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Students (and teachers) use technology to access information, to make meaning, to create and communicate their learning via a personalized set of resources for learning... a "go-to" 24/7 technology and information access toolkit - a Personal Learning System (PLS).
We guide our students to work as architects designing and maximizing their "learningflow" (think of the term workflow from the business world) while also engaging time management techniques to increase efficiency and purposeful productivity. Self-directed and growth minded students use devices, apps, Web tools and information sources putting themselves in charge of their learning and the technology while developing as citizens connecting to the greater learning community.
Jump to the actual PLS categories or continue reading this verbose introduction. :)
Working with students to construct their Personal Learning System (PLS) goes hand in hand with furthering their self-understanding, developing their learner profile, deepening their internal locus of control and self-regulation, supporting their learning autonomy while moving them to be active and goal-oriented. Developing character strengths while learning life and study skills working with others and moving forward on the lifelong pathway of self-discovery goes hand in hand with constructing one's PLS.
We work with our students to see themselves as designers not only of their PLS but also in terms of their lives. Look to use resources such as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens and the Core SEL Competencies to help in this process. The development and ongoing application of one's PLS also can also further executive functioning which has wonderful spillover into many aspects of one's life.
The components of one's PLS (see below) come together supporting this idea of self-directed learners and citizens using tools engaging their ICL skills to reflect, make meaning, create, set goals for action plans and document their understanding and goal attainment through their portfolios. The role of inquiry connecting to one's curiosity is important as students go through the research process using tools through the steps of gathering, curating and communicating their understanding.
Students also need to be project managers who engage their PLS as they plan for long term assignments while often working as members of a team. Finding and using tools to be active, organized and collaborative is key to managing one's individual and group learning projects.
Active and independent learners in command on the bridge of their learning ship are ready for blended to full on virtual learning opportunities. Being able to engage with the school Learning Management System (LMS) as well as other platforms like Google Classroom for collaboration and creation furthers our students to trek into expanded learning beyond the school walls and regular hours of learning.
A Personal Learning System (PLS) is developed over time as individuals learn how they learn. They work to answer the question "how do I learn best?". Students also learn important habits of mind, character strengths and dispositions that help them stay focused to effectively use technology and information. They look to find technologies and information sources that enhance the ways they think, process, create and communicate. Thus one approach to construct a PLS is to find tools that support one's learning modalities (i.e., visual, auditory, linear, spatial, etc.). Another approach offered by the Global Digital Citizen Foundation uses Bloom's Taxonomy categories to organize tools into their approach to designing a PLS.
One tool that we might take for granted is the browser, specifically Chrome and the many built in extensions/add-ons found at the Chrome Store. Start your search with the extension list provided by Jeff Utecht who sees the Chrome browser as the number one learning tool for our students. Also check out a full database of extensions and apps. One big part of students becoming more active and independent learners is to have them go through the Chrome store to analyze and choose apps/extensions that support their learner profile.
The Google Apps for Education suite is a terrific place for students to find apps that best meet their needs. An added benefit of Google Drive and associated apps is that there are many add-ons that can be integrated into each app. Here is listing by Vicki Davis of Add-ons for Drive.
There are prominent bloggers who curate lists of new tools and applications. Here are a few bloggers to follow. Kathy Schrock | Larry Ferlazzo | Richard Byrne. There are several curated lists of tools to keep an eye on as well. 101 Web Tools | 21st Century Tools | Top 100 Tools for Learning
Moving on to practicalities, how can educators develop a plan to help students not only create their Personal Learning system but to actively use it? One could do a standalone course whether as an elective or possibly after school. Another approach would be to develop the coursework in online modules that students can access virtually or use in blended fashion in their regular classes.
Creating a rubric along with assessments would be helpful as well. Digital badges for each category could be used as a part of the students' portfolio and goal-setting efforts. Here is a PLS course that I am developing that offers one approach to support the process. Here is PLS plan template that one can adapt for whichever categories are chosen for students to develop. Originally the plan used categories of skills and processing (see below). Then I worked with a teacher who wanted to add subject disciplines. We enjoyed learning from the students as they shared the personal strategies they applied in learning math, science, etc.
Personal Learning System - Categories
Personal Learning System - Categories
The following are a handful of options based on processing, organizational and communication categories with a few tools supporting multiple categories. Students engage multiple literacies moving towards fluency in adapting the tools that work best for their needs and the task at hand. One way to integrate these categories into the everyday learning of students is to have them use hashtags of the PLS categories when they add learning artifacts to their portfolios (i.e., #adaptation, #collaboration). Along the same lines, if your school has a wellness/life skills or school mission/values program, students can do the same by hashtagging the strengths, dispositions, values, etc. they engaged with to produce the learning artifacts (i.e., #curiosity, #proactivity #respectforall #activelistening). This is a nice way to support reflection while demonstrating just how many factors go into our learning.
Adaptation- We all learn in different ways so it makes sense to use tools that support the Universal Design for Learning-UDL principle of representing information in multiple ways. There are many video sites, podcast sources and tools that provide multimedia to help us learn beyond just text resources. Google Docs among other tools let's us change spoken words into text. Some information and story sites provide audio "reading" of text while highlighting the words. Some database also provide the information in other languages than English. Rewordify doesn't change text to another format but it simplifies to build understanding. Chrome provides several extensions that help simplify and provide different modalities to read digital information. There are many apps for tablets that support voice to text, sketchnoting, media creation, etc. so that our students can choose forms of and/or adapt information to meet their needs.
Citizenship- Learners use many of their tools to connect to others. Understanding netiquette, privacy concerns, sharing of information rules, digital footprints, etc. is a big part of the interaction process. Students should look to develop their own netiquette code of conduct as part of their PLS.
Creation- There are so many apps for students to choose from to support their creativity. Examples: Explain Everything, Book Creator, iMovie, ThingLink. Our students also are using web-based tools. Examples: Google Drawings (App Suite), MakeBeliefsComix (Comics Creation), Storybird (Story Writing), audioBoom (recording).
Communication & Presentations- We use e-mail, phones, blogs and social network tools to connect with others and to voice our ideas. Examples: Gmail, Hangouts, Google Blogger, YouTube, Twitter, texting, phone calls, Skype || Students have so many presentation choices for Web tools but tools are meaningless if presentations are not well-designed and interesting. Here is one listing of presentation tools that does have some software offerings as well as web-based ones. Design fluency is a bit part of this skill.
Collaboration- Communicating to share ideas, work on projects and innovate draws upon and develops skills for connected learning and the workplace. Technology facilitates the process of developing, organizing and sharing those ideas. Examples: Google Apps, Moodle (LMS), Mindmeister, and Skype. Collaboration also involves some very important social skills. :)
Curation of Information- Personal Learning Systems are more effective when we have a place to store, organize, and share the information we consume and create. We need to return to our information to really analyze the best of the information that is coming at us. Following naming protocols for files and folders in an organized system also helps students be more efficient in accessing their information. Following password creation rules and conventions for accounts also comes into play. Curation Examples: Dropbox, Diigo, Pocket, Google Drive and Keep, Scoop.it! along with a Scoop.it! collection of PLS tools. See below for Portfolios for curation of student learning artifacts.
Documentation of Information & Note-taking- We need places and modalities (ex. voice to text, sketchnoting, etc.) to record and responsibly cite the ideas we gather from others as well as to make our thinking visible. Examples: Noodle Tools (subscription log in), EasyBib, World Book Citation builder (subscription log in), Evernote, Notability, Mindmeister, Siri, Google Now, PaperPort Notes, Keep (for buckets of info), Google Docs, Audioboom, photograph and video recording hardware devices (i.e, tablets, cameras, smart phones). There are many Chrome extensions/apps as well like VideoNot.es for taking notes while watching videos.
Journaling- Journaling is definitely a big part of the learning that takes place in our schools. Just as with portfolios, teachers are moving more and more of the writing to the Web where they and their students have 24/7 access to write and share ideas. Blogs definitely stand out as one way to provide a place for students to journal on their own and in response to teacher prompts.
Making Meaning- Making meaning is at the center of the learning process. We take in new information connecting with what we already know to build understanding. Whether it is math, science or another subject area, each student in building their PLS needs to frame their learning around how they meaning. We guide students to self reflect and break down their thinking as they learn in various subject areas. In the end, it is up to each student to engage process and tools from his/her PLS to build and deepen understanding.
Portfolios- Portfolios have been around a long time. The change over the past decade has been to move them to web-based systems for 24/7 access and ease in sharing multimedia artifacts. Today some schools use blogs, web site creation tools like Google Slides or proprietary digital portfolio providers. Some Learning Management Systems have a built in portfolio module. The bottom line is that portfolios are a huge part of student learning systems as they write goals, journal and document their learning artifacts with reflections.
Project Planning- Planning for projects that involve creating a learning product engages students in using many tools in their Personal Learning System. Watching students use their Information & Communication Literacies (ICL) skills along with the tools of their PLS can be an extremely exciting aspect of teaching. Scaffolding does need to be in place to support students whether working individually or in teams as they manage their time and resources to be efficient and productive. What can support this process is to provide students a project planning template with guiding questions and supportive ideas to have them create their own plan. Thinking in terms of ICL, the plan could be called the ICL Project Plan. Here is a blog post that offers a few ideas around the idea of guiding students to create an ICL Project Plan.
Reference and General Information Gathering (Research)- Remember the day when we had a dictionary, thesaurus, calculator and maybe an encyclopedia within easy reach of our workspace? Today we have online versions of each, along with a rich variety of apps on our devices. Examples: English dictionary/thesaurus apps, Spanish dictionary apps, French dictionary apps, language translators, Britannica, iTunes for Podcasts, Chrome Browser with Extensions, one's school library Web site with its list of databases. The growing Open Educational Resources (OER) is another area for students to connect to for information. And of course there are several search engines to choose from and use the advanced search features to be more efficient and productive. Adaptive technologies like the Rewordify Web site help students simplify text that is above their reading level to make it more understandable. More and more information sources also provide built in audio of the text for students who prefer to listen and read.
Subject Areas- As you can see this approach to helping students develop their PLS is skill-focused. As I am piloting a PLS mini-course with a 5th grade class, the teacher asked me to start with subject areas first. To try and list approaches and strategies to teaching of math, science, language arts, etc. is a daunting task so I instead decided to only list one approach for each subject area. Here is the website that I am using for this pilot program.
Task and Time Management- The conventional paper planner and calendar do not provide all the services offered by a web-based event and task management calendar. We can now easily access our time management systems across our computing platforms and integrate appointments and tasks into our e-mail. Examples: Google Calendar, Todoist, Wunderlist We also can look to work with students as architects to design their own planners that integrate structures and information that supports school and personal learning topics. Here is a blog post describing a few ideas about student personal planners. Students can design their own daily study plan document as well as plans for long term projects especially when they involve using technology.
Tutorials, Educational Media and Mini-Courses- Developing lifelong learners who know how to learn independently is one of our primary goals. Teachers speak of their Professional Learning Networks (PLN) that include fellow educators around the globe, blogs, podcasts, educator networks, etc. that we draw upon for professional and personal learning. These personalized learning connections allow us to follow our interests and individual needs to learn at our own pace and our own place. Students can do the same by first finding the information resources and then the people via social networking who they can learn from and with.
Knowing where to go to not only gather information but to also learn specific skills via online tutorials is so important. Curating one's go to learning resources via YouTube playlists, Evernote or Keep listing, Diigo bookmarks, etc. is another aspect of developing one's PLS. Examples: iTalki and Duolingo for languages, StudyBlue and Quizlet for notecards, CK-12 on the Web or as a Chrome extension, Vimeo Education, Khan Academy on the Web or as a Chrome extension and Florida Students for across the board tutorials, Knewton for individualized tutorials and iTunes University. iTunes and Android podcast apps as well as Listenwise for educational podcasts. Note that students can also become creators of tutorials as they contribute to the greater learning community. Students can take on the authentic task of setting up their own YouTube channel to post their tutorials for classmates and others to access. A nice example of student-created lessons is the work of students at the Mathtrain tutorial site.
Ron Ritchhart in the following chart asks "What Kind of Learner Are We Developing?"
Learners who develop their personal learning system are empowered to be innovative, creative and joyful in their learning.
Developing one's PLS directly connects to efforts to personalize student learning by giving students more control over their learning especially by giving them choice as they orchestrate their learning. It also is about students taking ownership of their learning to be more self-directed and active learners. True student-centered personalized learning is NOT having students spend their time doing adaptive drill and skill adaptive software programs.
Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey provide very helpful information through their Personalize Learning blog and consultant services. The following two charts describe the transition from teacher to student driven learning as well as providing a comparison of personalized learning vs differentiation vs individualization.
Personalized learning definitely is a buzz word/concept that needs unpacking. Here are a few infographics by Mia MacMeekin which represents one view of what personalized learning looks like. Select the images for larger views.
What is Personalized Learning?
How to Personalize Learning?
Examples of Personalized Learning
Google Sites
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