Personalize Learning (#plearnchat)

Brian shares how he transformed his classroom to a learner-centered environment and what happened in the process with his learners. Here is a glimpse of his journey:

"As teachers, it is difficult to let go of control and to let our learners find the best ways for them to achieve content and curriculum goals. To be clear, our role in the classroom needs to change, and I think the trend in education is moving the correct direction--achieving and creating a learner-driven, personalized atmosphere is the key. Providing learners with the tools to succeed should be the goal, and we should focus on allowing them to use those tools in the way that works best individually. Instead of providing the blueprint for learners to achieve a goal, educators should be allowing and guiding them in designing, developing, and implementing their plan for accomplishing it. When this happens, drastic changes take place regarding engagement in our classrooms and ownership of learning appears, leading to a higher level of achievement."

The Institute for Personalized Learning asked some middle and high school students from their member districts to reflect on what learner agency means to them and to answer a few questions on the topic. 

This brings our collaborative series on learner agency to a close. As we stated in the first blog post, Learner Agency: The Missing Link, “Learner agency often gets missed in conversations on transforming the educational system.” It is clear from the responses that kids have a sense of ‘agency’ when they feel in control of things that happen around them. They want to feel like they can influence events, especially how and what they learn. 

As the fifth post in our blog series on Learner Agency, Jean Garrity shares about a visit to an elementary classroom in an urban district in southeast Wisconsin where she was drawn to an eight year old boy named William. 

Jean reflected and provided strategies for teachers on the following questions:

• How can educators support learners like William and increase their sense of ownership? 
• How can educators help learners become more independent? 

Both of us are advocates for the use of technology to support instruction and to help learners gain independent learning skills. For years, as coaches consulting on technology integration, we observed classrooms where technology sat idle or to present lessons using new tools but the same way they teach: teacher-directed. The current system seems to encourage the use of technology for traditional teacher-directed methods.

The system needs to change from focusing on problems to rethinking the design of teaching and learning around how learners learn best. Personalized learning starts with the learner, not the technology!

Jackie Gerstein shares her insight on how to give learner voice and choice in their learning. She believes that "All instructional practices in this era of learning should revolve around learner choice and voice."

What are your thoughts on learner voice and choice?

Envision Schools is a small public charter network in the San Francisco Bay Area whose mission is to prepare learner to get into and graduate from college, and to do this, teachers focus on helping learners develop what they call a “deeper learning” skill set. Learners have to master academic content and skills, collaborate effectively, think critically, reflect on how they learn, and understand how they can have an impact on their own success.

Pernille offers insight on why she embraces personalized learning after 6 years.  She points out that the journey she has taken to transform herself is really about the learners that she teaches. Here is an excerpt that says it all.

"Six years ago, I set out on a journey that would challenge my belief that education was an institution that could not be changed, but instead had to be blindly followed no matter the collateral damage in its wake. I now know that the day I started asking my learners what changes they needed to become more engaged learners, was the day that I made a difference in the way education can be used. Yet this change is fundamentally not about me. It is about the learners I teach and it is for them that we must embrace a more meaningful way of educating. Call it personalizing learning or some other title, but in the end, we must make the very education that we are stewards of become about the kids that we teach again."
- See more at: http://www.personalizelearning.com/2016/01/my-transformation-as-teacher.html#sthash.kkJhWVeU.dpuf

Don't miss these top 10 blog posts from 2015, the year of the learner! Topics that put the learner at the center of education attracted thousands of readers worldwide. Enjoy and share!

In this November Issue of Insights on Personalized Learning, the focus is on learners, learning and learner agency. Included in this issue are:

• The CSSR guide, "Ecosystems of Student Driven Learning", developed from their i3 Grant work with schools over the last five years.
• Chris Watkins' Learning: A Sensemaker's Guide that provides a framework on having learners talk about their learning.
• The collaborative blog series on Learner Agency written by Personalize Learning, LLC and The Institute for Personalized Learning.
• Work by Alden S. Blodget on Learning, Schooling and the Brain. 
• A free webinar by The Danielson Group.

Sign up for future issues of Insights to PL and our quarterly newsletter at www.personalizelearning.com

It's not about technology. It's really not about school. It's all about the learner, the "person" in "personalization" and how they learn best and that what they learn is meaningful and for a purpose.  It is all about the relationships that learners make and need to support their learning. It is also about the teacher - a valuable person in the relationship. Teachers and learners can work together to develop learning goals and design activities that are authentic and relevant for the learner so they are engaged in learning. Learning has to have a context that learners can grasp and understand. - See more at: http://www.personalizelearning.com/2015/10/put-person-in-personalization.html#sthash.qyM0Grkz.dpuf

Pernille Ripp shares how she builds community from the beginning of the year in her 7th grade classes. Some of her strategies include letting her learners chose where they want to sit, having them create the rules and listening to each other. Trust and communication are the hallmarks of a learner-centered environment.

Do not miss what happens with learners at EPiC Elementary that Re-imagined Education! 

EPiC Elementary (Liberty, Missouri) is an innovative, personalized, project-based learning community infused with technology designed to INSPIRE learners to be CREATIVE and THINK BIG! Learners use REAL tools and REAL materials to collaboratively construct REAL world applications of their knowledge. Our learning environment focuses on three areas for all learners: Equipping Learners, Engaging Communities, and Empowering Creativity.
 

Learner voice gives learners a chance to share their opinions about something they believe in. There are so many aspects of "school" and "learning" where learners have not been given the opportunity to be active participants. Giving them voice encourages them to participate in their own learning. Some learners, especially those that are concerned about extrinsic factors like grades, may not feel comfortable expressing their own opinions. Because of this concern, teachers have devised multiple ways to give learners their voice anonymously in surveys, group interviews, and in class discussions. Now it is time to look at learner voice and why it matters for all learners.

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!