Andy Williams' latest post on Visual Literacy and Informal Learning triggered some interest and exploration for me around personal learning environments (PLEs) and the power of reflecting on how we personally acquire knowledge.
As I perused through the collection of PLEs at http://edtechpost.wikispaces.com/PLE+Diagrams, I am inspired to begin working on my own personal learning environment diagram. This reinforced the concept that knowledge is a dynamic and very personal growth process. We develop new understanding as we continually challenge and reorganize our own knowledge. Creating visual diagrams is a way to reflect on our own models and make them explicit, while collecting these models in one place provides the opportunity to see patterns, analyze them and learn from them - also opening up a tiny insight into the diverse ways that people see their world. This demonstrates one of the valuable aspects of the collaborative tools we now have available in the web-enabled world. It's clear that formal education is only one node in the expanding network of learning resources.
Does this make the stereotypical role of "teacher" in our formal education systems irrelevant?
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Yes it does make the stereotypical role irrelevant, but isn't that already happening? The real question is whether formal education will change to help teach ongoing personal learning as a tool for success in the information age. You can keep making horse-drawn carriages or start to make those new fangled horse-less carriages. It's your call ...
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