The Voice of a Digital Native (Personal Learning Environments)

The idea of paperless classrooms (prior to college) and Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) for students is amazing. It is also scary. It means that future teachers really need to step up their game (especially me) and become comfortable and well-versed when utilizing the internet for instructional purposes. I never thought there would come a day when a classroom would be virtually paperless and the students posted all work electronically for the teacher to see. I am in Graduate School and am experiencing it for the first time. Here is a seventh grader experiencing it! The teacher of this student is obviously comfortable and well-versed when using Web 2.0 tools for collaboration and instruction.

Based on my limited knowledge thus far, I believe this particular classroom is at a level 5 - Expansion, on the LoTi scale. This is evident to me because:

• Collaborations have extended beyond the classroom with the student's utilization of Skype to confer with various experts.
• Emphasis is placed on learner-centered strategies through the student's use of a Personal Learning Environment for the purposes of research, collaboration, and sharing information with peers and teachers. The student's PLE is a collection of websites that resides on her laptop.
• The level of complexity of the student's PLE is contingent on his/her level of complex thinking skills (analysis, synthesis, evaluation).

I did not think the LoTi was at a level 6 because it seems that level 6 is purely constructivist. In level 6, instructional curriculum is entirely learner-based. The seventh-grader seemed to be in a class where the curriculum was dictated by the teacher, but the mode of learning was up to the student.