At the beginning of the semester, we were asked to share an image that represented our understanding of personal learning environments (PLEs). As my image, I chose a photo of a portion of honeycomb because of their interconnected segments. When we were asked to complete a diagram of our own PLE, I wanted to return to the overarching theme of the honeycomb, and naturally the picture that I have drawn above was the result. The bee is my representation of myself, and each flower represents a different aspect of the 'garden' that is my PLE.
As I was creating this drawing, there were a few things that I had to consider. The first was the nature of 'learning' that I wanted to depict. Naturally I would include all of the communities I have joined and participated in since joining the EdTech program, but scholarly learning is not the only type of learning that I engage in. Current events, trends, news of friends and family, as well as collection of information about my own hobbies and interests are all part of my learning as well. This is why I created two flowers representing Twitter; I have two different twitter accounts to keep my professional and school related tweets separate from other tweets. I have two Facebook accounts for the same reason, but when I considered how I use Facebook in either account, it seemed appropriate to use one flower for Facebook, but to categorize the petals by the different informal communities I have within the social network, as I tend to follow individuals on Facebook more than I do whole communities.
The petals of each flower ended up being an unintentional metaphor as well. As I was drawing each flower with eight petals, I thought to myself, "I can find eight communities or categories to include on each flower." But the truth is, I couldn't. The only thing I use Blogger for is my EdTech learning log. While I do read the blogs of others and contribute by commenting, there aren't any that I follow so exclusively that it warrants inclusion in this picture. So, I decided that it is okay that some of the petals are blank. There is always room to grow a PLE, and the blank petals serve as a great representation of that.
In analyzing the PLE diagrams of my classmates, I have come to notice a few similarities and differences among them. There are some common networks and sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., that are present in nearly all of them. They all also effectively illustrate the connectedness of each individual personal learning environment. Each social network or tool is its own entity, while at the same time is an important contribution to the "bigger picture". I like to think that one similarity all of the diagrams have as well as a little bit of each person's personality, as I know I included mine, but since I don't know anyone in class well enough to draw that conclusion for sure, it is only my speculation.
The differences in each diagram are also very dynamic. One of the most prominent differences I noticed between my diagram and those of my classmates is how we ourselves were represented in the diagram. In most of the diagrams I viewed, the learner is represented at the center of the diagram. This makes sense, as one should place themselves as the central point of their own learning, and the information is delivered to them. I never thought of this until I looked at the other diagrams. Instead, I made myself as the learner a mobile being that can go to each social network or tool as I need to to build my own learning. Another difference I noted was the level of depth of the different PLE diagrams. Some of them show the different social networks and tools and how they relate to one another and to the learners themselves, and some depict the networks as well as the different entities that contribute to their learning within that network. The final difference that I noted between my diagram and some of the others was the approach to the diagram in general. I approached this assignment as a diagram of my social network learning, and some of the other diagrams represent learning tools in a general sense. Sites and platforms used for research and learning outside of the social realm were present in the diagram. In hindsight, I may have to append an additional drawing to my original to expand my garden a little bit, but I think mine still gives a pretty good interpretation of how I learn.
It makes sense that all of the class' PLE diagrams are different. Everyone learns in different ways, and no two people have identical experiences. I look forward to continuing to expand my PLE, and reading about the thoughts of my classmates on this assignment as well.
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