Personal Learning Environment for Higher

Education-

A First Prototype

Martin Ebner, Behnam Taraghi

Technology enhanced Learning

http://flickr.com/photos/powerbooktrance/289992273//

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sovietuk/141381675

uLearning = {u-Environment, u-Contents, u-Behaviour, u-Interface, u-Service}

What is a PLE ?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alancleaver/2441359074

According to Stephen Downes a PLE is ...

a future learning environment

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skippytpe/256929499

According to Stephen Downes a PLE is ...

not an institutional or coporate application but a learning center

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alysser/2011022884

According to Stephen Downes a PLE is ...

where content is reused and remixed

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alysser/2011022884

According to Stephen Downes a PLE is ...

according to the student‘s own needs and interests

Why we need a PLE ?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/toru_okada/1377360600

University a closed castle?

http://edtechpost.wikispaces.com/file/view/swl_ple2.gif (Scott Leslie, PLE Diagram)

But how can we integrate the WWW ...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ghz/407109888/

and combine it with university‘s services?

The general concept

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thetoad01/2677459596

7 crucial aspects for the shift (Schaffert&Hilzensauer, 2008)

Role of learner

Personalisation

ContentSocial Involvement

Ownership

Educational &organisatioal culture

Technological aspects

Technological concept

MashUp Principle - Use of Widgets

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/J2EE/mashup_2/

Comparable to iGoogle

Widget

• Follow a W3C Widget Specification• IST Palette Project allows exchange -

furthermore also the communicaton between widgets

„Widgets are full-fledged client-side applications that are authored using Web

standards. They are typically downloaded and installed on a client machine or device where

they typically run as stand-alone applications outside a Web browser“

Defintion of W3C

First Design Study

Central Ideas of the GUI:

„Less is more“

„tidy not cluttered“

„the best of two worlds“

http://www.flickr.com/photos/harmrhebergen/2694630

Brainstorming

First conceptual ideas

MockUp

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theredproject/3879832565

Main GUI Elements

Workflow

WidgetZone

Dashboard FullScreen

Widget Zoom

Usability Tests

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rdolishny/2760207306

First Design

PersonalDashboard

First Working Prototype

General View - overall concept

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Blog Widget

!

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Customzation Screen

Twitter Widget

RSS Reader

!

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U-Stream Widget

Google Maps

!

!

http://flickr.com/photos/nib/10101227/

Next Steps

Finishing relevant university-wide Widgets Integration of

Dropbox, Facebook ...

Launch October 2010 (semester start)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/supersonic_look/1307679752

Recommendation

Integration of Learning Objects (LO)

Learning Scenarios

Future

Graz University of Technology

SOCIAL LEARNINGComputer and Information Services

Graz University of Technology

Martin Ebner

http://elearning.tugraz.at

http://elearningblog.tugraz.at

Grab and Search your Tweets http://grabeeter.tugraz.at

Slides available at: http://elearningblog.tugraz.at

mebner