Netvibes as PLE (again!)

Sometime ago I wrote (I think) on this weblog something about Netvibes as the means of creating a Personal Learning Environment. Now, Michele Martin brings this theory into practice, and writes about Reorganizing My Personal Learning Environment . A great read! And a recommended weblog too, which I have added to my Bloglines right away.

Netvibes contender... as opensource download!

I just found a great Netvibes contender, which is called eyeOS. A quote from their websi: "Welcome to eyeOS.info, where you can create and use your own eyeOS Virtual Desktop. With eyeOS.info all your data is available where ever you have Internet access and a standards compliant browser."

This is really something here.! Let me explain. You can download the source for this virtual desktop and install it on your own server. And since it is opensource, you can tweak it to whatever you like.

There are some 7 communities in different countries already. There is one The Netherlands already. This really worth investigating. Which I will start to do right after this post....

Mashing up the OU UK

For several months I've been following a really really great weblog, which is called
OUseful Info. The author is Tony Hirst. As with my previous post in this weblog, Tony is very much into the newest social software stuff that is out there. I like this!
The last thing that Tony has tried out and documented on his weblog is Dapper. This seems like a very very powerful service to screenscrape almost every website in the world and let this transform into almost anything you would like: RSS, iCal, Google map, XML...
I am just blogging this, so that this is a sort of reminder that I should look into this further. And you? Are you gonna try it?

Google as Personal Learning Environment? Yes, why not!

I have sort of gotten into the habit of starting up Bloglines before anything else (well, sometimes i forget and start with my email client), when I arrive at my desk. Today was no exception. And I came across CogDogBlog » Barking » Google Home Tabs: "I’ve had the personalized Google home page set on all my browsers for a while, but just recently noticed that you can now add tabs to organize and spread out the different tools and feeds you can use".
So, Alan Levine was the first to remind me that Google is taking on the competition. Since Netvibes already has tabs for some time now, and Pageflakes also I believe, Google couldn't stay behind for a long time.
Anyway, what strikes me more and more is that these kind of tools very well can serve as a very decent Personal Learning Environment, combining all sorts and types of (web)services from around your campus and beyond.
I also spoke a little bit about this at my workshop "Dancing with services" during the seminar last Tuesday of the Dutch Digital University. See the slide.
References: PLE Blog at CETIS (UK), Wikipedia entry on PLE

Why Personal Learning Environments?

There already has been quite an extensive online discussion (debate?) on a great post by Graham Attwell that really is worth a read. At least you should read the article on Personal Learning Environments (PLE) that he published a few weeks ago: "This paper will not answer all (..) questions. Instead it seeks to explain why the idea of the PLE is so appealing and what are the social and educational ideas which underpin the concept of the PLE. Secondly it will look at some of the issues that need to be resolved in a little more detail. Thirdly it will suggest some of the principles which should underpin PLE development and implementation and finally suggest what further developmental activities might be undertaken."
I personally see a strong connection between this PLE-debate and the kids of the net generation that will be flocking our campuses shortly. On this new generation of students enough has been said and published. Prof. dr. Wim Veen recently has taken this one step further by translating this to needed changes in education: "In het onderwijs hebben we de laatste twee decennia gedacht dat ICT een handig hulpmiddel was. Nu gaan we ontdekken dat we de invloed van ICT hebben onderschat. De gevolgen reiken verder dan we dachten." Read the complete story (in Dutch).