The future of learning? Well, it's personal

In order to implement and improve personalized learning, we first need to reach agreement about what it is—and what it isn't. Students do drive their learning, and it is focused on their individual knowledge. Tests and assessments serve an ongoing purpose—to give teachers and students information about each learner. Each student's learning path - what, when, where, and how they learn and demonstrate mastery - is uniquely determined by their learner profile.



These learners may take advantage of flexible strategies such as individual learning contracts (affording a degree of learner choice of both content and assessment), and work-integrated learning opportunities. It's the opposite of the one size fits all” approach used in most schools. Additionally, the use of technology helps provide real-time data about student progress and helps teachers identify and organize the appropriate steps to keep students moving along their learning path.



While my students are still required to write traditional essays on many assignments, they also get the chance to show their learning in a variety of other ways. Much to my surprise, technology itself plays the smallest role in providing personalized learning for my students. Personalized learning is intended to facilitate the academic success of each student by first determining the learning needs, interests, and aspirations of individual students, and then providing learning experiences that are customized—to a greater or lesser extent—for each student.



Personalized learning” - that's quite a loaded phrase. Teachers had to spend so much time trying to help kids who were behind catch up that they couldn't get to the more challenging lessons that would push top students to excel. As a result, TTO of lecturing to students and showing them a powerpoint during class time, I often give them screencasts or videos to watch at home.



Traditionally the teacher was the classroom authority who decided on what students would learn, how, and when. While most educators aim to deliver courses in ways which cater to all styles, personalized learning allows the student to pick and choose which delivery methods are most accessible and memorable to them. As one education writer observed , the term has been used to describe everything from supplemental software programs to whole-school redesigns.” in its most basic form, the goal of personalization is to customize learning to an individual student's needs by giving the student greater control of the learning.



In a pl classroom, students' learning objectives, pace, and content are likely to vary to a greater extent than they would in a non-pl school. The self-pacing allows non-traditional students with more demands on their time to work in non-traditional settings.Smartphones and wifi mean that they can access learning materials from home, on breaks at work or while on public transport.