Chapter 2

Instructional Strategies for PLE & ONLE

by Kenyetta Bausman, Aaron Huntsman, Brenda Lawrence, Nora Prairie

Editor: Ryan Gray

Overview

Chapter 2 will introduce the instructional strategies for a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) and Online Network Learning Environment (ONLE). Readers should gain a clear understanding of how these instructional strategies are utilized in an online constructivist learning environment. The above wordle signifies a visual representation of the key elements and components for the instructional strategies used in an online network learning environment (ONLE) and a Personal Learning Environment (PLE). ONLE is a digital environment that gives learners an opportunity to connect to people, resources and tools by integrating Web 2.0 tools to design an open network learning environment. ONLEs and PLEs give learners an opportunity to create, network, interact, share and collaborate.

Chapter Learning Objectives:

• Learners will be able to describe and identify PLE and ONLE strategies.
• Learners will be able to implement PLE and ONLE strategies into their online learning.
• Learners will be able to identify and describe the six online constructivist instructional strategies and describe how various Web 2.0 tools support students’ learning in a connective constructivist online environment.

PLE and ONLE Instructional Strategies

Participatory Web: Participatory web is a strategy in which users build and contribute content online using a variety of Web 2.0 tools. In Participatory Web Instructional Strategy, rather than simply consuming content, students become active participants in both consuming and creating content in both formal and informal environments. Web 2.0 tools, such as wikis and blogs, are powerful tools that facilitate collaborative participatory web interactions, and allow users to create and share online including “publishing online biographies and photographs to allow other members of the class to visualize them” which greatly enhances a participatory web culture (Hanover Research Council, 2009, p.6).

User Generated Content: User Generated Content (UGC) is related to participatory web. In a traditional online course, the learning resources are generally proscribed by an instructor. In UGC, “Students are empowered to create learning content for peers to learn rather than instructors” (Tu, n.d., para. 5). UGC encourages individuals to act as the primary drivers of content by collaboratively designing authentic projects that foster the use of creativity and higher order thinking skills to demonstrate their understanding of concepts learned and to share with others. Wikipedia is a great example of both participatory web integrated with UGC in an informal learning community. Individuals consume content, but are also able to collaborate, edit, add resources, add new entries, publish, and and make comments in order to improve and enhance the online community. Other examples of UGC include creating YouTube videos, blogs, Wikis, podcasts, websites, presentations, Facebook, blogs, YouTube, and Twitter.

Community-Community Interaction: Community-Community Interaction encourages learners who share similar learning interests to collaborate and share content together. ONLE is similar to traditional online learning whose community is “an inherently cooperative, cohesive and self reflective group entity whose members work…toward common goals while respecting a variety of perspectives, values and lifestyles” (Buffington, 2003, para. 31). Buffington (2003) further cites the work of Harada, Lum and Souza (2003) who offer these characteristics of a traditional online learning community:

• Students or workers are constructors of knowledge.
• Focus is on process as well as product.
• Learning emphasizes social engagements.
• Emphasis is on making connections, fostering inquiry and problem solving.
• Disciplines are viewed as intertwining studies.
• Curriculum evolves from real-life concerns, student questions.
• Information access includes global sources of information.
• Evaluation includes formative assessment; it focuses on self-improvement.
• Reflection is integral to the process

(Ibid, para 31).

However, ONLE does have one key difference and “(c)ommunity interaction(s) go beyond within the same semester. Upcoming community earners are able to interact with previous community learners. In ONLE context, Community-Community should be seen as cross communities/courses/semesters/schools etc” (Tu, n.d.); whereas, an online community is generally limited to classmates enrolled in the course and dissolves when the course ends. Examples of community-community interactions is when students build community-community interactions with other students, professionals, and other people on a worldwide level.

Aggregation: Aggregation is when a website aggregates subscribed information from multiple online sources. Aggregator tools like Symbaloo, Netvibes and igoogle allow users to organize websites and RSS feeds into one location for easy retrieval and organization. Other examples of aggregation are social bookmarking tools such as Delicious, diigo, and Mixx which allow users to collect and share online research.

Social Content Sharing: Through the use of social networking sites, Social Content Sharing allows users to access, collaborate, and share information openly with others or to a selected group of people. Rather than tagging or posting to a page, students in the course can simply find and share their findings via their social media share function. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are examples of social networking sites where users can create or upload content to share.

InfoViz: Infoviz are visual representations to simplify complex and abstract concepts. Examples include graphic organizers, mind maps, and concept maps.

Mashup: A Mashup is an application that integrates elements from two or more sources to promote learning. Mashups can be integrated into one’s PLE and/or ONLE portal page from where it can be easily accessed. In an ONLE, rather than prescribe all learning materials for a course, an instructor could use a Mashup to provide a wide variety of resources for students to support their learning. However, because ONLE is more community-community oriented, a better option is to have community members collaborate on creating a Mashup of resources. An excellent example of a Mashup is http://www.Trendsmap.com.

Remix: Remixing allows students to combine new information to existing content to create new content. Examples of remixing are music, images, videos, and games.

RSS feed: Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed enables Web 2.0 users to receive information from other Web 2.0 tools which allows them to follow the “daily flow” of information from their chosen sites (Imperatore, 2009, p. 21). RSS feeds can be added to any PLE and ONLE and are a personal reflection of an individual’s personal learning environment. RSS supports and enhances PLE in a variety of ways by pushing all content into one centralized place without having to go to multiple websites, sharing content between users, merging a variety of similar resources together (sports, education, news, etc.) and more. Examples of RSS feeds include blogs, news sites, and social media sites.

Mobile Learning: Mobile learning enables learners to access information from anywhere and at anytime. Mobile learning supports ONLE in a variety of ways because learners are not confined by time, place, or even prescribed content. Mobile learners can use digital technology to connect more freely with each other (community-community), create and share content (UGC), and share on social media (social content sharing). Trazler (2009) notes that “the concept of mobile education or mobile learning is still emerging and still unclear” (p.13); however, he notes several characteristics:

• Some advocates of mobile learning attempt to define and conceptualize it in terms of devices and technologies; other advocates do so in terms of the mobility of learners and the mobility of learning, and in terms of the learners’ experience of learning with mobile devices. (p.10)
• Mobile learning is essentially personal, contextual (p.10).
• Defining mobile learning can emphasize those unique attributes that position it within informal learning, rather than formal (p.10)
• The mobile learning currently exploits both handheld computers and mobile telephones and other devices that draw on the same set of functionalities. P.11
• Technology-driven mobile learning, Miniature but portable e-learning, Connected classroom learning Informal, personalized, situated mobile learning, Mobile training/ performance support, Remote/rural/development mobile learning (p.13)

Online Constructivist Instructional Strategies

Online constructivist instructional strategies have been proven to “support the creation of powerful (online) learning environments” (Tam, 2000). A short synopsis of the constructivism learning theory is learners collaboratively engage in active meaning making tasks to build understanding and knowledge, and then reflect on their learning experience. Within an online learning environment, this learning process is the same.

The following outlines the six online constructivist instructional strategies and explains how they guide students to construct meaning in a connective learning setting.

Learner-Learner Interaction: Online learning provides learners with multiple opportunities to construct meaning and build their understanding and knowledge through interactive collaborative discourse and reflection (Ally, 2004). To participate in this collaborative inquiry learning, learners access Web 2.0 tools to connect and interact with their community of learners.

Learning Resources: Online learning resources for learners to access via Web 2.0 includes:

• Online libraries (private and public)
• ERIC.ed.gov & Google Scholar for scholarly articles
• Social Bookmarking Tools
• Wikis
• Videos for tutorials and lectures
• Audio podcasts for tutorials and lectures
• Video conferences
• Chat rooms

(Anderson, 2004)

Online Collaboration: Online learning provides multiple opportunities for “peer-to-peer interaction in investigating and developing multiple perspectives” which promotes “cognitive learning” and “allow(s) learners to develop interpersonal skills” (Anderson, 2004, p. 46).

Online Learning Community: An online learning community interacts both asynchronously and synchronously through interactive collaborative web-based activities such as social networking, social bookmarking, video conferencing, chats, email, blogs, Wikis, etc., which facilitates the “collaborative learning of content, and the development of personal relationships among participants” (Ally, 2004).

Online Student Publishing: Online student publishing provides opportunities for learners to be creative and “transfer what they learn to real-life application(s)” (Ally, 2004). These educational artifacts, also known as “student-generated content (SGC) engages learners in authentic projects that fosters students' autonomy, creativity, and real-world problem-solving skills” (Eunbae, 2011, p. 36).

Peer Evaluation: Online learning peer evaluations provide collaborative learning environments opportunities to assess their own learning as well as their peers. Student moderators can also “facilitate and monitor peer activities to allow students to assess and aid each other informally” (Anderson, 2004).

Watch the following YouTube video to see how the above Constructivist Instructional Strategies tie in with Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy for the 21^st Century.

Below is an image of Bloom’s Instructional Taxonomy for 21st Century Learners retrieved from Google Images that shows various Web 2.0 tools and their correlation to Bloom’s different learning objectives in a connective constructivist environment.

Reflections

In this chapter, you learned about the PLE and ONLE strategies and how they relate to online learning. Through interaction with the PLE and ONLE strategies, learners become a part of a larger entity online that allows them to collaborate and engage with those who have similar interests or ideas from all over the globe. When used in conjunction with constructivist strategies, learners become generators and creators as they interact with others through discourse and collaboration. This helps to create new content based on prior knowledge and blended with new understandings. These new works are shared online for others to view and use to facilitate their own understandings. As new tools, resources, and connections with others are made, learning becomes a lifelong habit. Through this learning, you were able to see and experience how these strategies could be used in your own learning as well as your own teaching of others.

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