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Before going to class this week, I kind of have an idea about what personalized learning is. I think that personalized learning has to do with tailoring and accommodating for each students’ needs so that every student is able to have the same opportunities to learn and grow. I think that this topic is very interesting because I completely agree with it and back it up, but it seems like a very difficult goal to achieve. Every student is different with different styles of learning and if you are a teacher of a class of 25 second graders, how are you able to make sure that every single student uses their own form of learning to understand the information? This is an amazing idea because every child deserves to be able to learn, no matter if they are more hands-on learners, more audio learners, more visual learners, and so on. I really am curious as to how teachers are able to accommodate and help each child to learn the way that they learn best when each student has different needs. So I am curious as to how teachers are able to pull this off to help each individual student. I would also like to know about how teachers are able to do this without the usage of technology because everything that I have heard about before is automatically turning to technology, so I want to see if there are ways to do it without technology for those who are not able to afford it.
I learned a lot of information about personalized learner through preparing for class this week. First off, we were to look for a video to describe what personalized learning is and giving some details about it. The video that I found was called “What is Personalized Learning”, which is a 7 minute video explaining what personalized learning is, the pros and the cons to the method, and comparing it to different types of learning. I learned from this video that personalized learning really depends on what the strengths and weaknesses of the students are and how teachers must do the most that they can to accommodate for each learner to guarantee the most learning and retention of information. From looking at this video, it left me with some questions about personalized learning: like what if students prefer the standard way of learning or how would we be able to implement this type of learning in a place that has high poverty? I also watched the video called “How Amy Heimerl Teaches with iPads” that showed me how great technology is for personalized learning because it helps her to be able to “create a custom learning experience for every student” (Amy Heimerl). She talks about how there are so many apps, activities, and a ton of information on iPads, that the students can experiment on their own and find their own way of learning. This is great for students’ learning because children tend to retain more of the information when they find it out for themselves. I also read an article called “9 Barriers to Personalized Learning and How We May Work Around Them” which is a very informative article about the concerns from teachers about why teaching this way makes them nervous. I learned that lots of teachers find this approach scary, difficult, and time consuming but also very beneficial and worth it in the end.
My understanding of personalized learning has definitely changed from where we started until now. In the beginning, I had an idea about personalized learning, but I had so many unanswered questions that just made me confused and not sure how I really felt about the topic. After preparing for class, I really got a feel for what personalized learning really is and lots of details about it like how to make it into a lesson plan, the pros and cons, usage of technology, and so on. Class helped me to concrete my understanding of personalized learning to the point where I could have a strong conversation about it and probably teach it. Throughout the whole process, I always thought that personalized learning would be an amazing way to learn for children and after learning about it, that opinion became even stronger.
I learned a lot of information about personalized learner through preparing for class this week. First off, we were to look for a video to describe what personalized learning is and giving some details about it. The video that I found was called “What is Personalized Learning”, which is a 7 minute video explaining what personalized learning is, the pros and the cons to the method, and comparing it to different types of learning. I learned from this video that personalized learning really depends on what the strengths and weaknesses of the students are and how teachers must do the most that they can to accommodate for each learner to guarantee the most learning and retention of information. From looking at this video, it left me with some questions about personalized learning: like what if students prefer the standard way of learning or how would we be able to implement this type of learning in a place that has high poverty? I also watched the video called “How Amy Heimerl Teaches with iPads” that showed me how great technology is for personalized learning because it helps her to be able to “create a custom learning experience for every student” (Amy Heimerl). She talks about how there are so many apps, activities, and a ton of information on iPads, that the students can experiment on their own and find their own way of learning. This is great for students’ learning because children tend to retain more of the information when they find it out for themselves. I also read an article called “9 Barriers to Personalized Learning and How We May Work Around Them” which is a very informative article about the concerns from teachers about why teaching this way makes them nervous. I learned that lots of teachers find this approach scary, difficult, and time consuming but also very beneficial and worth it in the end.
- “Personalized Learning: Transform Learning for All Learners.” Web. 29 Nov. 2015. This website “Personalized Learning: Transform Learning for All Learners” is a resource that goes through and explains exactly what personalized learning is. This website was created by a specialists who has studied and worked with personalized learning. This website has a ton of different resources within it. There are sources about how to implement personalized learning, events that are going on to promote and explain personalized learning, examples of how this has been working in school and individual classrooms, and much more. This website is also a blogging area where the creator of the website will go in and post new information about personalized learning and will give examples of what you as a teacher can do. There is also a page where you as a teacher can tweet to and get your questions answered and thoughts heard by not only the author but those who are reading the blogs. This is a great resource to have because it gives such great ideas about how to implement it, new information being found about it, you can communicate ideas and questions to the author and other teachers, while also getting more and more resource about personalized learning on this web page. This source would be very helpful for a teacher who is interested in trying personalized learning.
- “Dream Box-Personalized Learning.” Web. 29 Nov. 2015. This website “Dream Box-Personalized Learning” is a great resource that goes further in depth about personalized learning and how it actually works through the usage of pictures and diagrams to help explain how it really works. It also explains the design elements to personalized learning, which are “Environment”, “Intervention”, “Supporting Students Needs”, “Student Grouping”, “Curriculum”, “Quality Teaching”. “Goal Setting and Tracking”, and “Formative Assessment”. This website really shows that there is a lot of time, effort, and different aspects that go into personalized learning of students. It also goes into how to make lesson plans for personalized learning and what should be included. This website is very helpful because it clearly states what personalized learning is, different components to it, how to make lesson plans that incorporate personalized learning into it, and much more information. This is a great resource to have for teachers who are using this approach to teaching.
My understanding of personalized learning has definitely changed from where we started until now. In the beginning, I had an idea about personalized learning, but I had so many unanswered questions that just made me confused and not sure how I really felt about the topic. After preparing for class, I really got a feel for what personalized learning really is and lots of details about it like how to make it into a lesson plan, the pros and cons, usage of technology, and so on. Class helped me to concrete my understanding of personalized learning to the point where I could have a strong conversation about it and probably teach it. Throughout the whole process, I always thought that personalized learning would be an amazing way to learn for children and after learning about it, that opinion became even stronger.