Merging Social Networking With Learning Systems to Form New Personalized Learning Environments (PLE)

Introduction

This paper investigates the fusion of social networking capabilities with those from a fine-grained Learning Management System (LMS), into a personalised learning environment (PLE), described largely in terms of a design expressed as a conceptual schema. The social network platform investigated is Facebook, which perhaps surprisingly, has several of the necessary generic structures already in place, should that company choose to pursue the emerging personalised learning environment marketplace. However, an LMS could equally be evolved, taking on some aspects popularised by social networking platforms, in new ways that personalise a learner's experience.