Technical Approaches for Personal Learning Environments: Identifying Archetypes from a Literature Review

The term Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is associated with the desire to put the learner in control of his own learning process, so that he is able to set and accomplish the desired learning goals at the right time with the learning environment chosen by him. Gradually, such a learning environment includes several digital content, services and tools. It is thus summarized as the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Even though the construction of an individual PLE is a complex task, several approaches to support this process already exist. They mostly occur under the umbrella term PLE or with little accentuations like iPLE, which especially live within the context of institutions. This paper sums up the variety of attempts and technical approaches to establish a PLE and suggests a categorization for them.