DISTRIBUTED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

We are a bunch of teachers with hundreds of years of teaching experience who have become a group of students. Our university has roots deep into ancient traditions with wonderful adventurous teachers who lead us to discover new worlds of epistemology and virtual reality, through constructivist learning processes.
We are not on a lonely journey. We are with friends and we help each other. We are encouraged to have INTEREST in each other and develop trust. We need to give time to each other and learn to listen in a way that the other person is heard completely and not reflect back immediately how we understand a situation. In this way the individual is recognised and realised, not through self imposed expression, but through the awareness of the other. With each other and through each other we learn. We learn to LISTEN.

THE LEARNER:

As a "learner" I am not just a name. I have gender, age, family, state of health and work commitments.

As a learner I can improve through action research. In using this technique I begin with thinking of where I want to go. In my second step I plan how to achieve my goal. Thirdly I act and finally I reflect on the first three stages and thus the cycle continues. Action research is nearly always a collaborative effort.

THE ENVIRONMENT:
I learn in an environment that includes my friends. It is important that the rooms we meet in to learn are comfortable, warm and light filled so that a sense of security and trust can develop. Eye contact and the ability to read each others' body language support the deeper understanding of each other. The rooms need to accommodate this.

RESOURCES

I have many resources I can use including my tutors and colleagues.
There are books, a library at our university. We have a computer lab which enables us to access the internet, classrooms and several campuses we can visit. One cognitive tool we have learnt is called Inspiration. It can help me to order my thoughts by drawing a mind map. A blackboard can also be used for this.
Together I as the learner, my environment and my resources available are part of my Distributed Learning Environment (DLE). In my DLE there are many ways of learning such as: learning on the internet, at home, at uni or at another campus. But importantly I, as the learner, am part of a learning community. It is also a virtual learning community using weblogs.

My greatest joy is reading other people's logs!!

Incorporating a spreadsheet (for demonstration only)
Here is a spreadsheet where DLE is discussed