To be at the center of your own personal learning environment means to take charge of your own education. We have to observe, allign, and obtain the information that is important to us and to what we are doing. We are each unique and our needs are different than others. To be at the center of our environment means to bring the information that we want to us.
One reason that we ed formal instruction is because formal instruction is a sharing of our ideas, our life experiences that add to our information. When we have formal instruction, we are able to utilize and apply the information taught to our lives. When we apply that information is when we are able to continue in our learning and in our education. Formal instruction helps us to process the information that we are given.

What does it mean to be at the center of your own personal learning environment? Why do we need formal instruction if information is already freely available for consumption?