Virtual Learning

This week in class we discussed a 7th grade girl's PLE (personal learning environment). On this site, she was able to link different websites to her PLE. It was very helpful in the fact that she was able to do an entire school project on there with the tool of bookmarking different sites on her PLE. She had separated rows of school sites and personal sites. She discussed how this type of learning environment was very useful and a fun way of learning for her. She also said this was one of the ways she learned how to navigate the Web.

What she did not tell her audience that i noticed was that she had some sites on her page that in my opinion are inappropriate for a seventh grader. She had the site FML and Facebook. FML has some explicit information that seventh graders should not be exposed to. Facebook is not a dangerous or explicit site, but if used in the wrong way can be. She is very young to be interacting with people over the web that she may or may not know, and probably should be monitored as to who is contacting her.

Therefore, this type of learning system, the PLE, can be very useful if closely monitored by a responsible adult and not abused by the child.
Here is the video in which the student explains her PLE. You can decide for yourself whether you think her bookmarked sites are appropriate or not and whether or not this is a safe and effective learning environment.



Here is another video that explains PLE's:



PLE could help teachers in the way they teach, but I do not think it would greatly help me in my major, Public Relations, unless I used it for my own personal use or to help a client.