Hi guys!
In this post I want to reflect with you on a concept I've probably already mentioned without talking about it: the Personal Learning Environment.
You all know that this blog is part of the toolset for my PLE, that is the system of sources, environments, activities, interactions that let me keep on learning. We, students of languages well know that as soon as one stops keeping in touch with a language, one starts missing it.
But why PLE might be useful or indeed central to learning in the future?
The idea of personal learning environment directly derives from the changing technologies and thus, from the pressures for changes in the present education system. PLE believes that learning is ongoing, so it takes place in different contexts and situations. Moreover, it is based on the increasing recognition of:
- the role of the individual in organising his/her own learning;
- the importance of informal learning.
I found the idea of mapping my own language path extremely original and interesting: concentrating on my current PLE made me reflect on myself! Including both formal education and anything outside of it, I made a list of the different activities, sources of information and tools I use to improve my level of knowledge and to set my future goals; I tried to categorize them and to make them systematic; then, I mind-mapped it out. Reflecting on what I do to learn was extremely useful, as it made me realize my current knowledge, think about my strengths and weaknesses, the way I work and organize myself, my endeavours (and also my laziness!), what I've learned so far and what I still need to learn. As far as English is concerned, I realized that during this year I made some good improvements in fluency, accuracy and clarity. However, I still need to work to eliminate my "bad habits", and to achieve my language target, that is to feel more self confident in communication and interaction. I want to be able to use the appropriate language in both formal and informal contexts. I will devote 30 minutes to 1 hour per day practising my English in any possible way: reading books, newspapers, magazines, watching movies, listening to online radios, listening to music, etc... (As Sarah suggested, a useful and interesting exercise is to compare the different pronunciations listening to different radios of England, Australia, Ireland, America. I am curious to see it!!).
Here is my mind map.
In this post I want to reflect with you on a concept I've probably already mentioned without talking about it: the Personal Learning Environment.
You all know that this blog is part of the toolset for my PLE, that is the system of sources, environments, activities, interactions that let me keep on learning. We, students of languages well know that as soon as one stops keeping in touch with a language, one starts missing it.
But why PLE might be useful or indeed central to learning in the future?
The idea of personal learning environment directly derives from the changing technologies and thus, from the pressures for changes in the present education system. PLE believes that learning is ongoing, so it takes place in different contexts and situations. Moreover, it is based on the increasing recognition of:
- the role of the individual in organising his/her own learning;
- the importance of informal learning.
I found the idea of mapping my own language path extremely original and interesting: concentrating on my current PLE made me reflect on myself! Including both formal education and anything outside of it, I made a list of the different activities, sources of information and tools I use to improve my level of knowledge and to set my future goals; I tried to categorize them and to make them systematic; then, I mind-mapped it out. Reflecting on what I do to learn was extremely useful, as it made me realize my current knowledge, think about my strengths and weaknesses, the way I work and organize myself, my endeavours (and also my laziness!), what I've learned so far and what I still need to learn. As far as English is concerned, I realized that during this year I made some good improvements in fluency, accuracy and clarity. However, I still need to work to eliminate my "bad habits", and to achieve my language target, that is to feel more self confident in communication and interaction. I want to be able to use the appropriate language in both formal and informal contexts. I will devote 30 minutes to 1 hour per day practising my English in any possible way: reading books, newspapers, magazines, watching movies, listening to online radios, listening to music, etc... (As Sarah suggested, a useful and interesting exercise is to compare the different pronunciations listening to different radios of England, Australia, Ireland, America. I am curious to see it!!).
Here is my mind map.
Dear Francesca, Sorry, but I couldn't find your email anywhere. Here's what I wrote to the others...
RispondiEliminaDear all,
This part of the email is to all of you. First of all, thanks to everyone for accompanying me in this journey through English and the Web. I understand that it’s different from what you were used to doing at University, but I can only hope that it proved to be useful in the end. This is my last year of teaching for a few years so I, like you, feel both relief and a bit of sadness Three years ago I was ‘told’ I would have to reduce my hours at Engineering and do the laurea specialistica at Lingue. I was not pleased at the time, but was ‘forced’ to do it. Three years down the road, I can say it has been a wonderful experience. You all have different reasons for being at University, but what is clear is your desire to learn and that is extremely important in life. So I am happy I have had the opportunity to work with you.
Grades? This is what you are all really interested in, right? ;-) Well, here’s some insight into my grading. As you all saw, I keep track of everything, participation, blog posts, comments, etc. so you’re final grade is a mix of these and the mid-semester grade most of you got. Know that I’m a believer in not ‘regalare i voti’. I know you all did a lot for these 3 CFU, but I also had to consider our ‘C1’ goal when assigning grades. As always, I’m open to dialogue if you don’t understand your grade. And, I’m pleased to say, this semester nobody is less than a 27 (last semester we had 23s!).
30 – I think you’ve more or less achieved a C1 level (though know you need to work more on accuracy!) and you participated actively and were extremely motivated.
29 - You participated actively and were very interested and just need that little extra bit of work on accuracy to reach a real C1.
28 - You participated actively either in class or online (not necessarily both) and were very interested and still need to work on accuracy to reach a real C1.
27 - You participated actively either in class or online (not necessarily both) and were interested but still need to work on accuracy to reach a real C1.
I have sent your grades to Prof. Taylor and she will average them with her grade and register them in your libretto. As a CEL I can’t register grades ;-)
Best to all for a great summer – and life!
Sarah
Your grade: 28
P.S. I'm sorry I only had you for one semester, but I'm sure you will keep on learning as you indicated in your blog post. Best!