The Design And Construction Of Personal Learning Environment In Perspective Of Connectivism

With the development and application of network information technology in educational field, humanity has entered the era of digital learning. Behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism were developed in a time when learning was not impacted through technology, so it is circumscribed to use these learning theories to analyze or instruct our learning process now. Meanwhile, the virtual learning environment which is based on the information technology meets some difficulties in its development as well. The Connectivism and the Personal Learning Environment concept are put forward towards the existing questions in each research field, which makes them quickly become the key points in the study.This study hope to put forward the framework of construction of learning environment, which comply with the learning of the digital age, based on the new understanding of digital learning of Connectivism, by designing and constructing the Personal Learning Environment.This paper will study and discuss the Personal Learning Environment in perspective of Connectivism from the following several aspects, by using literature research method and system analysis method.Firstly this report elaborates the related notion and theoretical basis of the Connectivism and Personal Learning Environment through the literature research method and analyzes the elements of constituting the Personal Learning Environment and their relations. And this study divides our learning environment into three different levels based on the concept of learning in the Connectivism--the learners, their personal knowledge network and external web environment. Personal learning environment consists of learners and their personal knowledge network. This paper also sets up a model of Personal Learning Environment from three aspects-the network structure, the knowledge flow and the learning process, and design this Personal Learning Environment from nodes and relationships, connection status and learning mechanisms and activities. Using Systems Analysis method, this study designs the system architecture, model and function of the Personal Learning Environment in perspective of Connectivism, and sets up construction framework. On the basis of the framework, this paper not only discusses the constitution and the features of the Personal Learning Environment by studying the examples of some social applications, such as We Chat, blog and microblog, but also provides some useful learning strategies for our learners. At the end of this report, there is a brief conclusion about this study and its shortage, which shows the direction and expectation of the future studies.