User:Vtaylor/MOOCs/MOOCs 2018/Personalized Learning

2018.3

• Demystifying Personalised Learning
• The learners' preference may not be the best way to learn particular skills or content. * personal agent system * Also give them some low hanging fruit along the way, random gifts. * The most powerful educational tool is feedback. Continuous constructive feedback based on authentic assessment while working or solving a problem
• All this discussion is about the provider side. How about learners learning to direct their own learning? Wouldn't that be better than the providers doing all the deciding?
• In a perfect world... a "smart" system would have the big picture - lots of resources, multiple paths, the ability to provide feedback as you suggest. There needs to be an agent or "person" who has specific knowledge and responsibility for the learner and content (aka teacher). The learner should have choices to determine path, depth, presentation based on personal preferences. * This should apply to school / formal education too. Too often all the learning materials are expected to be consumed sequentially.
• If it isn't apparent, the learner isn't learning very important lessons about influence, freedom, choice, self-direction, independence, ... There is a sense of manipulation, condescension, lack of trust, ... Personalization should be collaborative and include the learner as a significant participant in the decision making.
• Your NetFlix is Special This doesn't have any explicit user choice. No personal limits, stated preferences, for example which should be in learning.
• Personalized cancer treatment based on your body chemistry is not the same as personalized learning at this stage. That is probably a good thing as that level of prescription for learning would required a depth of understanding of the individuals' prior knowledge, interest, etc that would be invasive and down right scary.
• This is happening. In the Walmart near us, there are now special holders on the gigantic shopping carts to hold even really big phones so you can scan your items as you shop. Presumably this will be the way for these ads to be displayed so you don't have to hold your phone all the time like the ladies in the video do. Scanning your items to skip the checkout line is a benefit for the store and the customer. But it also opens you up for all the data collection, ads, etc. If you don't have your phone on, you won't get all this, good and bad.
• Is this a fair exchange for the consumer / learner? Does the consumer / learner understand that they are providing a huge amount of information about themselves in these transaction? Is this necessary for "personalization" of the content without having much / any control over what they get in return?
• WordPress - Customize / Personalize/customize/ This isn't what we have been talking about as personalization - not the provider dynamically adapting content presentation. But it does make my space mine for me to present myself as a learner or as a provider. As WordPress says ... Nothing makes a site feel like an extension of your personality more than its look and feel. With WordPress, there are many ways to accomplish this. With a little effort it is easy to make your site as unique and individual as you are! Here are some of the ways you can customize your site....
• In K-8 they talk about differentiation - what the teacher and/or technology can do/provide to/for the leaner based on lots of factors. This is a more practical way of presenting "personalization" based on the realities of the teacher, the learners, the resources,... Some of the people in the video touch on this.