I think there's still a bit of confusion for some over the term "personalising" learning.
“Make Learning Personal” (Bray & McClaskey, 2015) states that in a personalised learning environment, “Learning starts with the learner. Learners understand how they learn best so they can become active participants in designing their learning goals along with the teacher. Learners take responsibility for their learning, they are motivated and challenged as they learn so they work harder than their teacher.”
The challenge for us educators is to find how the system can fit the learner, rather than the other way around.
I've come to think of it like the Stuff App. Here I'm able to personalise my news feed and scroll past the stuff that's not relevant. I can change my view to compact or expanded and I can select local news or whatever category I wish to include. Some might take this for granted but when we think of how News has evolved over time, this app approach certainly allows for personalisation compared to the news on TV.
When watching TV News, we have to wait for the parts we're really interested in and sit through all the irrelevant parts. Even in a newspaper i'm able to skim over the stuff I have no interest in - although I've had to pay for the whole paper!
I guess a lot more media is heading this way - how many under 20 year olds actually watch "free to air" TV? I'd suggest not many. They've become accustomed to viewing what they're interested in, be it on youtube, or paying for a TV series they can download and watch immediately, rather than waiting for it each week on TV.
So, how might this apply to education?
How might we enable students to pick and choose the parts they need and want rather than having to wait for the "newsreader" to get through all the boring bits or having to wait for the weekly instalment?Why not let our students download what they want, when they want and have a more personalised experience?
