Abstract

Advances in technology access allow undergraduates to personalize their learning to their individual interests via the creation and use of informal personal learning environments (PLEs). A comprehensive understanding of how learning takes place in such PLEs and their affordances for self-regulated learning (SRL) is still lacking. Drawing on 20 in-depth interviews with undergraduates and mind maps of their PLEs, this paper presents preliminary findings on how PLEs support self-regulatory learning processes. The results indicate that the tools and technologies that undergraduates choose to include in their PLEs provide some significant affordances for supporting metacognitive, motivational and behavioural SRL processes. Initial findings contribute to clarifying the perceived opportunities that a user centred and managed PLE afford to its creators for engaging in SRL processes and the ongoing discussion of how best to use ubiquitous technologies for effective teaching and learning. The paper concludes with a discussion of the future research opportunities.

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