Literacy Today January/February 2016

Welcome to interactive presentation, created with Publuu. Enjoy the reading!

students spend working independently

on a computer at home and school.

Proponents of blended learning

argue that the model helps teachers

customize digital lessons designed

to meet individual needs and allow

learners to work at their own pace.

Yet, as I listen to teachers and

principals, I worry that personalization

has come to mean something very

different from the personally relevant

student-directed experiences that

today’s students crave most.

Personalized vs. personal

approaches

What is the difference between

personalized and personal approaches

to teaching and learning? In the ed-

tech community, personalization is

described as a top-down designed or

tailored approach to learning whereby

experiences can be customized for the

student, but they are still controlled by

the teacher.

Digital playlists, for example, are

designed to serve up learning based on a

formula of what teachers (or computers)

think a particular learner needs most.

Students have the ability to move

through sequenced activities at their

own pace but, often, they have little

choice in selecting the activities they

engage with and even less control over

how they demonstrate understanding.

Moreover, students typically move

through personalized playlists

independently with few opportunities

to construct ideas and collaborate

with others. Finally, personalized

instruction seems to require students

to interact with a computer.

Personal learning experiences,

on the other hand, involve something

human whereby students initiate and

control the learning process. Often, this

type of learning emerges from actively

engaging and talking with others about

one’s personal wonderings. Often,

these wonderings are sparked by a

topic or problem encountered in school,

at home, or in the community. These

personal learning experiences offer

students opportunities to generate

questions and create products that

connect their own interests to real-life

concerns in personally fulfilling ways.

Importantly, technology is not

critical for learning to be personal.

Rather, all that is needed is space and

to their interests. Then, introduce

students to a range of texts, tools,

and people offline and online that

they can connect with and use

as springboards to become more

emotionally engaged with their

own learning.

2. Expect learners to talk.

Design personal digital inquiry

experiences to foster collaborative

discussions that lead to multiple

pathways for knowledge building,

knowledge expression, and

personal action. Engage students

with literacy experiences

that facilitate face-to-face and

online conversation building,

argumentation, negotiation, and

presentation skills.

3. Encourage digital creation.

Remember that personal

learning experiences are created

by individuals, not delivered

by computers. Asking students

to create original products,

including digital compositions,

enables them to share new

knowledge while connecting

insights to different spheres of

their lives (school, home, and

community) in meaningful and

relevant ways.

4. Make space for students

to participate and matter.

Actively involve students in deep,

authentic, and personally relevant

learning experiences that foster

academic achievement, reflection,

and civic engagement. Through

participation, individuals assert

their autonomy and ownership

of learning; in turn, their inquiry

becomes more personal and

engaging.

As you explore ways to personalize

learning in your classroom, strive

for that delicate balance of talk and

technology use within student-directed

learning spaces where all learners have

a voice and the opportunity to learn

about what they love most.

time to actively reflect, collaborate, and

engage with personally meaningful ideas.

However, once students are empowered

to direct their own learning pathways,

technology can open the door to an

infinite range of texts, tools, and people

they can use to explore and connect ideas

in these meaningful ways.

Why the big fuss?

My concern is not that technology is

playing an increasingly important role

in teaching and learning or that schools

are exploring the potential of blended

learning approaches to differentiate

instruction. When blended learning

is implemented successfully, teachers

and students use a range of human

and digital resources to improve

their ability to think, problem solve,

collaborate, and communicate. A

delicate balance of talk and technology

use keeps all of us grounded in

conversations with other people about

what really matters.

What worries me is that, in

some circles, personalized learning

increasingly has come to represent a

narrow strategy of computer-based

instruction with limited opportunities

for human interaction and personal

ownership of the learning process. When

blended learning becomes synonymous

with separating students into cubbies

equipped with headphones and

customized digital playlists for a large

percentage of each school day, we risk

losing sight of the human elements that

make learning a truly personal endeavor.

Where do we go from here?

As we continue to explore approaches

to blending learning, I believe at least

four sets of instructional practices can

serve to connect today’s digital learners

to their world in ways that matter.

1. Build a culture of personal

inquiry. Provide regular

opportunities for students to

pursue topics that are meaningful

A delicate balance of talk and technology use

keeps all of us grounded in conversations with

other people about what really matt ers.

LITERACY TODAY | January/February 2016

Made with Publuu - flipbook maker