Nocking the Arrow

"Autonomy is what distinguishes between personal learning, which we do for ourselves, and personalized learning, which is done for us." - Stephen Downes Why is feedback critical to learning processes? Why should the learner be at the center of the feedback process? Where within Schoology can personal feedback be shared and leveraged by learners? What do paper airplanes have to do with personal learning and feedback? Premise On the second day of the SchoologyNEXT-19 conference, more than 100 adult learners gathered to build paper airplanes and discuss these questions. Here’s what we learned. Those who’ve attended my sessions know I subtly push the envelope, taking some risk, in the hopes of the transfer of the unique experience to professional learning activities and classroom adventures. If we don't want passive "sit-n-git" in our classrooms, then we should design conference sessions and staff meetings to model the active learning we...

When venturing out to world wide web, do we view the various landing points as tools or places ?   Many people consider Google search as a tool, but Twitter as a place. The key difference being we typically associate places as locations of social interaction and contribution. We establish residency by leaving traces of our identity behind as we move point to point. The longer we stay, and the more we engage with others, the further we move away from the visitor role towards residency. A few months ago, I wrote about mapping  Internet usage based on the research of White and Le Cornu . I found this mapping activity to be personally enlightening, and it also helped me have focused conversations about the places our learners are most likely to interact and share. Dave White explains visitors and residents are not separate classifications but rest on a continuum to help explain how people use the web and where places of engagement are likely to occur. The Internet mapping e...

At this time, some educators have a growing awareness of, and experience with, the personalized learning benefits of blogging. Increased relevancy, digital literacy, and conscientious effort for authentic audiences, are just three of many learning advantages that blogging can provide. Among the most powerful reasons for blogging is the opportunity to engage with communities of learners through social networks. Whether it's in the classroom, or as part of a learning community, cultivating relationships through social connection takes communication from merely the exchange of information to building empathy, understanding, and collaboration. One way to initiate and cultivate a learning relationship is by commenting on other educators' writing. Additionally, responding to comments is not only a nice thing to do, it also perpetuates the learning conversation and relationship. Social media tools such as Twitter, Blogger, and Google+ form the foundation of my personal l...

There seems to be growing conversation about personal learning environments (PLEs). What is a PLE, and why is this concept relevant to present day education? Personal learning environments are systems that allow learners to obtain control and manage their own learning. A supportive learning system would include these three components: cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo by Scott Leslie Establish measurable learning goals Manage learning content, processes, and products Network with other learners during the process According to Stephen Downes , a PLE exists as a node of web content (perhaps a blog) connected to other nodes supported by content creation services and used by other learners. The original node, or personal learning center, becomes a mechanism for reusing and remixing content based upon the needs and interests of the learner. This collection of inter-operating applications grows more environmental than systematic. Thus, the term personal learning environ...