I spent a lot of time thinking about my Personal Learning Environment. I realized that I spend my days working with children, helping them discover their personal learning environments, and helping parents understand their child’s learning. Instead of calling it a personal learning environment, they learn about their sensory processing and self regulation. We work together to create a home sensory motor program or a “Sensory Diet”. I combined the idea of the 3 elements of PLEs, physical, traditional, and virtual, with the sensory-modulation concepts I teach kids and families.
I realize that I am a hands on learner or a multi sensory learner. I can read and listen, but will grasp the concepts once I do a task. When I am working with children, I look at the nervous system through the senses of mouth (oral), movement(vestibular and proprioception), touch (tactile), look (visual) and listen (auditory) and then help them learn strategies through their sensory system that helps them to be able to focus, learn and engage.
I took this approach for my PLE project. I started out by the image of a plant or tree with the PLE as the foundation and the 3 branches of learning to include the physical, traditional and virtual. Then thinking about my own sensory system, I placed images into the different branches. Creating spaces for learning falls under the physical and traditional for me. And then I see all the technology that I continuously learn as an area of up and coming learning. It is an integration of the traditional, physical and virtual learning that brings a balance to my life.
Mouth – Conversation and discussions fall under traditional. Physical learning through oral is a preparation and means to maintain focus for learning. These include eating, drinking tea or ice cold water to help alert my nervous system for learning, eating something crunchy and chewy is another means for alerting/arousing my nervous system for attention.
Movement – physical activity. Taking a break for exercise or a break for a walk are ways for calming and organizing myself to prepare me for learning. The pictures I presented are all the ways I have utilized in my life of competition and enjoyment that were ways I engaged in for self regulation. Being a competitive runner and collegiate athlete become a large part of my PLE as a means for processing information while on long runs or workouts in a pool. The physical activity helped my body/nervous system be in a “just right state” for processing and learning.
Touch/Tactile – I thought of the traditional ways I learn, through writing. I need the motor muscle memory of physically writing to help get the information into my brain, the subconscious for the conscious learning. Typing has become another avenue both at work and school in my learning and use of the computer. I enjoy the visual arts and use this both for myself and children to help in self regulation for calming and preparation for learning. A comfortable chair or being home as a place for reading and writing is also very important. Other means of tactile experiences that bring a sense of calm and balance in my life are in gardening and cooking. When we are in a place of calm without stress, we are in a just right learning space.
Look/Visual – creating a visual space of calm is very important. Decreasing clutter, natural lighting and beauty helps to calm myself and prepare for learning. Visual is where the Virtual part of the PLE comes in with all the technology available for learning. In this past month of Graduate school, my virtual PLE has exploded. I am being exposed to a whole new way of thinking and learning using technology.
Listen – the pictures that I posted relate to sounds from my childhood growing up in the San Juan Islands in Washington. I realize that these sounds bring calm for me and when needing a space to create for calm or a break from stress, the activities and sounds of outdoor such the rhythmic tide and waves, wind chimes and rain all help to bring me to a place of calm. It is then that I am cognitively, emotionally, spiritually, and physically ready and available to learn. Music is a large part of my family. Setting the tone for studying can include silence or different genres of music. For focus or calm, classical or any instrumental music, for alerting a more upbeat rhythm and sound works. I didn’t put in but listening to lectors, going to conferences, webinars, OPB or NPR are all other ways within my PLE.
This project has given me new insight for teaching the older teenagers and young adults I work with. I can see how having them create a visual of their own PLE with discussions of their sensory processing skills can help them learn new strategies and become aware of the one’s they already use. I see this as an invaluable learning experience of becoming aware of who they are, why they do the things they do and to receive positive feedback of the good things they are doing in their lives that can facilitate their learning.