Start You Up! The Personal Learning Experience for Library Staff and other Busy Professionals By Marianne Lenox Huntsville Madison County Public Library Staff Training and Development Coordinator December, 2007 Class blog found at

What is a Personal Learning Experience? An Interactive webpage that uses the principles of the Personal Learning Environment, but it is so uniquely your own that it compels you to return, discover and explore.

Steven Downes’ Three Principles of the Personal Learning Environment Interaction –Pull Communication –Motivation from sharing Usability –Self-centered ownership –Consistency –Simplicity Relevance –Aggregated Topic Searching –Filtering

Why Should I Try Creating a Personal Learning Environment? Attitude of lifelong- learning Manage your informal learning Provide physical evidence of your self- taught skills

How much time do I need for a Personal Learning Environment? Set up in as little as a few hours Brief, frequent visits –Constantly refining Review weekly

What tools do I use to create Personal Learning Environment? Ajax Start Page –Research Tools Aggregated Search Sites Social Bookmarking Sites Social Networking Sites

My Personal Learning Environment Model

My (Evolved) Personal Learning Environment Model

Sample start pages Sample content Personal Learning Environment Apps

Google.com/ig

iGoogle PLE Starter PageStarter Page

Protopage.com

Protopage PLE Starter PageStarter Page

Netvibes.com

Netvibes PLE Starter PageStarter Page

Pageflakes.com

Pageflakes PLE Starter PageStarter Page

–KebberfeggKebberfegg –del.icio.usdel.icio.us –CiteULikeCiteULike –TechnoratiTechnorati –Google Blog SearchGoogle Blog Search –Twitter TrackingTwitter Tracking Sample Topic Searches for your PLE

Networking –Web JunctionWeb Junction –Ning: Library 2.0Ning: Library 2.0 –del.icio.usdel.icio.us –CiteULikeCiteULike Sample Networking Content for your PLE

Sample Multimedia Searches for your PLE –Google VideoGoogle Video –SlideShareSlideShare –SuTreeSuTree

Putting it all together: Adding a Del.icio.us Feed to a Pageflakes PLE web2.0

Putting it all together: Adding a Del.icio.us Feed to a Pageflakes PLE

Thank you! Review Discussion Evaluation For links to starter pages, other tools and further discussion please visit