportunities and services   Weblogs)
     4   social involvement limited use of group work, the community and the           community and

19
     http://www.tencompetence.org/
20
     http://mature-ip.eu/


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focus on the closed           social involvement (even collaboration as the
                            learner group (e.g. in the    in multiple communities) is central learning
                            LMS), collaboration and       the key for the learning    opportunities
                            exchange not primarily in     process and the
                            the focus                     recommendations for
                                                          learning opportunities
 5    ownership             content is generally          content is organised in    awareness of personal
                            owned by the educational      multiple, Web-based tools, data is needed
                            institutions or the           ownership is controlled by
                            students, due to              the learners themselves
                            technological reasons, this   and/or (commercial)
                            ownership can not always      service providers
                            be realised
 6    educational &         imitation of classroom        self-organised learner in   change of learning culture
      organisational        learning, course-             the focus                   and perspective – move
      culture               orientated, teacher-                                      towards self organisation
                            orientated features                                       and self determination
 7    technological         classical learning content    Social Software tools and   required interoperability
      aspects               needs interoperability        aggregation of multiple     between LMS and the
                            between LMS and data          sources                     Social Software
                            repositories
             Table 1: An overview about seven crucial aspects of the shift from LMS to PLE

Within the following deliberations we would like to illustrate the possible changes and impacts
concerning the learning setting.

1) The learner as “prosumer”

As mentioned in the introduction, the possibilities for self-direction and self-organisation of different
learning activities within LMS are limited by the (pre-defined) educational settings of the virtual
classes, for example if a discussion forum implemented. Similar to the World Wide Web in its first 10
years, the role of the learner is limited to being a “consumer”: (S)he is able to browse, read and use
materials (e.g. tests or educational games) but has no possibilities to being actively engaged in the
production of (learning) content.

Within PLE, the active participation on (collaborative developed) content development, for example
blog postings, contributions to Wiki pages or participation in discussion forums or commenting on
Weblog posting from other community members, are the central idea of this new concept. Learners
are not, as in the Web 2.0 discussion often emphasised, only consumers of learning materials, but
become (also) producer of (learning) content. This new role can be called “prosumer”.

Educational experts often refer to the constructivist learning theory when talking about a learner
centred approaches focussing on the learner’s interests and (informal) activities. Originally a
philosophical approach, constructivism it also used and adapted to the field of learning. The
constructive view on learning results in a design of a learning environment facilitating the construction
of learner’s own knowledge: “The ideas underlying constructivism suggest that we shift from
designing learning environments that instruct to designing environments that influence the structure
of autopoetic unities in ways that conserves organization and adaptation” (Knuth & Cunningham
1993, 167). Self-organised learning can be seen as an activity in which individuals are primarily
responsible for their own planning, their performance and their evaluation of learning activities in
order to attain specific learning goals. A related concept is called “self-directed learning”. Malcolm
Knowles describes this approach as a process “in which individuals take the initiative, with or without
the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying human
and material resources for learning, choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies, and
evaluating learning outcomes” (1975, 18).




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Whereas the concept of LMS limits the role of learners to the possibilities of the learning
management system and the creativity of the teachers, the concept of PLE focuses on active, self-
directed, creators of content. Hence, the “Web 2.0” shift from “consumer” to “prosumer” can be
observed here.

Whereas the self organisation of learning is often seen as the base for competence development and
lifelong learning abilities which should be started to be developed even in schools. What makes it
difficult is that self organisation can not be assumed for every learner, even if she is an adult, the
learner could need additional support, tutoring and perhaps training in self organising his/her
learning. Besides the competencies, the need for self organisation challenges the reachability of
target groups: Not only the computer and the Internet are factually exclude several groups or milieus
from learning or education, the concept of “self organised learning” itself could be also seen as a
concept fitting to middle class milieus and so excludes target groups that prefer teacher-centred
approaches (cf. Bremer & Bittlingmayer 2008, Reinmann 2008).

2) A new perspective on personalisation

In LMS, the possibilities of personalisation are limited. For example a learner receives “success” to
his/her special courses or classes. A deeper differentiation of instruction or learning materials or even
personalisation is related to the teacher and his creative ideas, but very seldom implemented in a
LMS.

Nevertheless, personalisation plays a bigger role in other concepts: Personalisation in e-learning is
traditionally related to so-called intelligent tutor systems (ITS). Especially in the traditions of artificial
intelligence, approaches were developed to “personalise” and “adapt” learning content to the
learner’s needs with the usage of expert systems. Technological solutions were developed in the
fields of intelligent tutoring technologies or adaptive hypermedia technologies. E.g. the approach of
“instructional design” is based on the idea of the possibility to support learning in well-dosed,
sequenced instruction bits.

In Web based trainings (WBT) these instructions are adapted automatically in relation to prior
learning, learning styles or learners preferences. Particularly in the domain of artificial intelligence the
possibility of automated “content personalisation” is considered to be an automatic adaptation of the
learning content to the learner’s profile (facilitated by some intelligent reasoning). So-called
“intelligent tutors” were built to support learning: “the server should appear to act as an intelligent
tutor both with domain and pedagogical knowledge to conduct a learning session. It should use a
presentation planner to select, prepare, and adapt the domain material to show to the student. It also
must gradually build the student model during his session, in order to keep track of the student’s
actions and learning progress, detect and correct his/her errors and misconceptions, and possibly
redirect the session accordingly” (Devedižić 2006, 32).

Within Learning Management Systems, personalisation plays a lesser role. With the introduction of
the SCORM standardisation (SCORM 1.3, 2004), the first attempt to personalisation in LMS was
undertaken. This enables the LMS to guide a learner through a pre-defined learning process. Users
have to achieve a certain percentage of a test in order to access the next level. Having a closer look
at this type of personalisation, is becomes apparent that this only leads to an even more rigid corset
of pre-defined learning process.

These approaches for adapting learning content to learners’ interest, needs and prior knowledge are
not suitable for self-organised learning because with such intelligent tutoring systems, the possibilities
are generally limited to structuring and organising learning steps.

Within PLE, “personalisation” focuses on activities and possibilities to arrange structure, tools,
(external) aggregated materials, look-and-feel and so on. Personalisation means, to get information
about learning opportunities and content from multiple communities and services fitting to the
learner's interest. The sources of information are selected by the learner him- or herself. Self
organisation of learning and a selection of appropriate learning (re)sources within PLE are not only an


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opportunity for the learner. It is also a challenge to think about their competences and their (required)
pre-knowledge: about using Social Software tools, coping with different learning strategies and their
status of media literacy.

3) The bazaar of learning opportunities from peers and experts

In LMS, the roles of the participants are clearly defined and described and are central for the
possibilities to act within the system: The content within LMS is developed by teachers, which are
mainly experts of a special domain.

While several approaches exist that reason about the integration of information environments (e.g.
digital libraries) and Learning Management Systems (McLean & Lynch 2003), none tackles the
integration of information from Web 2.0 with Learning Management Systems, e.g., professional and
user-generated content and community and user profiles on the Web with traditional e-learning
standards. Nowadays, there are attempts to implement interfaces in LMS to external Web content
and applications but these possibilities for integrating Social Software in LMS are in its infancy (cf.
Daalsgard 2006).

Besides this, in PLE does not only contain (learning) content of experts or teachers: the community,
“peers”, other learners with same interests, “friends” or colleagues, or even not personally known
persons build the base of the bazaar of learning opportunities. Here, PLE profit by the creation, offer
and usage of Open Educational Resources: According to the Geser (2007, 20) “open” means
therefore that the content (inclusively meta data) is provided free of charge, that the content is
liberally licensed for re-use, favourable free from restrictions to modify, combine and re-purpose, that
it is produced in open format and designed for easy re-use and developed and hosted with open
source software (see also e.g. Schaffert & Geser 2008).

Nevertheless, the change from content that was developed by experts and/or teachers towards
possibilities and challenges to make use of the bazaar of learning opportunities and content leads to
the necessity of advanced self-organising and searching in the Web – in other words: media
competent learners. But it has to be taken into account that there is a general discussion going on
that the next generation of learners is not (as often claimed) media literate. Current research (cf.
Schulmeister, 2008) claims that there is no “net generation” which deals differently with new
technology. So actually, there are no digital natives requiring a different type of teaching.
Nevertheless, users of the next generation will focus more on the different (learning) processes
supported by technology rather than on technology itself.

The main challenge will be the integration of different learning settings, different learner groups and
different sources. Within PLE, we assume that the integration can be implemented more flexible and
almost seamlessly, whereas LMS hinder these evolutions.

4) Social involvement and the role of community

We do not claim that it is not possible to build and foster a strong collaboration among peers in an
LMS, but this belongs not to the core idea of the technological concept: Collaboration and exchange
of peers is not in the focus of the LMS concept. LMS offer the opportunity to add discussion forums
and sometimes also collaborative (Wiki) spaces. The concept of LMS ignores or overlooks the role of
other humans and the community.

Current learning theories and approaches emphasise the importance of social involvement for
motivation, construction of knowledge, or as a source for support. For example, they play an
important and central role in concepts based on constructivism: learning shall be a recursive, self-
referential process and needs stimuli and challenge from others (Siebert 1998). For example, the
approach of “community of practice” by Etienne Wenger (2004) is dealing with learning in social
networks and interlinked structures of the World Wide Web. It is the combination of the following three
elements that constitutes such a community of practice: (a) a shared domain or interest in which one
does not necessarily need to know the others, (b) an engagement in joint activities and discussions,


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to help each other, and to share information and (c) the presence of practitioners and the
development of a shared repertoire of resources as experiences, stories, tools, and ways of
addressing recurring problems. According to Wenger (2004), the development of these three
elements in parallel cultivates a community of practice. The PLE uses these possibilities for
communities and creates new forms of interaction and collaboration.

Within PLE, it is apparent that the connection to one or more learning communities serves as a key
driver for learning. Speaking more technically, PLE always needs and builds on communities. They
are needed for contributors, co-actors, and last, but not least, for someone to add /recommend (new)
learning content and/or metadata to existing content.

5) Ownership and protection of learner's data

Ownership and protection of learner's data are important factors but only rarely taken into account.
However, from our point of view, it should play an important role for the implementation of technology
enhanced learning, especially in educational settings and for policies. For the shift from LMS to PLE,
it is apparent that the problems concerning owner rights also change.

The learner's data within LMS are often sealed in these tools and can just insufficiently be (re-)
extracted by the learner him-/herself. So, even as owner of the content and data, the learner has in
fact limited possibilities; his/her data is under the control of the educational institution or organisation.
PLE and their openness to the world, even within social networks like Elgg 21 or social networking
sites like Facebook 22 (which have restricted access for public viewing) follow a different approach:
Here, all data and other available information is nearly totally open to the world. As the users usually
do not run their own Web server, they probably use (free of charge) Web services and free Web
based tools. Neither the personal data nor the copyright of individually created content is protected by
these service providers. This leads to the necessity to provide learners and users of PLE with the
awareness of the protection of personal data, additionally the awareness to provide own back-ups
and copies of the data, stored on services in the Web.

6) (Learning) culture in educational institutions and organisations as a consequence and
enabler

As above mentioned, LMS contributes to traditional ways of organising learning and education: in
lessons, courses, classes, from the perspective of administration and a focus on the teacher as an
expert.

The concept of PLE concentrates on active learners who are responsible and have the opportunities
to arrange their own learning environment: The usage of PLE or new forms of learning with Social
Software in general can be characterised as self-directed, decentralised, dynamic, communicative,
and situated within communities of practice, and learners are in the same sense consumers and
producers of content.

So, educational institutions as well as vocational and on-the-job-training in the industry seem to be
based on different requirements, which do not fit automatically into this notion of “E-Learning 2.0”, as
introduced by Stephen Downes (2005) recently. As current research has shown, the change of a
“learning culture” as a whole and a certain amount of openness in the whole enterprise can serve as
fruitful ground for new (vocational) learning in enterprises. Enterprises, which have already adapted
their company culture towards an open and free space for individual development and open learning,
have recently been coined as “Enterprise 2.0” (Hilzensauer & Schaffert 2008).




21
     http://elgg.org/
22
     http://www.facebook.com


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7) Technological challenges

Currently, the technological developments concentrate on (but are not limited to) the interchange
between different, extra institutional data repositories. As there is a growing amount of freely
available content, there is a necessity to link between these existing materials and to provide an
accurate metadata structure. This implies that, in order to be standards compliant, both, the learning
content and the learning management system, must ensure that resources, which are about to be
connected, are compatible (IEEE 1990). But, as LMS are organised in a hierarchical structure, where
authors (the so-called domain experts) decide which (external) content to link or aggregate, the
challenge in this discussion is to provide a dynamic and flexible interface to set up and maintain the
list of external resources. Talking about personalisation, the problem becomes crucial when authors
want to provide materials, which should support different users in there different phases of the
learning process. The challenge is to find a (technological and procedural) solution in order to support
the learners effectively.

PLE, on the other hand, build on accessibility and usage of Social Software applications and tools
and therefore need as well a channel for the interchange of information. Contrary to existing e-
learning standards (LOM, SCOM, IMS-LD), the need for data exchange concentrates on more open
standards like RSS, XML or RPC. Focusing on the advantages of Social Software tools for self-
organised learning, there are several projects that try to combine the concept of LMS with the
opportunities of PLE: The success of Social Software in combination with learning leads to questions
about possibilities for integrating Social Software in existing stand alone systems (LMS) or to
separate them as a number of distributed applications (Daalsgard 2006). Currently, most projects
concentrate on integration with existing Learning Management Systems, others propose to implement
loosely-coupled tools on top of existing Learning Management Systems; to augment them with Social
Software tools as kinds of “overlay networks”.

Opening the Web2.0 for learning does not only mean that one gets access to a mass of articles but
also to the knowledge of experts by exploring their bookmarks. However, suggesting this loose
connection between two largely distinct worlds (i.e., the Web as an open environment and LMS as a
closed system in which interoperability is ensured by a set of standards) entails an investigation into
other ways for ensuring interoperability than currently implemented standards.

So, last, but not least, the shift or the inclusion of Social Software and the concept of PLE in existing
LMS system also rises new questions and challenges of technological nature.

Outlook

To sum up, these seven aspects shown the fundamental differences of the conception of LMS and
PLE and where new opportunities and challenges may lead. Whereas these challenges need – from
our perspective – a rising awareness among the promoters of PLE, we also see that the current
requirements of competence development, the call for supporting open educational practices and
informal learning activities and a shift from rather static and instructor-based learning to a more user-
oriented, socially-enhanced learning is needed. The support of PLE or Social Software in general is
crucial for the individual competence development (Fiedler & Kieslinger 2006) but as we had
discussed not be seen as fitting to all target groups and settings. Additionally, the knowledge society
demands competencies and skills that require innovative educational practices based on open
sharing and the evaluation of ideas, fostering creativity and teamwork among the learners, which can
be provided by PLE.

The vast number of tools, supporting collaboration on the Web is an indicator that PLE and Social
Software tools are not only a flash in the pan, but lead to a new notion of learning and a measure for
sustainable competence development. Nevertheless, the existing approaches and ideas for PLE
needs further development and elaboration, the current research and practice show several
interesting feature which could be used in further realisations. These could be, but are not limited to
ideas as semantic analysis of learning activities, tagging opportunities with a focus on
appropriateness for learning, visualisation of communities and persons with similar (learning)


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interests, new approaches to content and network analysis, and a technical integration of different
LMS.

Last but not least, the reality of learning and educational practice is not only a technical question,
“although changing technologies are key drivers in educational change” (Attwell 2007): The challenge
for educational practice will be to develop, realise and establish new approaches for learning and
didactical concepts which builds on the advantages of the concept of a PLE, they should not maintain
a teacher-centred and passive approach of learning. The facilitating of open educational practices as
the e-portfolio method is needed (cf. Attwell, Chrzaszcz, Hilzensauer, Hornung-Prähauser & Pallister
2007).

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eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu •
Nº 9 • July 2008 • ISSN 1887-1542
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                                                                                                           10
eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu •
Nº 9 • July 2008 • ISSN 1887-1542
Authors


              Dr. Sandra Schaffert
              Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft
              Application Area “Education and Media”
              sandra.schaffert@salzburgresearch.at


              Mag. Wolf Hilzensauer
              Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft
              Application Area “Education and Media”
              wolf.hilzenauer@salzburgresearch.at



Copyrights

                The texts published in this journal, unless otherwise indicated, are subject to a
                Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivativeWorks 2.5 licence. They
may be copied, distributed and broadcast provided that the author and the e-journal that publishes
them, eLearning Papers, are cited. Commercial use and derivative works are not permitted. The full
licence can be consulted on http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/


Edition and production

Name of the publication: eLearning Papers
ISSN: 1887-1542
Publisher: elearningeuropa.info
Edited by: P.A.U. Education, S.L.
Postal address: C/ Muntaner 262, 3Âş, 08021 Barcelona, Spain
Telephone: +34 933 670 400
Email: editorial@elearningeuropa.info
Internet: www.elearningpapers.eu




                                                                                              11
eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu •
Nº 9 • July 2008 • ISSN 1887-1542

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On the way towards Personal Learning Environments: Seven crucial aspects

  • 1. On the way towards Personal Learning Environments: Seven crucial aspects Sandra Schaffert & Wolf Hilzensauer Salzburg Research Summary The practice of learning and teaching is not pre-determined, but always related to the tools and systems used in the process. The development and rising success of social software applications such as weblogs and wikis and so-called Personal Learning Environments (PLE) changes, enables and challenges learning with the Internet. PLE, especially in contrast to traditional Learning Management Systems (LMS), received significant attention and are about changing the paradigm of learning and teaching. This paper tries to underpin a better understanding of the underlying concepts of both approaches and, on the other hand, to emphasise the consequences and challenges of PLE and its rising usage for learning. We have identified seven aspects where these changes are most obvious and/or important. To sum up, 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. The vast number of tools, supporting collaboration on the web is an indicator that PLE and social software tools are not only a flash in the pan, but lead to a new notion of learning and a measure for sustainable competence development. Nevertheless, the existing approaches and ideas for PLE need further development and elaboration. With the discussion of the related shifts from LMS towards PLE and their challenges, this paper may serve as the basis for learners, teachers and educational institutions decisions for (or against) the technological concept of PLE, on a general level and taking into account its pedagogical implications. Keywords Virtual Learning System, Learning Management System, Personal Learning Environment, Social Software, PLE, LMS Introduction: Different technological concepts for learning environments The rapid technological progress influences the methods and possibilities of learning and teaching. With any new media technology, there has been contemporaneously a tendency to imitate existing educational paradigms (Geser 2007, 37). Besides the development of computer based trainings (CBT) and Web based trainings (WBT), which were the first attempts to support learning with computer and new media, the development of learning management systems (LMS) tried to simulate classroom learning with ICT. A LMS supports the management of learning content and learning activities, but with a focus on the traditional roles in a learning environment (teacher/learner). In contrast to LMS, the Personal Learning Environments (PLE) are based on the idea of a user- centred learning approach, using Social Software tools. Social Software can be defined as software 1 eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • NÂş 9 • July 2008 • ISSN 1887-1542
  • 2. that connects people and ensures collaboration and communication. The term Social Software can be used for describing a wide range of software applications, but it usually refers to some of the most recent developments in Web-based applications like Wikis, Weblogs, instant messaging (e.g. AIM 1 , ICQ 2 ), Social Bookmarking (e.g. del.icio.us 3 ), media sharing (e.g. Flickr 4 , YouTube 5 ), social networking systems (e.g. MySpace 6 , Facebook 7 , LinkedIn 8 ) (see Schaffert 2007) or so-called “location-aware services” (Plazes 9 , Twitter 10 , Jaiku 11 ) 12 . With the new possibilities of social interaction, the importance of content seems to decline to some extent. As a vast amount of content is already (out) there (in the internet), social interaction apparently becomes more important. The enormous amount of content that is currently available with applications such as the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia 13 , social networking sites, or the Weblog index Technorati 14 with its more than 112 million indexed blogs serves as testimony. Social Software provides the flexibility that is needed particularly in informal and collaborative learning settings, where people with different prior knowledge, learning interests and learning activities learn collaboratively with or from others. This is the most important part of our daily learning activities. As a consequence, it is necessary to bring together pedagogical know-how and expertise about learning processes, taking today's established learning culture into account. Based on the development of Social Software applications and the shift from the consumers to prosumers, the term and concept of “personal learning environments” (PLE) was introduced. According to Wikipedia, the term was first mentioned on a session at a JISC/CETIS conference in the year 2004 and a “virtual learning environment” vision of Scott Wilson can be seen as a first attempt to describe this new concept of a personal learning system interacting with Social Software applications and institutional services (cf. Wikipedia 2008). Some authors see the PLE as the sum of all used tools (e-mail, browser, websites and applications) but according to a majority it is a technological realisation where Social Software applications and Web services are combined, e.g. as mash-up in a single portal for the purpose of learning. PLE are Web sites or services were learners are able to produce learning content or reflections and store documentations about their learning processes (e.g. Weblog postings). Furthermore, users should be able to aggregate data from their learning communities, e.g. through RSS feeds of interesting Weblogs. Examples for PLE applications are Netvibes 15 or WordPressMU 16 (a multi user Weblog), but also I-Google 17 or Flock 18 could serve as a PLE. But even if these tools are handled or named as PLE, they are currently not able to connect and include interfaces to LMS or build on typically learning support as giving (automatic) recommendations for further learning steps according to prior knowledge and interests. Presently, there is no PLE is more a concept or vision, even if several projects deals with the development, for 1 http://www.aim.com/ 2 http://www.icq.com/ 3 http://del.icio.us/ 4 http://www.flickr.com/ 5 http://youtube.com/ 6 http://www.myspace.com/ 7 http://www.facebook.com/ 8 http://www.linkedin.com/ 9 http://plazes.com/ 10 http://twitter.com/ 11 http://www.jaiku.com/ 12 In recent times, social software is put on a par with Web 2.0. We would like to point out, that according to Koch and Richter (2007) the term “social software” relies on the human interaction (identity management, relationship management and information management) of the user, whereas Web 2.0 is related to the notion of users becoming active participants in the web. In other words, according to them, social software can be seen as a sub-class of Web 2.0, but it is not equal. 13 http://www.wikipedia.org/ 14 http://www.technorati.com/ 15 http://www.netvibes.com/ 16 http://mu.wordpress.org/ 17 http://www.google.com/ig 18 http://flock.com/ 2 eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • NÂş 9 • July 2008 • ISSN 1887-1542
  • 3. example the projects TENCompetence 19 or MATURE 20 , both co-financed by the European Commission. An Overview about seven crucial aspects for learning on the way from LMS towards PLE Teachers and educational institutions have a special interest in supporting and fostering learning processes and activities of their learners. Especially if the institutions offer virtual learning phases to their students, the selection of tools and systems is an important factor. This decision may limit the learning and teaching processes, for example by the limited possibilities of interaction amongst the participants or by lacking of opportunities for learners to create their own content. The decision to favour PLE for the actual learning processes while using LMS for purely administrative processes leads and influences (obviously) new learning and teaching settings. Terry Anderson (2006) tries to point out the differences (and advantages) of PLE vs. LMS. He identifies six advantages, which are listed as: identity (learners have existence beyond formal school), ease of use (customisation by the user him/herself), control and responsibility of ownership (content belongs to the user), copyright and reuse (the owner and not the institution has to make these decisions), social presence (support of communication and “online culture”) and capacity of speed and innovation (new applications evolve rapidly and new features invade the PLE conglomerate in the learning setting). There are several others presentations, statements or discussion to be found in the Web or on conferences. The following table provides an overview about seven crucial aspects of the shift from LMS to PLE that we identified as important changes and challenges. The chosen aspects and arguments build on our review of publications, presentations and discussions which are ongoing and the crucial aspects the experts are discussing (e.g. Attwell 2007) and own investigations in the field of web-based innovations for learning (e.g. Schaffert, BĂĽrger, Hilzensauer & Schaffert 2008. Therefore we distinguish between technological concepts as LMS or PLE and learning or teaching concepts and methods. From our point of view LMS and PLE are both technological concepts that both allow several pedagogical methods or personal learning strategies. But as we will illustrate, the technological concepts are limit or guide the concrete learning setting. So, this contribution can serve as basis for decision of learners, teachers or educational institutions for (or against) the technological concept PLE on a general, conceptual level and its pedagogical implications. LMS PLE challenges & shifts 1 role of learner learner as consumer of active, self-directed, shift from consumer to pre-defined learning creator of content “prosumer”, self materials, dependent on organisation is possible the “creativity” of the AND necessary teacher 2 personalisation ... is an arrangement of ... means to get competence for usage of learning assignments and information about learning several tools and a self materials according to a opportunities and content organisation is needed (proposed or pre-defined) from community members learner's model, based on and learning services an underlying expert fitting to the learner's system interests (via tags/RSS) 3 content developed by domain the infinite “bazaar” of necessary competences experts, special authors, learning content in the to search, find and use tutors and/or teachers Web, exploring learning appropriate sources (e.g. opportunities and services Weblogs) 4 social involvement limited use of group work, the community and the community and 19 http://www.tencompetence.org/ 20 http://mature-ip.eu/ 3 eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • NÂş 9 • July 2008 • ISSN 1887-1542
  • 4. focus on the closed social involvement (even collaboration as the learner group (e.g. in the in multiple communities) is central learning LMS), collaboration and the key for the learning opportunities exchange not primarily in process and the the focus recommendations for learning opportunities 5 ownership content is generally content is organised in awareness of personal owned by the educational multiple, Web-based tools, data is needed institutions or the ownership is controlled by students, due to the learners themselves technological reasons, this and/or (commercial) ownership can not always service providers be realised 6 educational & imitation of classroom self-organised learner in change of learning culture organisational learning, course- the focus and perspective – move culture orientated, teacher- towards self organisation orientated features and self determination 7 technological classical learning content Social Software tools and required interoperability aspects needs interoperability aggregation of multiple between LMS and the between LMS and data sources Social Software repositories Table 1: An overview about seven crucial aspects of the shift from LMS to PLE Within the following deliberations we would like to illustrate the possible changes and impacts concerning the learning setting. 1) The learner as “prosumer” As mentioned in the introduction, the possibilities for self-direction and self-organisation of different learning activities within LMS are limited by the (pre-defined) educational settings of the virtual classes, for example if a discussion forum implemented. Similar to the World Wide Web in its first 10 years, the role of the learner is limited to being a “consumer”: (S)he is able to browse, read and use materials (e.g. tests or educational games) but has no possibilities to being actively engaged in the production of (learning) content. Within PLE, the active participation on (collaborative developed) content development, for example blog postings, contributions to Wiki pages or participation in discussion forums or commenting on Weblog posting from other community members, are the central idea of this new concept. Learners are not, as in the Web 2.0 discussion often emphasised, only consumers of learning materials, but become (also) producer of (learning) content. This new role can be called “prosumer”. Educational experts often refer to the constructivist learning theory when talking about a learner centred approaches focussing on the learner’s interests and (informal) activities. Originally a philosophical approach, constructivism it also used and adapted to the field of learning. The constructive view on learning results in a design of a learning environment facilitating the construction of learner’s own knowledge: “The ideas underlying constructivism suggest that we shift from designing learning environments that instruct to designing environments that influence the structure of autopoetic unities in ways that conserves organization and adaptation” (Knuth & Cunningham 1993, 167). Self-organised learning can be seen as an activity in which individuals are primarily responsible for their own planning, their performance and their evaluation of learning activities in order to attain specific learning goals. A related concept is called “self-directed learning”. Malcolm Knowles describes this approach as a process “in which individuals take the initiative, with or without the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying human and material resources for learning, choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes” (1975, 18). 4 eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • NÂş 9 • July 2008 • ISSN 1887-1542
  • 5. Whereas the concept of LMS limits the role of learners to the possibilities of the learning management system and the creativity of the teachers, the concept of PLE focuses on active, self- directed, creators of content. Hence, the “Web 2.0” shift from “consumer” to “prosumer” can be observed here. Whereas the self organisation of learning is often seen as the base for competence development and lifelong learning abilities which should be started to be developed even in schools. What makes it difficult is that self organisation can not be assumed for every learner, even if she is an adult, the learner could need additional support, tutoring and perhaps training in self organising his/her learning. Besides the competencies, the need for self organisation challenges the reachability of target groups: Not only the computer and the Internet are factually exclude several groups or milieus from learning or education, the concept of “self organised learning” itself could be also seen as a concept fitting to middle class milieus and so excludes target groups that prefer teacher-centred approaches (cf. Bremer & Bittlingmayer 2008, Reinmann 2008). 2) A new perspective on personalisation In LMS, the possibilities of personalisation are limited. For example a learner receives “success” to his/her special courses or classes. A deeper differentiation of instruction or learning materials or even personalisation is related to the teacher and his creative ideas, but very seldom implemented in a LMS. Nevertheless, personalisation plays a bigger role in other concepts: Personalisation in e-learning is traditionally related to so-called intelligent tutor systems (ITS). Especially in the traditions of artificial intelligence, approaches were developed to “personalise” and “adapt” learning content to the learner’s needs with the usage of expert systems. Technological solutions were developed in the fields of intelligent tutoring technologies or adaptive hypermedia technologies. E.g. the approach of “instructional design” is based on the idea of the possibility to support learning in well-dosed, sequenced instruction bits. In Web based trainings (WBT) these instructions are adapted automatically in relation to prior learning, learning styles or learners preferences. Particularly in the domain of artificial intelligence the possibility of automated “content personalisation” is considered to be an automatic adaptation of the learning content to the learner’s profile (facilitated by some intelligent reasoning). So-called “intelligent tutors” were built to support learning: “the server should appear to act as an intelligent tutor both with domain and pedagogical knowledge to conduct a learning session. It should use a presentation planner to select, prepare, and adapt the domain material to show to the student. It also must gradually build the student model during his session, in order to keep track of the student’s actions and learning progress, detect and correct his/her errors and misconceptions, and possibly redirect the session accordingly” (DevediĹľić 2006, 32). Within Learning Management Systems, personalisation plays a lesser role. With the introduction of the SCORM standardisation (SCORM 1.3, 2004), the first attempt to personalisation in LMS was undertaken. This enables the LMS to guide a learner through a pre-defined learning process. Users have to achieve a certain percentage of a test in order to access the next level. Having a closer look at this type of personalisation, is becomes apparent that this only leads to an even more rigid corset of pre-defined learning process. These approaches for adapting learning content to learners’ interest, needs and prior knowledge are not suitable for self-organised learning because with such intelligent tutoring systems, the possibilities are generally limited to structuring and organising learning steps. Within PLE, “personalisation” focuses on activities and possibilities to arrange structure, tools, (external) aggregated materials, look-and-feel and so on. Personalisation means, to get information about learning opportunities and content from multiple communities and services fitting to the learner's interest. The sources of information are selected by the learner him- or herself. Self organisation of learning and a selection of appropriate learning (re)sources within PLE are not only an 5 eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • NÂş 9 • July 2008 • ISSN 1887-1542
  • 6. opportunity for the learner. It is also a challenge to think about their competences and their (required) pre-knowledge: about using Social Software tools, coping with different learning strategies and their status of media literacy. 3) The bazaar of learning opportunities from peers and experts In LMS, the roles of the participants are clearly defined and described and are central for the possibilities to act within the system: The content within LMS is developed by teachers, which are mainly experts of a special domain. While several approaches exist that reason about the integration of information environments (e.g. digital libraries) and Learning Management Systems (McLean & Lynch 2003), none tackles the integration of information from Web 2.0 with Learning Management Systems, e.g., professional and user-generated content and community and user profiles on the Web with traditional e-learning standards. Nowadays, there are attempts to implement interfaces in LMS to external Web content and applications but these possibilities for integrating Social Software in LMS are in its infancy (cf. Daalsgard 2006). Besides this, in PLE does not only contain (learning) content of experts or teachers: the community, “peers”, other learners with same interests, “friends” or colleagues, or even not personally known persons build the base of the bazaar of learning opportunities. Here, PLE profit by the creation, offer and usage of Open Educational Resources: According to the Geser (2007, 20) “open” means therefore that the content (inclusively meta data) is provided free of charge, that the content is liberally licensed for re-use, favourable free from restrictions to modify, combine and re-purpose, that it is produced in open format and designed for easy re-use and developed and hosted with open source software (see also e.g. Schaffert & Geser 2008). Nevertheless, the change from content that was developed by experts and/or teachers towards possibilities and challenges to make use of the bazaar of learning opportunities and content leads to the necessity of advanced self-organising and searching in the Web – in other words: media competent learners. But it has to be taken into account that there is a general discussion going on that the next generation of learners is not (as often claimed) media literate. Current research (cf. Schulmeister, 2008) claims that there is no “net generation” which deals differently with new technology. So actually, there are no digital natives requiring a different type of teaching. Nevertheless, users of the next generation will focus more on the different (learning) processes supported by technology rather than on technology itself. The main challenge will be the integration of different learning settings, different learner groups and different sources. Within PLE, we assume that the integration can be implemented more flexible and almost seamlessly, whereas LMS hinder these evolutions. 4) Social involvement and the role of community We do not claim that it is not possible to build and foster a strong collaboration among peers in an LMS, but this belongs not to the core idea of the technological concept: Collaboration and exchange of peers is not in the focus of the LMS concept. LMS offer the opportunity to add discussion forums and sometimes also collaborative (Wiki) spaces. The concept of LMS ignores or overlooks the role of other humans and the community. Current learning theories and approaches emphasise the importance of social involvement for motivation, construction of knowledge, or as a source for support. For example, they play an important and central role in concepts based on constructivism: learning shall be a recursive, self- referential process and needs stimuli and challenge from others (Siebert 1998). For example, the approach of “community of practice” by Etienne Wenger (2004) is dealing with learning in social networks and interlinked structures of the World Wide Web. It is the combination of the following three elements that constitutes such a community of practice: (a) a shared domain or interest in which one does not necessarily need to know the others, (b) an engagement in joint activities and discussions, 6 eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • NÂş 9 • July 2008 • ISSN 1887-1542
  • 7. to help each other, and to share information and (c) the presence of practitioners and the development of a shared repertoire of resources as experiences, stories, tools, and ways of addressing recurring problems. According to Wenger (2004), the development of these three elements in parallel cultivates a community of practice. The PLE uses these possibilities for communities and creates new forms of interaction and collaboration. Within PLE, it is apparent that the connection to one or more learning communities serves as a key driver for learning. Speaking more technically, PLE always needs and builds on communities. They are needed for contributors, co-actors, and last, but not least, for someone to add /recommend (new) learning content and/or metadata to existing content. 5) Ownership and protection of learner's data Ownership and protection of learner's data are important factors but only rarely taken into account. However, from our point of view, it should play an important role for the implementation of technology enhanced learning, especially in educational settings and for policies. For the shift from LMS to PLE, it is apparent that the problems concerning owner rights also change. The learner's data within LMS are often sealed in these tools and can just insufficiently be (re-) extracted by the learner him-/herself. So, even as owner of the content and data, the learner has in fact limited possibilities; his/her data is under the control of the educational institution or organisation. PLE and their openness to the world, even within social networks like Elgg 21 or social networking sites like Facebook 22 (which have restricted access for public viewing) follow a different approach: Here, all data and other available information is nearly totally open to the world. As the users usually do not run their own Web server, they probably use (free of charge) Web services and free Web based tools. Neither the personal data nor the copyright of individually created content is protected by these service providers. This leads to the necessity to provide learners and users of PLE with the awareness of the protection of personal data, additionally the awareness to provide own back-ups and copies of the data, stored on services in the Web. 6) (Learning) culture in educational institutions and organisations as a consequence and enabler As above mentioned, LMS contributes to traditional ways of organising learning and education: in lessons, courses, classes, from the perspective of administration and a focus on the teacher as an expert. The concept of PLE concentrates on active learners who are responsible and have the opportunities to arrange their own learning environment: The usage of PLE or new forms of learning with Social Software in general can be characterised as self-directed, decentralised, dynamic, communicative, and situated within communities of practice, and learners are in the same sense consumers and producers of content. So, educational institutions as well as vocational and on-the-job-training in the industry seem to be based on different requirements, which do not fit automatically into this notion of “E-Learning 2.0”, as introduced by Stephen Downes (2005) recently. As current research has shown, the change of a “learning culture” as a whole and a certain amount of openness in the whole enterprise can serve as fruitful ground for new (vocational) learning in enterprises. Enterprises, which have already adapted their company culture towards an open and free space for individual development and open learning, have recently been coined as “Enterprise 2.0” (Hilzensauer & Schaffert 2008). 21 http://elgg.org/ 22 http://www.facebook.com 7 eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • NÂş 9 • July 2008 • ISSN 1887-1542
  • 8. 7) Technological challenges Currently, the technological developments concentrate on (but are not limited to) the interchange between different, extra institutional data repositories. As there is a growing amount of freely available content, there is a necessity to link between these existing materials and to provide an accurate metadata structure. This implies that, in order to be standards compliant, both, the learning content and the learning management system, must ensure that resources, which are about to be connected, are compatible (IEEE 1990). But, as LMS are organised in a hierarchical structure, where authors (the so-called domain experts) decide which (external) content to link or aggregate, the challenge in this discussion is to provide a dynamic and flexible interface to set up and maintain the list of external resources. Talking about personalisation, the problem becomes crucial when authors want to provide materials, which should support different users in there different phases of the learning process. The challenge is to find a (technological and procedural) solution in order to support the learners effectively. PLE, on the other hand, build on accessibility and usage of Social Software applications and tools and therefore need as well a channel for the interchange of information. Contrary to existing e- learning standards (LOM, SCOM, IMS-LD), the need for data exchange concentrates on more open standards like RSS, XML or RPC. Focusing on the advantages of Social Software tools for self- organised learning, there are several projects that try to combine the concept of LMS with the opportunities of PLE: The success of Social Software in combination with learning leads to questions about possibilities for integrating Social Software in existing stand alone systems (LMS) or to separate them as a number of distributed applications (Daalsgard 2006). Currently, most projects concentrate on integration with existing Learning Management Systems, others propose to implement loosely-coupled tools on top of existing Learning Management Systems; to augment them with Social Software tools as kinds of “overlay networks”. Opening the Web2.0 for learning does not only mean that one gets access to a mass of articles but also to the knowledge of experts by exploring their bookmarks. However, suggesting this loose connection between two largely distinct worlds (i.e., the Web as an open environment and LMS as a closed system in which interoperability is ensured by a set of standards) entails an investigation into other ways for ensuring interoperability than currently implemented standards. So, last, but not least, the shift or the inclusion of Social Software and the concept of PLE in existing LMS system also rises new questions and challenges of technological nature. Outlook To sum up, these seven aspects shown the fundamental differences of the conception of LMS and PLE and where new opportunities and challenges may lead. Whereas these challenges need – from our perspective – a rising awareness among the promoters of PLE, we also see that the current requirements of competence development, the call for supporting open educational practices and informal learning activities and a shift from rather static and instructor-based learning to a more user- oriented, socially-enhanced learning is needed. The support of PLE or Social Software in general is crucial for the individual competence development (Fiedler & Kieslinger 2006) but as we had discussed not be seen as fitting to all target groups and settings. Additionally, the knowledge society demands competencies and skills that require innovative educational practices based on open sharing and the evaluation of ideas, fostering creativity and teamwork among the learners, which can be provided by PLE. The vast number of tools, supporting collaboration on the Web is an indicator that PLE and Social Software tools are not only a flash in the pan, but lead to a new notion of learning and a measure for sustainable competence development. Nevertheless, the existing approaches and ideas for PLE needs further development and elaboration, the current research and practice show several interesting feature which could be used in further realisations. These could be, but are not limited to ideas as semantic analysis of learning activities, tagging opportunities with a focus on appropriateness for learning, visualisation of communities and persons with similar (learning) 8 eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • NÂş 9 • July 2008 • ISSN 1887-1542
  • 9. interests, new approaches to content and network analysis, and a technical integration of different LMS. Last but not least, the reality of learning and educational practice is not only a technical question, “although changing technologies are key drivers in educational change” (Attwell 2007): The challenge for educational practice will be to develop, realise and establish new approaches for learning and didactical concepts which builds on the advantages of the concept of a PLE, they should not maintain a teacher-centred and passive approach of learning. The facilitating of open educational practices as the e-portfolio method is needed (cf. Attwell, Chrzaszcz, Hilzensauer, Hornung-Prähauser & Pallister 2007). References Anderson, Terry (2006). PLEs versus LMS: Are PLEs ready for Prime time? In: Virtual Canuck – Teaching and Learning in a Net-Centric World, retrieved June 5 2008 from http://terrya.edublogs.org/2006/01/09/ples-versus- lms-are-ples-ready-for-prime-time/ Attwell, Graham (2007). The Personal Learning Environments – the future of eLearning? In: eLearning Papers, 2 (1), retrieved February 29 2008 from http://www.elearningeuropa.info/files/media/media11561.pdf Attwell, Graham; Chrzaszcz, Agnieszka; Hilzensauer, Wolf; Hornung-Prähauser, Veronika & Pallister, John (2007). Grab your future with an e-portfolio – Study on new qualifications and skills needed by teachers and career counsellors to empower young learners with the e-portfolio concept and tools – Summary Report. Poland, retrieved May 28 2008 from http://www.mosep.org/study Bremer, Helmut & Bittlingmayer, Uwe H. (2008). Die Ideologie des selbstgesteuerten Lernens und die „sozialen Spiele“ in Bildungseinrichtungen. In: Schulheft, 2 (forthcoming). Daalsgard, Christian (2006). Social software: E-learning beyond learning management systems. In: European Journal of Open, distance and e-learningretrieved January, 31 2008 from http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2006/Christian_Dalsgaard.htm DevediĹľić, Vladan (2006). Semantic Web and Education. New York. Springer. Downes, Stephen (2005). E-Learning 2.0. In: eLearn Magazine, retrieved January, 31 2008 from http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=29-1 Fiedler, Sebastian & Kieslinger, Barbara (2006). Adapting to Changing Landscapes in Education. In: Proceedings of Microlearning 2006, Innsbruck, Austria. Geser, Guntram (2007). Open Educational Practices and Resources – OLCOS Roadmap 2012. Salzburg, retrieved January, 31 2008 from http://edumedia.salzburgresearch.at/images/stories/EduMedia/Inhalte/Publications/olcos_roadmap.pdf Hilzensauer, Wolf & Schaffert, Sandra (2008). Wikis und Weblogs bei SUN Microsystem: eine Erfolgsgeschichte eines Enterprise 2.0. In: Andrea Back, Horst Baumgartner, Norbert Gronau & Klaus Tochtermann (Ed.), Web 2.0 in der Unternehmenspraxis. Grundlagen, Fallstudien und Trends zum Einsatz von Social Software. MĂĽnchen: Oldenbourg. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (1990). IEEE Standard Computer Dictionary: A Compilation of IEEE Standard Computer Glossaries. New York. Knowles, Malcom S. (1975). Self-Directed Learning. A guide for learners and teachers. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall/Cambridge. Knuth, Randy A. & Cunningham, Donald J. (1993). Tools for Constructivism. In: Thomas M. Duffy, Joost Lowyck & David H. Jonassen (Ed.). Designing Environment for Constructive Learning. Berlin: Springer, 163- 188. Koch, Michael & Richter, Alexander (2007). Enterprise 2.0: Planung, EinfĂĽhrung und erfolgreicher Einsatz von Social Software in Unternehmen. MĂĽnchen: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag. 9 eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • NÂş 9 • July 2008 • ISSN 1887-1542
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  • 11. Authors Dr. Sandra Schaffert Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft Application Area “Education and Media” sandra.schaffert@salzburgresearch.at Mag. Wolf Hilzensauer Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft Application Area “Education and Media” wolf.hilzenauer@salzburgresearch.at Copyrights The texts published in this journal, unless otherwise indicated, are subject to a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivativeWorks 2.5 licence. They may be copied, distributed and broadcast provided that the author and the e-journal that publishes them, eLearning Papers, are cited. Commercial use and derivative works are not permitted. The full licence can be consulted on http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ Edition and production Name of the publication: eLearning Papers ISSN: 1887-1542 Publisher: elearningeuropa.info Edited by: P.A.U. Education, S.L. Postal address: C/ Muntaner 262, 3Âş, 08021 Barcelona, Spain Telephone: +34 933 670 400 Email: editorial@elearningeuropa.info Internet: www.elearningpapers.eu 11 eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • NÂş 9 • July 2008 • ISSN 1887-1542