First steps

Over the past year or so I have been exploring and trying to understand the concept of Personal Learning Environments. First exposed to the term via blogs (I think it was Michele Martin’s The Bamboo Project Blog), I’ve not found any references in healthcare literature. This is an attempt to collect my thoughts and understanding of the concept, potential tools, resources, notes, etc, especially how it can be used by clinical folks.

Why the name? A hornbook is a neat device; a durable and portable learning tool of the 16th century. “A constant companion to beginning readers in Colonial America, the hornbook was a popular teaching aid in England during the sixteenth through the eighteenth century. Typically, hornbooks were composed of a printed alphabet sheet tacked or pasted to a wooden bat-shaped board and covered with a thin sheet of translucent horn, but there are specimens in ivory, silver, leather and even gingerbread. Printed sheets usually included both lower case and capital alphabets, vowels, and numerals, accompanied by a cross ornament, the Benediction, and Lord's Prayer. ” (http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm178.html ). Since I’m a beginning blogger, Digital Hornbook seemed an appropriate title.