This week, we were asked to think about our personal learning environment, in other words, to reflect upon the tools and the processes we use to learn. Usually, when we think of learning and study the first things that come to our mind are classrooms and teacher. However, it is important to bear in mind that learning means more than that. Learning is a lifelong process and we learn something new everyday. We live and learn using different tools.It is important to critically reflect upon the different tools we use in our learning process in order to exploit them effectively and in an appropriate way. As Sarah suggested, I used the software FreeMind and created a mind map of my PLE. First, I had a look at Sarah’s first draft and at Michelle’s mind map and afterwards I divided the different tools and sources I came up with into similar categories as Sarah and Michelle did.
A little description of my mind map:
In order to create a clear and well arranged mind map I tried to answer some fundamental questions:
1. Where does the information come from?
I realized that I gather information from texts such as books, e-mails, blogs, newspapers, etc, from audio files such as pod casts and CDs and from video files. Moreover, I listed the tools that I use to gather information, for example google, wikipedia, online dictionaries, etc. and I also listed the people which inform me.
2. What do I do with this information?
When something interests me, I underline parts of the text or I take some notes. In some cases I summarize the main points and discuss the pieces of information with someone.
3. What do I do with what I have learnt?
After our weekly tasks of the two English courses, I write on my blog about the new experiences. This is actually a good way to become aware of the things we have learnt during the week. Moreover, for many courses I have to write papers and give presentations or else to do an exam.
Finally, I tried to identify my formal learning environment which can be said to be university courses, workshops, conferences and tutorials.
Creating a mind map of my PLE, was useful in order to see and become aware of how I learn. It is now possible for me to use these tools in a more conscious way and to expand my learning environment in the future.
Susanne
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7 commenti:
Dear Susi,
I share your considerations about Personal Learning environment, especilly the last one:
'It is now possible for me to use these tools in a more conscious way and to expand my learning environment in the future.'
I think that reflectiong on our learning tools and experiences is useful in order to cope with them in a more concious way as well.
Bye bye
Ilaria
Dear Susi,
Reflecting on how we learn things can be a good way also for setting our goals and trying to achieve them. So, I do agree with you and Ilaria: "It is now possible for me to use these tools in a more conscious way and to expand my learning environment in the future."
Cheers,
tina
Dear Susanne,
I agree with you when you say that all the weekly activities help us to metabolize what we are taught.
Sometimes we learn to pass an exam and then we forget what we have studied. Being conscious of how and what we learn is surely more effective!
Elena
Dear Susi,
I like how you asked yourself those 3 important questions in order to draw your mindmap.I agree with everything you say in this post and I'm curious to see your ple!Love,
Viola
Dear Susi,
I like reading your posts because they are always so well organized and clear. :)
Learning is a many sided process and effective learning means understanding how things work. As Elena pointed out, at university sometimes we study only to pass an exam and then forget. This does not mean learning because learning is for life and we should not forget it...
see you soon,
alex
dear Susi,
I agree with what you wrote and it was a pleasure to read it because it is very well organized.
I particularly appreciated when you wrote: "It is important to critically reflect upon the different tools we use in our learning process in order to exploit them effectively and in an appropriate way."
Our PLEs may be useful to understand what may be positive or negative in our future learning process.
As always, I must say that the picture you chose is wonderful!
See you tomorrow,
hugs
ali
Hi girls,
I am sorry for the delay but I realized only today that I didn't write a comment on your comments (what a weird sentence!!):-))
Thank you very much for the comments, it is always nice to read that someone agrees with what you say, isn't it?.
Hugs,
Susanne
P.S. I enjoyed the discussion about our PLEs in class:-))
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