Personalize Learning (#plearnchat)

Jackie shares her post and describes 9 different strategies that teachers can use to see each learner and their qualities that make them special. She begins with "LIsten more than talk" and ends with "Overtly show learners you care".

Thank you, Jackie for always inspiring us to be better educators!

After reading this blog, Jackie has articulated a new vision for education where she sees that the "best interests of the learner" needs to come first. I could not agree more. She describes Education 3.0 in this way: "Learners as connectors, creators, constructivists."

"Education 3.0 is a constructivist, heutagogical approach to teaching and learning.  The teachers, learners, networks, connections, media, resources, tools create a a unique entity that has the potential to meet individual learners’, educators’, and even societal needs.  Education 3.0 recognizes that each educator’s and student’s journey is unique, personalized, and self-determined.

The bottom line, though, is not is what is in the best interests of the teacher, the administration, the politicians.  It is what is in the best interests of the learner.  The student should be central to education – not the content, not the tests, not the standards, not what we think students should know and do.  Teachers did not become teachers to teach to the test, to develop practice tests or worksheets, to work with pre-scripted curriculum to meet standards.  Teachers became teachers to teach students, first and foremost.  The learner needs to be central to all teaching endeavors."

Thank you Jackie for sharing this perspective with educators, everywhere!

Jackie shares some important pointers in this guest post about guiding learning and the importance of context when learning.

The more you can apply what you're learning to your every day, the more it'll stick in your head. The reason is simple. When you're learning by doing, you're implementing everything that makes our memory work. When you're able to connect what you're learning with a real world task, that forms the bonds in your brain, and subsequently the skills you're learning will stick around. 

We learn best when we have context, and that applies to new skills as much as it does random facts in school. That's why something like the transfer of learning is helpful when you’re learning a new skill. This means you're applying your new skills in your day to day life in a context that matters.