Personalising Learning

Peter Dean
December 2007
Institutional
Perspective
 Institutional
Perspective
• How can institutions promote personalised
learning?
If institutions prescribe how learning is
personalised then it isn’t personal

• What organisational and cultural changes are

required?
The University has to do less! This is very
difficult!
Institutional
Perspective
 Institutional
Perspective
• A University should provide frameworks
that:
allow learning to be personal
• retain the social aspects of learning
(community)
• retain accreditation of learning
(assessment)
• retain curriculum integrity but don’t
prevent interdisciplinary bridging
• Accountability and outcomes rather than
compliance
 Institutional
Perspective
• A University should provide frameworks
that:
allow learning to be personal
• retain the social aspects of learning
(community)
retain accreditation of learning
(assessment)
• retain curriculum integrity but allow for
interdisciplinary bridging
Accountability and outcomes rather than
compliance
 Approach:
Communication
Approach: Technology
 What to Personalise?

• Communication
Engagement and Learning
• Curriculum
Assessment
 University 2.0
Social Construction of Technology not Technological
Determinism (Bijker, Pinch, Latour)
• Communities of Practice (Lave and Wenger)
• Open Culture (Stallman, Raymond)
• Personal Learning Environments
(Downes et al.)
Formal and Informal Learning
(Livingstone, Schugurensky)
Rhizome and arborescent models
(Deleuze)
 Social Construction of
Technology
• No technological determinism
Not seduced by “Digital Natives”

• or “Digital Immigrants”
• We get the technology we deserve
• If we fail to engage with these institutional and
social processes then we’ll get the technology
that the enthusiasts think we ought to have.
 Personal Learning
Environments
• Online approach to University 2.0
An distinct alternative to the VLE and MLE
approach

• The application of Web 2.0 to Uni 2.0

• social networking and collaboration
user generated content and aggregation

• mashups not monoliths

 e-Portfolio

Everybody already has an e-

Portfolio...
 e-Portfolio
Your e-Portfolio is
what people get
when they type
your name into
Google - whether
you like it or
not...
 e-Portfolio

So, to increase students’

employability we should concentrate
on getting their “brand” to the top of
the Google page rankings?