What does "personalised learning" mean to you?

[beeswax]

I was at a conference the other day discussing VLE's, and one of the speakers was talking of personalised learning. Being a teacher, he asked his pupils what they thought it meant. The unanimous answer was being able to make your space "personal", modding it, or perhaps pimping it. He gave all sorts of other examples from over the years, drawing on the covers of exercise books etc, basically, taking ownership. I know there's been an argument for not allowing pupils to change their desktop wallpaper, and lock everything down, but I've been watching what happens (via net support) as some pupils log on. They go to their home folders, pick an image, set it as their desktop wallpaper, and then get on with their work. Of course there's always going to be someone who can't choose between the Ferrari or the Porsche, but so far it doesn't seem to have affected their work. It's certainly another point to take into account when assessing Learning Platforms.

[becktonboy]

What does PL mean to me? more work.

Unless we aim to break the most important link in education, PL will mean 'Personalised' teaching - 1 to 1 teaching? not in this universe.

PL means VLEs, eventually education will consist of 1 teacher sitting in a room, setting work for hundreds of pupils they never meet, work marked by computers, mostly mutliple choice quizzes of course, the odd bit sent off to a real person, possibly covering several schools.

I'd rather stick to userareas, personalised desktops and mouse settings.

[klawd]

becktonboys analysis seems accurate to me.

 

So far, the courses I have been on shows "personalised learning" to be some government driven idea of a utopia where teachers are not really required and students can sit at a PC anywhere (not even at school) and basically run through online courses.

 

Students can choose the courses and direction themselves, moving as quickly or as slowly as comfortable. I can see why the government loves the idea, it will mean that they can save costs on teachers, and no student will be able to fail, because they will ever have to learn a subject they dont like or find difficult.

 

Yet another buzzword and crappy initiative, seemingly ignoring the fact that not every student likes or gets on using a PC, and that if you cannot read in the first place, having the work on a screen is not going to help you either.

 

You have to wonder how much of these initiatives like ICTAC really do make a positive difference or if it just means the students get to mess around on the internet doing "research" where as before they would have to use a book and actually learn to draft work instead of just nicking it off wikipedia.

 

Maybe I am just too cynical?

[beeswax]

"Yet another buzzword and crappy initiative, seemingly ignoring the fact that not every student likes or gets on using a PC, and that if you cannot read in the first place, having the work on a screen is not going to help you either."

 

Try this link, and there's an Australian company who produce an icon based interface. RM of course have Successmaker which again relies heavily on icons/images to guide the user.

[becktonboy]

...it's not the interface or availability of help for poor readers that's the problem- tho' having everything recorded as a speech file might help ... (fat chance). The concept that the majority of anyone's education can be delivered online is fatally flawed - it's a stupid idea.

Ask "What's the best way of delivering 90% of someone's educational expereince online?" and you will eventually get 'VLE, everyone needs one', as the answer.

Ask"What's the best way of delivering a high quality education?", and you will get an answer involving well-motivated, well-trained and well-resourced teachers with smaller and smaller groups of students.

Ask the wrong questions and you will always get the wrong answers.

[bossman]

Scenario:

Little Jimmy gets up out of bed at midday, logs in to his personal learning space where he then starts his "daily tutorials", no teacher just an online guide with an e-mail address to contact should he need real one 2 one help (except it will take time to get that help as it is not instant).

He has to work his way through 5 - 40 minute modules a day with a ten minute review test at the end of every one this is how it will be marked and he will receive a certification at the end of the term depending on how well he has done.

All this is in the interests of costs to the government who wish to water down the amount of teachers, as they have such a powerful union voice and replace them with online learning.

Meanwhile little Jimmy is assessed every month by his online tutor who will then invite him to a session at the learning village for a one 2 one assessment. This will determine whether Jimmy goes on to the next stage or moves at a slower pace of learning.

I agree with you totally klawd

[beeswax]

One of the speakers at the conference was from BECTA (I think, my notes are in school) and he referred to a study carried out which basically concluded that teenagers bodies/minds work in a different time frame to adults, and they would be better starting school at say, 11:00am, and going on to 17:00, or 17:30, extending the school day. I heard a teacher mutter that they'd never get that past the unions.

@bossman: you seem to be under the impression that children will no longer be going to school, and everything they do they'll accomplish from home. Building all these new schools, and bringing the rest up to a decent standard doesn't seem to indicate that. More importantly, humans tend to be social creatures (apart from that bloke at the end of the bar who's been nursing a half of shandy for the past hour), and it's the controlled socialisation you get in play groups and schools which for the most part teach us how to mix in the wider world. Teachers provide this "in loco parentis". Schools, or places where children can mix with their peers in a friendly (for the most part) environment, will be with us for a long time yet.

[bossman]

@beeswax:

Maybe your correct in your assumption and maybe your not as i said it was a scenario from my interpretation of what is happening to our educational system.

 

You say humans crave social interaction, well i believe that they only crave that when they want to enjoy themselves like drinking, eating and entertaining.

 

When it comes to talking one to one they lack this entity as they are quite used to texting on mobile phone or MSN on computer. These leads me to believe that schools will become redundant in their capacity as teaching and learning environments.

 

They will be used for communal learning from home.

This is just my interpretation you will understand and will not happen overnight but i feel it will happen.

[beeswax]

I suppose there's always Second Life.

However, my 16 year old daughter seems to be doing a lot of "social interaction" at the moment with a certain young man. They text each other, hotmail etc. but still feel the need to meet up in person. Now why is that?

[MkII]

On our student blog system students can create their own templates so they have that flexibility. Personalised learning tho' should be about more granular choice of subjects, as this communication revolution makes possible. An amasing online course accessible as videos, presentations, etc etc..

 

Not a complete transition to only one way of working, but a melding together of the best bits of each.

 

World domination by IT Techs is a few years off yet

[bossman]

@beeswax:

 

As i have said people only need to get together for enjoyment and nothing else. Kids now just take technology in their stride it is only the non technical people who abhor this and therefore cannot understand why young people need to have technology around them and on their person. It is their way of communicating and they accept no other.

[beeswax]

people get together for funerals as well.

text, IM, blogs are just some of the channels kids use to connect with each other. I still see notes being passed round a class from time to time. Girls still come into school wearing makeup, despite being told not to. I don't think they do it to break school rules, but as an act of display. All animals do this. But they do this a part of a social group. The boys do their best to make themselves attractive too. It's a natural urge which at its base is there to propogate the species. In the case of the peacock display seems it's only purpose in life. It's in out nature to be social creatures. We get together, we discuss ideas, we make decisions, we improve.

[beeswax]

could I just add that no one seems to be around when the ironing needs doing

[beeswax]

damn! I mentioned ironing.

[NewOrder]

Personalised Learning is about allowing a student to select the most appropriate learning style. We all learn in different ways, some of us are visiual, others verbal and some learn by doing. Its also about choice and having the ability to learn when you want. Yes I know its a bit utopian! but don't dismiss it.

 

Personalised learning is not about technology or computers, although technology will enable and support it. A student working on a computer is not personalised learning nor is accessing a learning platform from home as some people think.

 

Before you dismiss it ask youself, how do I learn? why do I take part in this forum? when do I log on?

 

Answer discussing with others, its a good site with knowledgeable people, when I want. Personalised learning!!!!

 

Personalised learning coupled with social networking. Lots of schools will need to consider how they will cope and many technicians will have to change from being wardens to meeters and greeters.

[farmerste]

to me P L E means a major headache, no doubt the teachers will expect me to upload or maintain this 'environment'.

 

most stuggle with simply copying files to a memory stick or another folder, so god knows what this is going to do to them.

 

what use is this for primary schools, and it only increases workload for teachers and other staff.

 

another bright idea from the government that shut down manufacturing, has made the ordinary working man into a criminal, and introduced more red tape than ever before.

 

[Anti]

I've been asked to install moodle on our web server over the summer and set it up so a selection of interested teachers can start using it in Sept (hopefully the science dept, since they are the only ones with any computer savvy). I really don't see what niche these VLEs are trying to fill. Moodle doesn't do anything that teachers don't do in lessons and in section tests anyway. Is it using technology just for the sake of it perhaps?

 

Failing students are not going to spend their evenings doing course work online - duh... they're failing because they DON'T do any work at home, and don't want to! So the only ones who'll use it are the proactive students anyway, and they're not the ones who need a VLE.

 

It might be good if there were a reserve pool of free, fantastic lessons and tests based on the curriculum learning outcomes, which could be easily downloaded and installed into the VLE. But as I understand it, teachers have to create their own from scratch. I can tell you now that I'm going to spend many hours becoming competent with moodle, only to have teachers not use it because they don't have time (or inclination) to create the content.

 

Oh well.

[webman]

And there's the problem. Relying on teachers for content - unless you find enthusiastic NQTs to champion a VLE it aint gonna happen.

[MkII]

Moodle v2.0 will stress the sharing of courses and make it more transparent - but lots of people do it already.

 

What about if pupils are off sick? They can see what the class is doing from home.

 

What if a teacher is off sick? The lesson is there online for the students to find.

 

Automatic grading, marking, time spent on the site - it's all built into moodle as standard.

[GrumbleDook]

One scenario that was discussed in a blue sky session a few years back was looking at 2 types of teachers.

 

Creators - these are your subjects specialists ... the experts ... the people that can create materials that are engaging and help the students learn at quite a pace.

 

Facilitators - those that are a few steps ahead of the students. They understand the concepts and can help move the students through difficult areas. The important things is not that they are subjects specialists, but are specialists in knowing how students learn and can get students to use the appropriate skills. (Learning 2 Learn sort of thing).

 

Imagine now that you have schools with rooms that are very large and can be partitioned off into 4 separate rooms. Each smaller room holds up to 300 PCs so you can have around 120 students in there at one go.

 

Now imagine that you have 4 facilitators and 2 creators in there ... you get team teaching, you get the chance for individual tuition, you have scope for serious differentiation (which is all PL really is at the end of the day) and you get 2 subject specialists and 4 learning mentors.

 

The conversation then went on to many other things like how often you would need these style lessons. Should they be 'super-lessons' to bring on key concepts or should they be at fixed periods during a unit?

 

For us ... it is a chance to improve standards of T&L. A chance to increase the baseline level of resources and SoW.

 

It will not work for all subjects ... but it can give many subjects the chance to share more and use other subjects to embed skills (whole school literacy / numeracy anyone?)

[kxv2020]

But personalised learning is not only about using a VLE!!! It is about classroom practice and any outstanding practioner would have all ready begun to embed personalised learning in their lessons.

 

Personalised Learning through Virtual Learning is only one part of it! Other parts of it intergrate towards the buzzword "Personalised Learning"!! For example staff will personlise their teaching to suit different learning styles. Students and Staff will embed Assessment for Learning & Effective questioning to personalise and differentiate their work and track and review progress. VLE will support all of this but will be only a part of Personlised Learning!

 

Hope it made sense.. :?

[Anti]

But this is an ICT forum, so I think that's why the thread is orientated around the role of VLE and the use of computers in providing personal learning.

[Printer45]

For us the utopian aim of allowing students to seek preferable modes of learning is incompatible with teaching the whole class, where the topic is more important that the mode of its presentation. For PL allows the range of children’s ability to be targeted more specifically and directly enabling incremental progression simultaneously, our gifted and talented seem confused with the necessity to target the lesson within the middle order. although they have been recognised as potential improvers this has no longevity and more akin to rhetoric for every day lessons.

 

As neworder said it is more than technology.