Jiggsaw readings - Reading: Dabbagh & Kitsantas (2012)

This post is regarding one of the options for the Jiggsaw reading in Week 2 of EME6414. The first reading I selected was Dabbagh & Kitsantas , titled "Personal Learning Environments, social media, and self-regulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning". I've pulled excerpts and have provided some personal commentary as well:).


The paper discusses the different types of learning (formal and informal) in the higher education setting, utilizing Personal Learning Environments in a self-regulated way. Emphasis is on how social media can support the creation and engagement in a PLE through knowledge generation, knowledge generation assimilation, and sharing of the knowledge with those interacting with the PLE. The authors share research and a pedagogical framework for college instructors.

The article covers four distinct areas, and a conclusion. The four areas are as follows:

1) Social Media Use in Higher Ed: Presents research of social media being used for formal and informal learning in a higher ed setting. Pedagogical approaches are changing; philosophies on how students can engage with one another, create and manage content are changing...One excerpt that stood out to me was:
"These social media induced pedagogical challenges and practices, the concept of Personal Learning Environments or PLEs is listed in the 2011 Horizon Report as an emerging technology that is likely to have a large impact on teaching and learning within education around the globe and a time-to-adoption of four to five years (Johnson, Adams, & Haywood, 2011)."

2) Personal Learning Environments (PLE's) and Social Media: Typically, starts out as a PLE, then shifts to a social learning platform where content is mediated by the connected group. The authors state that students must first develop Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) skills to leverage social media in the creation of one's PLE. These are the skills I am attempting to acquire in this class!!! Feeling a bit behind the curve... and a little old, but I'm bound and determined to get my PMK's in check! The first sentence of this section was helpful for me in truly understanding what is meant. Authors state:

"A PLE is a new construct in the e-learning literature that is premised on social media and steadily gaining ground in the e-learning field as an effective platform for student learning. Martindale and Dowdy (2010) posit that PLEs are an outcome of the tools that social media has provided learners enabling them to create, organize,and share content."

3) Self-regulated Learning and Personal Learning Environments  (PLE):
This section starts out with:
"Self-regulated learning is defined as a student's ability to independently and proactively engage in self-motivating and behavioral processes that increase goal attainment (Zimmerman, 2000).More specifically, self-regulated learning can be regarded as a skill, 5N. Dabbagh, A. Kitsantas / Internet and Higher Education 15 (2012) 38 where students must know how to set goals, what is needed to achieve those goals, and how to actually attain these goals. Therefore,in order for students to self-regulate and direct their own behaviors, they must also be motivated or driven to attain goals (Kitsantas & Dabbagh, 2010)."

 Zimmerman posits a 3 stage model, providing a conceptualization of self-regulated learning...

1. Forethought phase
2. Performance phase
3. Self-regulation phase

Which is built upon and modified to incorporate blended and online learning: 
"Furthermore, Turker and Zingel (2008) emphasized the connection between personal agency, self-regulated learning, and social media, and argued that “organizing learning resources available at a PLE into meaningful learning activities towards achieving set goals can as well be considered as an act of instructional design”(p. 4), and that this “act” corresponds to the forethought phase of
Zimmerman's three phase cyclic SRL model."
4) A Framework for using social media to support Self-Regulated Learning in a Personal Learning Environment (PLE).
The authors created a pedagogical framework to assist higher ed instructors/professors in scaffolding students' PLE self-regulation skills. Framework includes:

1. Personal Information Management: Encourage student engagement in social media that supports Zimmerman's 1st phase - so, goal setting and planning
2. Social Interaction and Collaboration: Encourage students to engage in collaboration and sharing on social media. 
3. Information Aggregation and Management: Reflect on learning experience through synthesizing and analyzing Level 1 and Level 2 info. Engage students' self-evaluation (addressing Zimmerman's 3rd Self-regulation phase).

In summation, the authors posit that while a PLE may be used to support both formal and informal learning, not all students possess the Knowledge Management and Self-Regulation skills needed to make a PLE work for them in the manner intended. 

For those of you fellow classmates who also read this article, please comment/ contribute your thoughts to ensure a well-rounded perspective (see~ I am working on that Social Interaction and Collaboration element present in Step 4 of the framework ~ yeah!!!).