RULES GOVERNING THE USE OF PERSONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS FOR SELF-REGULATED LEARNING: AN ACTIVITY THEORY APPROACH

Advances in technology access allow learners to personalize their learning to their individual interests via the creation and use of informal personal learning environments (PLEs). A com-prehensive understanding of how self-regulated learning (SRL) occurs in such PLEs and the im-plicit and explicit rules which govern the learners’ interaction with the learning community is still lacking. Activity Theory (AT) is used to conceptually and methodologically frame this study. The paper draws on 20 in-depth interviews with undergraduates, to present preliminary findings elaborating the norms, conventions, and values which mediate the SRL processes of PLE users. The results indicate that trust, agency and a concern for safety governs the metacognitive, moti-vational and behavioral SRL processes of PLE users. Initial findings contribute to clarifying SRL processes within PLEs while addressing a gap in existing PLE literature. This paper adds further perspective to the ongoing academic discussion on the effective use of personal technologies and how best to utilize such technologies for teaching and learning. The paper concludes with a discussion of the future research opportunities