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The intersection of technology and research come together in Personal Learning Environments (PLEs), a customized learning experience and process based on an individual’s needs. Alison Hicks, the Romance Languages Research and Instruction Librarian, discussed this innovative teaching tool during her presentation in the Teaching with Technology seminar.

Personal learning environments allow the individual to gather a series of tools to facilitate their own educational experience. Through selecting a series of online sources such as Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, and blogs, each individual constructs a customized learning environment, creating an individually tailored space of one’s own needs and interests.

According to Hicks, PLEs would incorporate and improve three essential literacy skills for students of the 21^st century. First, each person’s computer literacy skills would develop as they gather information and resources, which would increase their level of comfort using new technologies. Students would need to assess and utilize computer knowledge to create a beneficial and customized personal learning environment. Second, media literacy would be tested as the construction of PLEs requires students to analyze and examine a broad range of information resources from traditional news websites to pertinent individuals on Twitter.  Lastly, students’ information literacy skills would improve as they must possess the evaluative skills to select appropriate resources and to be able to successfully navigate through the sea of information available online.

As each PLE is personally customized, people may create one for a specific research topic or use it as a general research tool. The sources incorporated into a PLE are not fixed, meaning each person can change the content as their research or work progresses. This tool empowers students as they can create an individually tailored PLE according to their research and rearrange them when their work advances.

These skills are essential in the 21^st century as possessing this knowledge is crucial to success in academia and future employment. As we live in an age of information overload, people must remain responsive to this trend by becoming more critical consumers of online content. Personal Learning Environments help to empower the individual by providing a resource to sift through the wealth of information that exists.  Hicks knows that both the students and the university will experience numerous benefits through Personal Learning Environments. Students will have a customized set of learning tools, allowing them to become a more active participant in their education. The university will foster more skilled students as it will provide them with the necessary skills to thrive in the 21^st century.