Microblogging(#PhDChat) within a

Personal Learning Environment

Research in Distance Education Symposium (RIDES-12)

A.E. (Tony) Ratcliffe

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The Plan• Introduce self• Introduce research agenda• PLE and PLN• Twitter• #PhDChat

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A.E. (Tony) RatcliffeAthabasca University alumnus

• Bachelor of Administration, 1992• Advanced Graduate Diploma in Distance

Education (Technology), 1999• Master of Distance Education, 2002• Converted to Master of Education in Distance

Education, 2012

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PhD Student (eLearning and Learning Technologies)

Beyond Distance Research AllianceSupervisors: Drs A. Armellini and P. Edirisingha

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Beyond Distance Research Alliance

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Area of Study• eLearning & Learning Technologies in informal

and self-directed work-based learning• Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) in

Continuing Professional Development• Digital literacies required for learners to develop

their PLEs in work-based learning

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What is a PLE?• Depends who you talk to (or read)• A concept or approach and/or a technology/tool• Found many promoting as concept are just

playing it “lip service” (Fiedler & Väljataga, 2010)• Concept, but need to recognise other positions

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PLE• “Personal Learning Environments are not an

application but rather a new approach to the use of technologies for learning…. the argument for the use of Personal Learning environments is not technical but rather is philosophic, ethical and pedagogic” (Attwell, 2007).

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Anatomy of a PLE by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at steve-

wheeler.blogspot.com.

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PLN“Personal learning networks are the sum of all social capital and connections that result in the development and facilitation of a personal learning environment” (Couros, 2010, p. 125).

What is Twitter?

Social media, Microblogging

Instant messaging

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Tweets

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• Characteristics

• Access

• Status

• Communicate / share

• Private or public

• ’Back channel’

#PhDchat• Weekly 1 hour chat, Wednesdays at 7:30 pm UK

• Discussion question

• Informal chat continues

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Some topics

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• Writing for a non-academic audience

• Developing skills for academic writing

• Gathering meaningful and useful data

• Reading and writing for literature review

• Choosing a focus for your study

• PhD study/work/life balance

What’s in it for us?• Professional networking, connections

• Support group

• Research tool

• Constant source of information

• Always ‘on’

• Research area

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More than just messaging

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Connecting around the world

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We are not alone

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Not just Twitter

TWITTER

WIKIEMAIL

SKYPE FACE-TO-FACE

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http://phdchat.pbworks.com

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Twitter Resources• Twitter Guide for Academicshttp

://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/09/29/twitter-guide/

• 10 Words Every Successful tweeter Needs to Know http://www.thetop10blog.com/10-words-every-successful-tweeter-needs-to-know/

• The birth of #PhDChat http://phdchat-nasimariazat.blogspot.ca/2011/08/nasima-riazat-doctoral-networking-forum.html?spref=tw

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References• Attwell, G. (2007). Personal learning environments: The future of

eLearning? learningpapers. Retrieved from http://www.elearningeuropa.info/

• Couros, A. (2010). Developing personal learning networks for open and social learning. In G. Veletsianos (Ed.), Emerging technologies in distance education. In T. Anderson (Series Ed.) Issues in Distance Education (pp. 109-128). Edmonton, Canada: AU Press, Athabasca University. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/.

• Fiedler, S., & Väljataga, T. (2010). Personal learning environments: concept or technology? Paper presented at the PLE Conference 2010, Barcelona. Retrieved from http://pleconference.citilab.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/ple2010_submission_45.pdf