The Application of Pattern Repositories for Sharing PLE Practices in Networked Communities

Personal learning environments (PLEs) comprise a new kind of learning technology which aims at putting learners into centre stage, i.e. by empowering them to design and use environments for their learning needs and purposes. Setting a PLE approach into practice, however, is not trivial at all, as the prospective end-users have varying attitudes and experiences in using ICT in general and PLE software in particular. Here, practice sharing could be an enabler for increasing the usefulness and usability of PLE solutions. In this paper we examine the relevant issues of capturing and sharing ‘good practices’ of PLE-based, collaborative activities. By good practices we refer to learning experiences provided by learners for a networked community. Moreover, we introduce the concept of a pattern repository as a back-end service for PLEs which should, in the sense of community approaches like Last.fm, support PLE users in selecting and using learning tools for their activities. Finally, we present a prototype and argue for the advantages of such a practice sharing infrastructure with respect to community literature, experiences, and an evaluation study.