Personal Learning Environment (PLE)

Definition

A Personal Learning Environment is a graphic representation of tools, people, and services that can aid learning. The final form consists of nodes, which are circles or boxes representing resources, and ties, which are cross-links between the resources. It’s typically presented as a concept map or word web.

Purpose and Goal

We have so many teaching and learning resources at our disposal today that it’s difficult to even keep track of them all. Yet a sound framework can help us take stock of and reflect on these resources as well as consider how we might use them to develop our knowledge base for teaching. In our PLE Technique video, we recommend the PLE as a technique for teaching students (Personal Learning Environment - The K. Patricia Cross Academy). Here we suggest that instructors can also benefit from creating their own PLE. Creating a PLE, then, means engaging with a reflecting- and graphic organizing- activity that helps you identify and organize information sources.

When we focus on our teaching and learning, creating a PLE provides a way to map resources and connections between them and to help us determine how our learning environments might grow. As educators, making our PLEs provides a framework for us to expand our knowledge in our areas of expertise as well as in teaching methods that will be appropriate and relevant today as well as in the future.