Tuesday, June 30, 2009

5.1.2: PLEeeze...

George Siemens' post, "Beyond management: Personal Learning Environments" overviews Stephen Downes' latest presentation on PLEs (Personal Learning Environments) at ED-MEDIA 2009. As explained in the E-Primer (draft for discussion next week in IT Forum), there is a flaw here; higher education is not about fact-filling. It recognises that knowledge is adaptive and emerging, and complex. Is the system "out of touch" and risking "irrelevance"? Is "reform" necessary? Might PLEs (Personal Learning Environments) create more problem than they solve? Is the curriculum an enemy to learning? Is learning equated to 'memorisation' in higher education?

I find myself with more questions than assent. Is 'connecting across a network' the same as 'knowing'? I do struggle with the assumptions beneath Siemens' post, and just can't help thinking that I'm missing something...

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