Personal learning environments for language learning

Abstract

The advent of web 2.0 and the developments it has introduced both in everyday practice and in education have generated discussion and reflection concerning the technologies which higher education should rely on in order to provide the appropriate e-learning services to future students. In this context, the Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), which are widely used in universities around the world to provide online courses to every specific knowledge area and of course in foreign languages, have started to appear rather outdated. Extensive research is under progress, concerning the ways in which educational practice will follow the philosophy of web 2.0 by adopting the more learner-centred and collaborative approach of e-learning 2.0 applications, without abandoning the existing investment of the academic institutions in VLEs, which belong to the e-learning 1.0 generation, and, thus, serve a teacher-or coursecentred approach. Towards this direction, a notably promising solution seems to be the exploitation of web 2.0 tools in order to form Personal Learning Environments (PLEs). These are systems specifically designed or created by the combined use of various external applications or tools that can be used independently or act as a supplement to existing VLE platforms, creating a personalized learning environment. In a PLE, students have the opportunity to form their own personal way of working, using the tools they feel are most appropriate to achieve their purpose. Regarding the subject of foreign language, in particular, the creation of such personalized and adaptable learning environments that extend the traditional approach of a course seems Social Technologies. 2012, 2(2): 420-440. 421 to promise a more holistic response to students' needs, who, functioning in the PLE, could combine learning with their daily practice, communicating and collaborating with others, thus increasing the possibilities of access to multiple sources, informal communication and practice and eventually acquiring the foreign language. Purpose-The purpose of this study is to investigate the ways in which foreign language teachers could take advantage of web 2.0 technologies to form efficient and easy to use personal learning environments (PLEs) for their students in foreign language learning courses. Design/methodology/approach-In this paper we firstly present the current research on PLEs, as well as the different ways of their formation and the pedagogical context in which they are based. Furthermore, in order to investigate the possibility of developing PLEs for language teaching/learning, we examine the technological platforms and web 2.0 tools that could help a foreign language teacher without special technical skills to develop an environment suitable for use in a language course. Towards this direction, specific solutions-PLEs based on tools available on the web and especially designed for this purpose, are proposed. Findings-In this paper, the capabilities and characteristics of the proposed PLEs as well as the advantages and the...

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“…Furthermore in same sense other researchers [27], [28] conclude that students like to collaborate and share information whit peers. These authors find students motivated and also engaged with collaboration, students who develop self-regulated learning supported on digital technologies and on Internet.…”

“…And moreover it is certainly possible to agree that "PLEs provide the new level of learning that is required by the new type of learners" [27] and "education is entering a period of radical discontinuity'' [28].…”

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