Megan’s Personal Learning Environment

Hi everyone! In this blog post I am going to discuss what a PLE is and what mine includes specifically.

A PLE is a Personal Learning Environment and includes various forms of technology that we use to learn each day. At first, one may think that they don’t use anything on a daily basis to “learn,” however, we learn in many different ways. I believe that my PLE can be attributed to the following topics: communication, finances, education, organization, creation, health, entertainment, and information. All of these aid in my daily process of learning and allow me to grow as an individual. Furthermore, I think it is most important to begin with discussing what specific resources allow for me to develop my PLE. Below is a diagram I created to define my PLE.

Image: “Megan’s Personal Learning Environment!” by Megan Svara. License CC BY-ND.
(All icons used to make this image were retrieved from Apple, license All Rights Reserved.)

On a daily basis, I use my iPad, my iPhone, my Apple Watch, and my HP Spectre x360 laptop. These resources aid my learning process and allow me to access any type of information that helps me learn. I mainly use my iPhone to communicate, manage my finances, maintain my health, and look up information. My iPad is mostly used for education, organization, creation, and entertainment. I use my Apple Watch to communicate and keep track of my health. Finally, my laptop is used for organization, creation, entertainment, and information.

Before diving into the specifics on what I use to learn, I think it is important to acknowledge the fact that I tend to learn much of what I know from those around me. Personally, I can accredit most of my success in the mathematics field thus far to my Papa and Dad. They have always encouraged my interests in mathematics and have helped me improve my problem solving and critical thinking skills. From as long as I can remember, I would go over to my grandparents’ house and my Papa would always quiz me on my addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, roots, and then review what I was learning in school. I think that the people around us impact what we learn and how we learn and I know for a fact that I would not be nearly as interested or good at mathematics as I am now without my Papa and my Dad being apart of my Personal Learning Environment.

For learning by communicating with others, I use Facebook, Instagram, Outlook, Facetime, Snapchat, and GroupMe. With these resources, I am able to connect to my friends and family members, especially in circumstances like this semester where I am abroad and do not have daily physical contact with them. I tend to find and share a lot of information on these media platforms and believe that without them I would not be able to communicate efficiently or effectively. They offer and support collaborative learning and that is crucial for my learning process because I tend to learn best by the use of communication and collaboration.

I have recently opened up a financial portfolio with Charles Schwab and have found that the app and website have aided in my learning about stocks, financial portfolios, and finances in general. Also, the Bank of America app is extremely useful to me because I am able to track my spendings and savings at my fingertips. It allows for me to be more aware of my finances constantly and helps me make smart financial decisions. This type of learning is not only important in everyday life, but is also applicable towards my future career as an Actuary. In my classes at the University of Iowa, I have learned about different types of financial portfolios and know how to calculate their values, but now as an investor these platforms allow for me to learn about the same topic from a different perspective as the buyer.

For education purposes, such as school work in the United States, I use the Canvas Student App and Quizlet. Canvas helps me easily access school work, assignments, grades, and I can communicate with professors on it. Also, on Quizlet, I am able to create study guides before quizzes or exams.

To organize all of my photos and documents, I use One Drive, Google Drive, Google Photos, and Windows File Explorer. I think that organization is key when it comes to learning. Once you learn something, you want to be able to easily access it again, so these tools help me store and recall things that I learn. If I am not organized, I know that I will not learn to my fullest potential, so these resources are crucial in my PLE.

When it comes to creating items to learn, I use Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, GoodNotes, and Rocketbook. For school, I always write my essays, projects, and presentations in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. During classes, I use GoodNotes on my iPad to hand write notes electronically. Also, I use Rocketbook to scan and upload notes that I take in my reusable Rocketbook notebook in order to organize them in Google Drive. These five medias are crucial in my creativity process, and I actually made the above diagram of my PLE in GoodNotes on my iPad. I have recently converted from taking notes on paper to my iPad, and I believe that this has been beneficial to my learning. All of my notes are stored and saved in one location so it is much easier to access and recall information I have learned.

I find that the MyFitnessPal app along with the Activity app allow for me to keep track of my fitness and health. These apps can track my calorie intake, my daily exercise, and they encourage me to focus on fitness. Also, I can look back on progress made because they store information daily. When college began, I noticed a decrease in my physical health. However, these apps have allowed for me to hold myself more accountable and make health a priority once again in my life. I do not think that I would be nearly as knowledgeable or conscientious about my health if I did not have this technology to help me.

For entertainment, I use Netflix and the ABC app. I enjoy watching movies and television series on these platforms and relax by watching shows on these apps. I consider this a part of my learning process because these platforms allow for me to take a break from serious learning and feel refreshed when returning to learning.

Finally, for finding information, I typically use Google, YouTube, and Pinterest. These platforms are easy to use for creative projects, research, and looking up music and dances. Over the past 19 years as a dancer, I have constantly used Google and YouTube to research types of dances and learn new dance forms. Dance is my hobby and my passion, and without Google and YouTube, I would not be able to easily learn more about dance.

I think that technology is crucial to learning and it can allow for everyone to personalize the way they learn and it can cater to a variety of learning abilities and needs. I found an article titled “Weighing in on Technology and Personalized Education” and thought that the following quote was extremely powerful and true, said by Shawn Mahoney, Ph.D.: “Personalized learning gives students more opportunity to become architects of their own learning path as the technology adapts to their specific needs.” Also, a quote by Eric Sheninger states that with technology “students crave a greater purpose and sense of relevance in their learning.” I find personally that when I am able to use technology to aid in my learning process I tend to retain more information and have a greater interest in the topics I am learning.

Overall, I think that all of these devices, platforms, apps, and websites make up my PLE. I think that my PLE has recently expanded since beginning college, and I think that it will continue to develop during my time here in Spain. Personal Learning Environments are unique to each person and evolve continually because we continue to grow and learn in different ways. I hope you found this blog interesting and that it inspires you to think about your PLE and how you learn and grow on a daily basis. Hasta luego, mis amigos!