Personalized Learning?

After reading the three articles for class this week, I found myself puzzled and suffering from headache (not sure if this was from the reading or lack of sleep). The idea of giving that much freedom of learning style to students and having less control can be scary. I also find it scary to give students more access to the internet to do their work in different styles in school.

One of the most basic things I’ve learned through all my classes is that all students learn differently. Because of this, personalized learning gives students new options for learning other than sitting and listening to a teacher for an hour. Roberts-Mohoney compares personalized learning to a Netflix profile very cleverly. When you use Netflix so many times, it starts to learn the types of movies and shows you like to watch. After learning more about you, Netflix makes a personalized list of movies that you would enjoy watching. This is what teachers need to do in the classroom. We need to learn more about our students and adapt our lessons and create a “playlist” based on what they like. If we adapt lessons to the student’s interests and their learning ability, then they may be more productive and interested in the work.

After reading Coiro’s passage, I find that he touches on a topic I often think about. We are teaching students so they can advance in the future, however not all students have the same future. Coiro’s first point under “Where do we go from here?” states that we should adapt the lessons and learning to the interests and needs of the students. If a student is looking to become an engineer in the future, their lesson will and should be different from that of a student who aims to be a cook. I also like that he points out that students should be pushed to think on their own and create original works. Students should work to produce original and creative works that demonstrate their knowledge on a topic rather than have exams or essays to test their knowledge.

I thought that Couros was clever for pointing out the use of different internet platforms to engage students in learning. I wouldn’t have thought that you could have a good lesson that incorporates Twitter or Skype, but it would be interesting to see how it works. I like the idea of using Blogger in class to teach lessons and have students engage in writing. I’ve done it in many classes before and greatly enjoyed it, but considering the dangers of the internet, using the internet in personalized learning can be daunting. I think it was key also inform students on internet safety.