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An information-poor environment. There was no technology to support and enrich personal learning. Personalized learning paths were the private experience of the individual adult learner.

But the processes that are available to support the learning, intrinsically and extrinsically, have been transformed by technology into a powerful, progressive, and disruptive force in higher education and workforce preparation.

Equally important, as part of this technological and web-driven disruption, learners' capacity to develop and store evidence of learning in electronic portfolios, carefully organized around career, academic, or personal interests, has also been transformed.

personalized lifelong learning plan that can be assessed for credit toward a degree or for advancement toward a new job or recareering.

First, the personal learning, though specific to each learner, may have many common elements across multiple learners' experiences.

But there can be a personalized learning plan for each person—a plan that connects the learner and his/her history to a chosen future.

The components of the plan are not unique to each learner; what is unique is how the plan fits to the learner's needs and aspirations.

if learning plans connect learners' past and present to a future they desire, and if learners help "architect" their plans, then the learning will be deeply personal.

Learning Recognition Course. The Learning Recognition Course is a free course that walks the learner through the steps to build a prior learning portfolio, including requests for credit based on prior experiential learning.

CareerJourney. CareerJourney is a free course that inspires and guides people in their career journey. It provides a personalized experience that integrates data based on the individual's LinkedIn profile and drawing from the LinkedIn database. LearningAdvisor. LearningAdvisor is a hub that includes free courses, paid courses, certificates, degree programs, insights, and inspiration to help adult learners explore their learning possibilities.

the kind of software motivational tricks that make it so hard for kids to pull away from video games

ordinary people with extraordinary motivation can achieve remarkable performance through a pattern of arduous work and study called deliberate practice.

a shift from credentials to certification.

teachers will be able to encourage each student to dig deeper into some particular interest that student has—well beyond the teacher’s own knowledge.

There is one other force that will propel the transformation of education: a shift from credentials to certification. In most of the current system, the emphasis is diplomas and degrees—credentials saying a student has been sitting in class so many hours, while paying enough attention and cramming enough not to do too much worse than the other students on the exams. More and more, employers are going to want to see some proof that a potential employee has actually gained particular skills. So certificates that can credibly attest to someone’s ability to write computer code, write a decent essay, use a spreadsheet, or give a persuasive speech are going to be worth more and more. And any training program that takes the need to maintain its own credibility seriously can help students gain those skills and certify them for employers in a way that bypasses the existing educational establishment. Just witness the current popularity of “coding bootcamps.” That model can work for many other skills as well. For many students, that kind of certification of specific skills is a very attractive alternative to a two-year degree.