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When we put the focus on each learner and how they can own and drive their learning, then we see engaged, self-directed learners with agency.

eachers also think they have to teach like a champion because they are the ones responsible for the learning. Don't you think that this is backwards?

This is just the beginning of a new world of learning and it's time to put the "Person" back in "Personalization."

When we focus on learning and not on curriculum, teachers roles change. We still can teach to standards but let's involve learners in the process and give them a voice so they own the learning.

If we teach as we taught yesterday,we rob our children of tomorrow.”

There are companies that frame "personalized learning" as adaptive learning systems using algorithms to choose the right path for learning. So we're going to end this blog emphasizing learners need to be the ones who choose their path with their teacher guiding the process. It is about encouraging learners to have a voice and choice in their learning. It's happening now all over the world.

They probably don't realize that their digital footprint is actually a "digital tattoo" that can never be removed.

They also need to understand who they are, how they learn best, and how to be global digital citizens.

The study identified these five global trends in professional learning

Learning is integrated

A 2013 Australian study conducted by the government-funded Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership and the nonprofit Innovation Unit examined 50 high-performing corporations, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations from around the globe to identify common features of professional learning experiences.

Learning is design-led

Learning is market-led

Learning is open

These finding suggest that education professionals should have an individual learning plan and access to a combination of collaborative and online learning experiences, all of which need to be reinforced by regular embedded feedback and assessment mechanisms.

 Our ability to ensure that professional learning is highly relevant and personalized, incentivized, and largely self-directed for all teachers will be paramount to the success of our education institutions.

Experiential Engagement: The Activity

he Flipped Classroom Model

The cycle often begins with an experiential exercise.  This is an authentic, often hands-on learning activity that fully engages the student. 

They explore what the experts have to say about the topic.  Information is presented via video lecture, content-rich websites and simulations like PHET and/or online text/readings.

Conceptual Connections: The What

Meaning Making: The So What

Learners reflect on their understanding of what was discovered during the previous phases.  It is a phase of deep reflection on what was experienced during the first phase and what was learned via the experts during the second phase.

Demonstration and Application: The Now What

During this phase, learners get to demonstrate what they learned and apply the material in a way that makes sense to them. This goes beyond reflection and personal understanding in that learners have to create something that is individualized and extends beyond the lesson with applicability to the learners’ everyday lives.  This is in line with the highest level of learning within Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy of Learning – Creating - whereby the learner creates a new product or point of view. In essence, they become the storytellers of their learning (See Narratives in the 21st Century: Narratives in Search of Contexts).  A list of technology-enhanced ideas/options for the celebration of learning can be found at: http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/a-technology-enhanced-celebration-of-learning/

get our students familiar with having a voice in personalizing their learning

Technology is a driving force for much of the student-centric learning. We need our educators to be at the very least literate in this relatively new digital literacy

eedback is often used to describe all kinds of comments made after the fact, including advice, praise, and evaluation

Whether the feedback was in the observable effects or from other people, in every case the information received was not advice,

Guidance would be premature; I first need to receive feedback on what I did or didn't do that would warrant such advice.

Whether feedback is just there to be grasped or is provided by another person,

Formative assessment, consisting of lots of feedback and opportunities to use that feedback, enhances performance and achievement

Decades of education research support the idea that by teaching less and providing more feedback, we can produce greater learning

Whether feedback is just there to be grasped or is provided by another person, helpful feedback is goal-referenced; tangible and transparent; actionable; user-friendly (specific and personalized); timely; ongoing; and consistent.

by teaching less and providing more feedback, we can produce greater learning

We think like a designer, not like a teacher, when we say: the teacher is just one element in the design. The choice of task, pedagogy, groupings, flow of work, resources, furniture, light, noise level, role of people and text – all of these design elements are arguably as important as the teacher.

What are those conditions, in a nutshell? I would highlight the following: Thought-provoking intellectual challenges (inquiries, questions, problems) The challenge has been designed to optimize self-sustaining and productive work by learners, related to a clear and intellectually worthy goal The learners have become reasonably competent in classroom routines that foster productive goal-focused work The challenge cannot be accomplished by a worksheet, checklist or recipe. It requires strategic use of knowledge and skill, creative problem-solving, and critical thinking; and the eliciting of multiple perspectives on how to address the challenge and gauge progress. There is an unambiguous product or performance goal (even if there is ambiguity about how to achieve the goal), supported by clear criteria and standards, thus permitting ongoing student self-assessment and self-adjustment. There is enough feedback within the challenge (and resources) that the work can be maximally self-sustaining and productive. The teacher is therefore freed up to coach for a significant amount of time, permitting personalized feedback and guidance (as well as just-in-time mini-lessons). This coaching role also permits the teacher to determine what is and isn’t working in the challenge, and thus enables the teacher to quickly change gears if the desired learning is not occurring or the process is not working.

In other words, it is a poor design for learning that puts all the burden of teaching and processing on the teacher. Then, the teacher can neither coach nor understand what is going on in the minds of learners. Worse, endless teaching, no matter how expert, soon becomes passive and without much meaning to learners who must wait days, sometimes weeks, to get meaningful chances to interact with the content, to try out their ideas on others, and to get the feedback they need.

Group-worthy tasks – Focus on central concepts or big ideas that require active meaning-making The challenge itself has ambiguity or limited scaffold and prompting so that student meaning-making and different inferences about the task and how to address it will emerge. Are best accomplished by ensuring that multiple perspectives are found tried out in addressing the task. This not only rewards creative and non-formulaic thought but undercuts the likelihood that one strong student can do all the key work. Provide multiple ways of being competent in the task work and the task process Can only be done well by a group, but are designed to foster both individual and group autonomy. (The teacher’s role as teacher and direction-giver should be minimized to near zero). Demand both individual and group accountability Have clear evaluation criteria

Simply put, we live in an age of personalization and customization -- and companies know it and are gearing their efforts to serve our needs in the way they think we want to be served.

Project Tomorrow survey of roughly 300,000 K-12 students, 42,000 parents, 38,000 teachers and librarians, and 3,500 administrators from over 6,500 public and private schools, on how they are using—and would like to be using —new technologies in the classroom.

“I know the main reasons mobile technology is not welcome in the classroom are fear and misunderstanding about the structure that it gives the learning,” said Reina Cabezas, a teacher at Cox Elementary in Oakland, Calif., who is also doing masters thesis research on the topic of mobile devices in the classroom.

The results show that while the majority of students—and, perhaps surprisingly, parents—are in favor of using mobile devices for learning as long as the school allows it, most school administrators remain opposed

“But I don't think we stop living because of fear, right? No, we educate ourselves and learn about the security measures, expectations of all stakeholders, and apply principles of successful models of mobile devices in the classroom. Most importantly, we realize that technology is a tool of efficacy for the teacher, not the teacher's replacement. Lastly, technology only engages and motivates students when teachers know how to use them strategically to keep the hook. Overuse of anything is never good.”

First, personalizing professional development pathways with modules and badges reflect an individual teacher’s learning needs.

UTS Principal Rosemary Evans sees these as “unique learning experiences,” different for each student with each session of play. “What excites me is the experiential component,” she says. “The simulations lead to an authentic experience, where the game environment represents different points of view.”

Justin Medved , the Director of Instructional Innovation at The York School, likes to talk about “layers of learning” taking place in the best games. “To what extent does the game offer an experience that offers some critical thinking, decision making, complexity, or opportunity for discussion and debate?” says Medved. The content is the first layer the students interact with, but meta-content skills can take longer to teach. Medved looks for “any opportunity for players to go out and do some research and thinking before coming back to the game.” Many games, says Medved, are super-fast and he tries to intentionally slow them down to allow for deeper thinking. “We want some level of learning to be slow, to discuss bias or different perspectives. Over time you can see a narrative unfolding.”

The question of whether to game or not game in class is not one of technology. It is one of pedagogy that starts and ends with the teacher. It is our job to provide a framework for deciding which games can be used in which contexts, and to use the best of the game world to inspire our students to higher-order thinking.