Creating-entrepreneurial-mindset

T. Kurbanownation may rest in the variety of reasons. The majority of my student-respondents werethe first-year students, who were just starting their university education. The curriculumand new conditions of studying at the university may seem to the students sooverwhelming, that they do not feel they have time, need, or motivation for additionalself-study. The few students, who reported to participate in informal learning online,actually were the students of final years, more seasoned in learning, more independent,and being closer to the beginning of their professional careers. Another explanationmay consist in lack of experience of networked learning: students may just not knowthat they can join learning communities online and study together and from each other.Yet another reason, the most difficult to surmount, lies in the nature of traditional academiccourses, with many of them still being rather material- than learner-centered,with the content mostly provided by a teacher, and students being passive recipients ofthe learning material. In such educational systems students have no chance to exploretopics of their learning interest, and they may be not motivated enough to pursue theindividual informal learning. Anyway, the interview results demonstrate, studentrespondents'PLEs are deprived of the element of informal learning and informal learningcommunities, though the digital component of formal learning is quite welldeveloped.Students seem to be good learners mostly when being guided.The analysis of the teacher-respondents' answers indicates they are confident atfinding additional resources to enrich the educational content of the university coursethey teach, either in libraries databases, or full-text educational content. Nevertheless,when it comes to sharing the materials on the Internet or participating in the creation ofthe online resources, the teacher-respondents contribute to it only indirectly: if the resourcesthey created do appear online, it is not initiated by them, but is rather acceptedby them as an inevitable fact. The teacher-respondents turn out to be the consumers ofthe Internet educational content, but not the producers. In general, the teacherrespondentsseem to be rather passive viewers than active participants on the Internet,at least in comparison with the student-respondents: the former e-mail, socialize, commentin communities less than the latter. Although only one-third of the teacherrespondentsreport to build online professional connections in the communities oflearning, it should be kept in mind that it is difficult for the teacher-respondents to differentiatebetween informal learning and entertainment: these two activities penetrateinto each other. Only one teacher-respondent reported to have taken a Massive OpenOnline Course and be the member of the educational community Coursera. No teacherrespondentsprovide a personal blog. From those facts, another observation relating thecomputer-mediated communication occurs: contrary to the student-respondents, theteacher-respondents definitely prefer one-to-one e-mail contacts to many-to-many conversationmode on forums of educational networks or interest-based communities.Summarizing, teacher-respondents' PLEs do contain certain digital elements relevant totheir work, informal learning (professional growth), and communication, but theirPLEs are also considerably based on traditional components.75