Personal Learning

What is Personal Learning?

According to Will Richardson "personal learning is a culture and a mindset. Personal learning means shifting the agency to the learner." There are many interpretations and approaches ranging from computerized curriculum solutions to learner interest and strength profiles. Programs include providing options for students to learn at their own pace to personalized learning plans to flexible learning environments. The strategies that are consider under the umbrella of personalized learning cover a lot of ground and can be difficult to decipher.

I believe the best parts of personal learning focus on the agency of the student. Rather than sitting students in front of a screen all day or teachers slaving over individual lesson plans for every child in the classroom, we need to look at how to make curriculum meaningful and relevant to our students and how to teach students to know how to guide and make choices in their own learning. The focus should be a cycle including engagement with high quality, challenging content that ties students into big ideas, application of learning in meaningful and relevant ways, deepening of learning and understanding through reflection and sharing that learning with an authentic audience (beyond the teacher and classmates).