The PLE Prototype
The research context
PLEX was developed within the Personal Learning Environments Reference Model project, funded by JISC in the eLearning Frameworks and Tools Programme in 2005. The project introduced the term "Personal Learning Environment", now widely used in discussions of eLearning and elaborated the new concept in the Personal Learning Environment Report|. The report includes a reference model, which defines the conceptual boundaries of a PLE, and the components which are required to create one.
This radically new approach required an innovative exemplar implementation to explore the potential of the reference model, and this was the purpose of PLEX. It constitutes a new type of eLearning application, shifting the locus of control to learners, and away from institutions through a peer-to-peer architecture and the aggregation of services. Users are supported in personal organisation and self-maintenance, and in fulfilling social commitments, including those to courses and teachers. .
Functional innovation
PLEX is is designed to meet a new formulation of the needs of the learner, one who is engaging in multiple communities of practice, and to meet these needs a new type of application is required. It affords facilities for learners to manage different 'personas', through which they which can engage in various communities of practice. It also provide facilities through which learners' social networks, the activities that they are engaged with, and the resources that they may need can be coordinated with the learner's various personas. PLEX embodies the fundamental principle of the PLE in affording two fundamental types of learner action.
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Learners engage in actions which fulfil commitments to personal organisation and self-maintenance (for example, the organisation of a social network, or resources).
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Learners engage in actions which fulfil social commitments to external agencies, whether courses, teachers, or other people. This includes traditional learning activity, together with activities to fulfil other social commitments.
These two types of action are inter-dependent, and PLEX is designed to reflect this.
Technical innovation
PLEX was developed at the University of Bolton by Phillip Beauvoir, Mark Johnson, Oleg Liber, Colin Milligan, Paul Sharples and Scott Wilson. The technical implementation was conditioned by two factors:
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users' need to manage relationsips with a number of different communities concurrently
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a the belief that as far as possible learners should be able to set up and maintain their own applications indepentently of the institutions which they are involved with,
To achieve this an architecture was established which leaveraged emerging trends in social software, enabling the user to connect to services for reading RSS feeds, blogging, searching learning opportunities (including XCRI), and organising social groups (including groups established through institutional student databases), resources and activities.
The application was developed as a Rich Client Platform using Eclipse, producing a plug-in based architecture which meets the needs of a personal learning toolkit. The architecture is driven by feeds and conduits, and the provision of a small set of instruments for the accomplishment of a wide variety of activities.
Adoption of PLEX
PLEX was adopted as a design input for the Personal Competence Manager of the TENCompetence IST-IP project. It also informed the development of the Manchester VLE Framework.