This blog posting refers to one of this week’s writing assignments at the OU – it’s about PLEs (personal learning environments) as opposed to VLEs provided by institutions. This week, we got to know an interesting confrontation between these two concepts; the former working towards learner autonomy and self-directed learning, the latter ensuring the smooth flow of an online course by making everyone using the same tools.

The concept of the PLE assumes that autonomous learners choose from the wide selection of offline and online tools available for computer assisted learning the applications that best support their learning and subsequently build up their own personal learning environment. They are completely free in their choice and are encouraged to use any service they like, provided it assists in their learning process. Institutions might offer guidance and help with reflection, but in the end learners take their own choices. In my last blog posting earlier that day, I published a mindmap showing my PLE. When I think of how my PLE became what it looks like today, I can recall a great number of single events, recommendations, etc. that led me to try out services in order to continue to use some and discard others. Some of the tools I use only support me as an individual learner, some others may be used to do collaborative work. But there are hardly any tools in my mindmap that some institution required me to use, apart from First Class, the OU’s communication system, and moodle.

Moodle and First Class are good examples for the opposite concept, for VLEs, virtual learning environments, provided by an institution. Of course, a lot of difficulties would be imposed on online courses if all students were free to choose which wiki, discussion forum or chat to use. Given the great number of possibilities for tools available on the net, chances are high that within a group of online learners there are a couple of preferred systems – collaboration and common communication would be very hard. So, institutions usually provide learning environments tailored to the needs of the institutions and their courses rather that on individual learners’ requirements. Using moodle as a basic VLE, for example, makes it possible for an online group to meet and learn together with a set of tools available to everyone. As it is pointed out in the discussion often, these VLE tools may not be as sophisticated as alternative applications available somewhere else, but they usually provide basic functions and are well-suited to cope with standard activities.

I regard it absolutely necessary to have a common VLE when offering online training. It has to be comparatively stable and straightforward to use, especially when dealing with novices. Apart from standard collaborative situations, the institution’s VLE also plays an important role every time something “official” happens – meeting an official deadline, handing in an official assignment that counts towards certification, for example. Take this blog, for example. One of this week’s activities requires me to write in my blog about this topic. It is one of the tools that comprise my PLE and I’m in full control of it – but also have to cope with potential problems on my own. If everything works fine and my postings can be displayed and viewed correctly, everyone is happy and can participate in some discussion. If some software bug should appear and deleted this posting, I’d be very upset – but I could join in the discussion elsewhere as well. Were this posting, however, some compulsory essay to be graded and reviewed in order to receive a certificate in the end, things would look differently: It’s far too dangerous to rely on a system outside the university’s VLE to handle such delicate documents. Because if the university’s system should make problems, I won’t be alone and people on various levels could assist me to still hand in the assignment.

I’m at the moment not so fond of the idea that a future VLE should become more of a hub, managing people’s individual learning tools. I think institutions should also in the future offer complete learning environments featuring their own tools. The risk that students react a bit disappointedly when they get to know an institution’s potentially basic VLE after having worked with various glossy tools offered on the net must be taken – at least it’s an environment under full control of the institutions, whereas outside applications may come and go as their providers like. Their terms of use might change, there is usually little chance to get involved in data protection – and data security is a completely different issue.

Similarly to an institutions, I have always tried to run applications I can control and to be independent from other companies’ goodwill. So, I’m running my own weblog and have opened an eMail account with a provider where I have full access to the mailbox and all spam filters, virus clients, etc. I would love to download the source code for del.icio.us and install it on my private webspace or run a Twitter-like application on my server. But I had to learn that the more tools are there – and the more cool features they offer – the less I can actually control them in the way I can control my blog or eMails. I had to accept that for some tools you just have to place yourself in someone’s hands. Sometimes I forget about all the risks and am overwhelmed by the possibilities, but at other times I recall the issues and think about data backup and privacy. Learning tools one compiles from online resources do make fantastic things possible – but I wouldn’t rely purely on them if I organised an online course.