Reflection of Personal Learning Environments

Review a plan to Create and Curate your Digital Identity from one of your peers in this class. What did you learn about yourself when looking at your PLE? How does your PLE compare to other peers in class? Compare the similarities and differences between yours and your classmate’s diagrams and plans.

As I read and compared my plan to create and curate my digital identity with that of my colleagues’, I noticed that based on our professional needs, we’ve curated and selected what we wanted to include in our learning environments. Our learning environments  centered on our individual learning needs and interests. There are similarities in the tools and practices related to our professional development.  I also see a difference in the scope of the plans and in the way they were organized. We have created our networks of learning and even though they differ they meet our needs.

One common node in all of the plans I reviewed is our participation in the IT&DML program.  Our IT&DML program is presently the most significant source of our professional development.  Through it, we are gaining the knowledge and skills we need to teach digital literacy.   We are:

• learning about theories, models, and dispositions about online reading, writing, and  learning
• exploring and experimenting with tools we hope to use with our students
• collaborating and discussing how to effectively teach students using online tools
• building professional development relationships that will keep us up to date on best practices to use technology with our students   

The second similarity between our posts is the inclusion of blogs.    Digital media literacies are new literacies brought about by the Internet. The practices and tools we use to help our students develop digital literacy skills are new.  Our blogs serve as journals in which we document and reflect on our practices and experiences related to teaching digital literacy.  By reading and commenting on each other’s blogs, we are learning. The inclusion of maintaining a blog as a professional development tool is a practice that will help us to improve our teaching.

One difference in my plan from the others that I viewed is in scope.  I included my digital learning hub as part of my plan.  This is where I will place my collection of tools and resources that I will offer my students and patrons.  My digital learning hub will host what I produce as a result of my personal learning and is a part of my online identity.

Another difference, is in the way the plans were organized.  One approach I believe will be very helpful is how Joan Robinson organized her plan. Her main nodes reflect her personal learning needs and she identifies the resources that can help meet those needs. I thought this approach to be reflective and representative of student centered connective learning.

I enjoyed looking at and reviewing the blogs.  It was a good learning activity.