PLE's

I’ll admit; I think I’m probably a little lost on the ideas of Personal Learning Environments (PLE’s). The concept is great. Create learning environments where tailored to the individual so they can learn in a way that is comfortable for them. It allows them to, not only to tackle the information they want to learn, but engage themselves in a way to see the relevancy in what they are learning. The problem is how to enable everyone to create those PLE’s. When you are in a class with 30+ students, how to ensure that you are giving them all the tools to customize PLE’s? In reading the article on Personal Learning Environments the author references the idea that you should work by using backwards design. You need to look at where you are going in order to know where you are headed and this is a very popular way of designing curriculum. You can’t just throw tools at students and expect them to create a masterpiece but guide them and allow them explore the tools you allow the, but how can you do this when your time with each student is limited?
The author also touches on the idea of PLE’s becoming “PGGE’s”, meaning that the system is designed to teach them to memorize facts and not learn and understand ideas. How do you ensure the PLE’s are not turning into those kinds of systems when you have to monitor so many students at once? I’ll admit to not having a lot of classroom experience and would love to know how teachers manage that kid of thing.
Sources:
http://andremalan.net/blog/2009/06/26/personal-learning-environments/