Mash-Up Personal Learning Environments - E-Infrastructures and Technologies for Lifelong Learning - page 128

Chapter 5

Mash-Up Personal
Learning Environments

Fridolin Wild
Open University, UK

Felix Mödritscher
Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria

Steinn Sigurdarson
Open University, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the authors formulate a critique on the contemporary models and theories of learning
environment design, while at the same time proposing a new approach that puts the learner centre
stage. It will be argued that this approach is more apt to explain technology-enhanced learning and is
more helpful in guiding (even end-user driven) engineering and maintenance of personalized learning
environments. The authors call this new approach a mash-up personal learning environment (MUPPLE)
and it is a vision (and prototype) of the future of personalized, networked, and collaborative learning.

INTRODUCTION

ingly more conscious decisions. Today not only
institutions for formal education such as schools
and universities but also most work places and
vocational training providers are equipped with
at least some kind of tools that bring together
people and content artifacts in learning activities
to support them in constructing and processing
information and knowledge. And, with a seri-
ous history of almost half a century, science and
practice have been discussing models on how to
bring personalization through digital means to
these environments.

Learning environments have probably been de-
signed to facilitate human change ever since the
'homo habilis' started using more sophisticated
stone tools at the beginning of the Pleistocene
some two million years ago - most probably even
earlier than that. Since then, however, increasingly
larger parts of these learning environments have
been transmogrified to be digital and the design of
these environments has been subjected to grow-