Report and Reflection 2: What is a PLE and why do you need one?

Rhind, J. (CC) 2016

As found in one of the articles, “a Personal Learning Environment is a digital toolbox which covers activities such as Generating, Organising and Sharing Content Online. Your PLE may consist of Blogs, Wikis, cloud storage and bookmarking, RSS feeds, Reader pages, File Sharing sites and ePortfolios. These spaces may be built and maintained by you as an individual or part of a collaborative team.” (Digital Study Skills)  PLEs allow potential learners to set their own goals and personally manage their own learning experience by tailoring the content in which they learn from and the process in which they do so.  Learners may also choose to learn buy themselves or through collaboration with other learners. Personally, the PLE can help me view all the things that assist me in my learning. Through the use of technology I can learn so much more about whatever it is I wish to learn about. The things I listed in my PLE concept map not only assist me in my personal learning but also for school work. And many of the things listed below are used for multiple purposes.

Personal: Within the next 5 to 10 years, I plan to be 5 to 10 years removed from graduating from Brock with my degree in business administration. I hope to have found a stable job in a career path that makes me happy, and to have already made steady progression through that career. I hope to have cleared up all of my student debt and have moved out from my parent’s house, and be taking steps toward starting a life and family of my own. I also hope to have spent some time travelling and seeing other parts of the world. To accomplish these personal goals, finding a good job to support myself financially and allow me to live comfortably will be crucial.

Learning: In order to accomplish these tasks there are a number of skills I will need to learn and/or improve on. To order to be successful in almost any career communication is crucial. This blog and other learning experiences from this class will help me improve on my communication skills and my digital communications skills, which will help me in the future. I will also need to further my learning with Microsoft excel, access and data mining programs such as SAS.

Environment: My learning environment is fairly fast paced, with a number of courses teaching different things that I am trying to learn all at once. I need to try and keep my learning environment organized and make sure I do not fall behind in my studies. I can also surround myself with others who will help me in my learning and not hinder it (Reliable group members, etc.).

Rhind, J. (CC) 2016

Habits: I find myself distracted fairly easily and it can be hard for me to focus on something for a long period of time without getting distracted. I also tend to leave assignments to the last minute. This is a habit that should be destroyed. By keeping organized and one top of things, and by pushing myself more I may be able to reduce my procrastination. I should also try to work in a more secluded environment in order to focus better and be distracted less often.

This Wordle is first one I have ever made, but I found it interesting to see it made, and made so quickly. Based on my previous reflection, the Wordle accurately reflected the key points of my reflection, highlighting digital and footprint as the biggest words. In conclusion this week I learned about different tools online that are quite useful and also was able to make my own PLE in look forward to seeing whether or not this will change over time!