With the advent of ICTs, we are increasingly exposed to information in the target language and start operating in different contexts and situations in our personal and professional life, which are no longer limited to our geographical location, classes, occasional workshops or professional development programs. We can acquire and learn much of the language online. The use of social media tools and platforms on the open Web can accelerate the learning process by giving us access to information, communities of practice and networks and enabling us to create and participate at our own time, in our own space and with whom we choose to communicate and collaborate. In this presentation, we will explore the concept of personal learning spaces, the tools we can use to help our learners build them, communities of practice and networks and their role in language learning and practice. We will discuss how this digital immersion challenges us, EFL teachers, to review, expand and modify our ways of teaching and learning.

1. MEETING THE E-CHALLENGE
Barbara Dieu
São Paulo, March 25th, 2010

2. WHO I AM
Bee
http://beespace.net
Barbara Dieu Bee Kerouac
http://barbaradieu.com SL

3. AIMS OF THIS SESSION
a) Show change in learning/teaching environment
and consequent change in affordances and context
b) Explain PLE (Personal Learning Environment)
c) E-challenges

4. AFFORDANCES
All "action possibilities" latent in the
environment, objectively measurable and
independent of the individual's ability to
recognize them, but always in relation to the
actor and therefore dependent on their
capabilities.
J.J. Gibson

5. SCARCITY
SCARCITY

6. ABUNDANCE
ABUNDANCE

7. From broadcast media
to networked media

8. By Alec Couros

9. NETWORKED PROFILE
By Alec Couros

10. The Web as
communication and collaboration
Collaborative Projects
Access to other Heterogeneous
realities environment
Communities of Interest
Exchange
of information
Communities of Practice
Global and
local reflection
O
Fluid networks
(beginners, peers, experts)

11. Meeting e-challenge
Mismatch between learners
and
teacher's/institutional agendas

12. By George Siemens

13. LEARNING AND KNOWING
To learn means to recombine
To know means to connect
George Siemens

15. PERSONAL MANAGEMENT
CYCLE
1. Attention management
2. Connection to valuable sources
3. Gathering and aggregation of data stream
4. Filtering
5. Categorization
6. Recording for long term memory
7. Synthesis
8. Sharing/Communication
9. Reassess
Pierre Lévy

16. PRINCIPLES TO REMEMBER
Coverage model: Learning is not just about covering content; it's about
negotiating mearning in different contexts and levels of discourse.
Learning, then, is transformative rather than acquisitive.
Scarcity: Learning is not constrained by a scarcity model anymore.
Knowledge construction: Reasoning is not linear, deductive or abstract
but begins from the concrete and assembles a “mosaic”.
Interactivity: This is a connected, interactive generation; collaboration
and interaction are important learning principles.
Formal & informal: Learning can occur anywhere, anytime shaped by
student needs and objectives in particular circumstances
It's not technology alone: Technology must support good pedagogy

17. NETWORKING
Thank you

18. REFERENCES
George Siemens, Learning and Knowledge. Presentation retrieved from:
http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2006/06/18/microlearning-presentation/
James J. Gibson (1977), The Theory of Affordances. In Perceiving, Acting,
and Knowing, Eds. Robert Shaw and John Bransford
Pierre Lévy - Collaborative Learning in the Digital Social Medium
presentation retrieved from:
http://oglobo.globo.com/blogs/arquivos_upload/2010/03/51_1249-Levy-
2010-collaborativelearning.pdf
Stephen Downes (2010), Descentralized Learning presentation retrieved
from: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?presentation=242
Wilga Rivers , Principles of Interactive Language Teaching, retrieved from
http://edevaluator.org/rivers/10Principles_0.html