Skip to main content

PLEs and Me

Reading about Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) made me realize I’d unknowingly built one while prepping to build my new gaming PC. I’m not a hardware expert by any stretch of the imagination. Rather, I'm just a long-time gaming nerd who owned a seven-year-old rig that was starting to show its age. What began with watching YouTube videos and browsing Reddit posts turned into a full-on learning process that mirrored the three-tier PLE framework described by Dabbagh and Kitsantas (2012).

I unknowingly started at Tier 1: personal information management. I saved building guides and Reddit posts, and built a YouTube playlist filled with how-to videos about fan optimization, cable management, and motherboard features. All of my learning was unstructured and self-directed, with a focus on gathering anything and everything that I felt would be useful.

Next was the second tier: social interaction and collaboration. I started engaging with Reddit communities, asking for feedback on my planned build and soliciting advice about things I was curious about, alongside tidbits that I hadn’t even considered, such as RAM clock speeds and graphics card benchmarking. It was collaborative, and the feedback loop helped refine my decisions.

The last stop for me was Tier 3: aggregation and reflection. I started responding to other users’ posts, offering tips based on what I learned and what I experienced during my build. I was contributing to the community and reinforcing what I’d learned by helping others.

This whole experience made me think about learning opportunities that exist outside of the classroom. As an instructional designer, I’ve toyed with the idea of using spaces like Reddit or Discord in training programs, but I've been too scared to move that far outside of my designer comfort zone. This reminded me that people are already learning tons without having a formal structure. If that’s possible, imagine what could happen if we actually designed around it.

Comments

  1. India WoodsMay 27, 2025 at 9:33 AM

    Hi Adams Home Stretch,

    OMG!!!! My Fiance is into gaming and actually built his own PC as well!! This is so cool to me to actually "meet" someone who has the same interest. You would actually think I know how to build a PC and is into reddit myself because that's all he talks about. He actually uses youtube to as a guide. Maybe we can share reddits or discords LOL!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. --Adam C.May 27, 2025 at 6:33 PM

      Sounds like your fiance and I are the same sort of nerd! I'm down to share Reddits or Discords! Hit me up on Canvas or via FSU email and we can connect!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The (digital native) struggle is real

Digital Natives, a term to describe those of us who grew up with technology, are no strangers to change. We’ve seen enough major tech shifts that nothing really surprises us anymore. We went from flip phones to smartphones, ran tech support for our parents, built lives on social media, use AI to plan our finances, and swipe in cardinal directions just to find a date. Another day, another breakthrough. Because of this constant exposure to change, we’ve become wired for dynamic environments. And that’s why conventional education, with its static delivery and rigid structure, isn't going to cut it anymore. The world has moved on from static delivery and rigid learning environments. Lectures and textbooks feel outdated to a generation that just learned how to poach an egg from a 30-second TikTok. This shift creates both challenges and opportunities for instructional designers. Traditional models that rely on passive learning are a thing of the past. To stay relevant and effective, ins...
2 comments
Read more

1st post + a reflection on social media

This is my final term in the ISLT program, which is why I’ve named this blog Adam’s Home Stretch . That said, the name might be a little misleading—this blog isn’t so much about wrapping up grad school as it is about reflecting on my relationship with social media, which, at this point in time, feels... complicated. There was a time when I was much more active online. My last blog documented my years teaching ESL in South Korea, from 2011 to 2014. Before that, I was a college student with a Facebook account—back when Facebook was still exclusive to college students. I loved posting, sharing photos, commenting, and connecting. It felt fun, fresh, and meaningful. Social media helped me stay in touch with friends and discover new communities. Looking back, those posts now serve as a time capsule of some of the most formative years of my life. These days, though, I rarely create anything on social media, which is ironic, considering I now work for a major social media company. Part of it...
2 comments
Read more