En Route to Education 2

[John Pallister]

Learners eager to learn; eager to participate; eager to contribute and
eager to use ICT and Web 2 Tools; learners, learning 24/7; learners,
learning where ever they are using mobile devices.

Teachers desperate to engage their learners in learning activities;
eager to collaborate with other teachers to improve the experience of
their learners. Teachers who recognise the experience, interests,
qualities and achievements of their learners and who recognise the
limitations of the traditional ‘spray and pray’ curriculum delivery
methods; eager to reflect and review on their existing practice;
eager to try out new approaches and teaching methods; eager to develop
their learners as independent learners; eager to recognise informal
learning.


The need for learners to learn; the need for teachers to enable
learners to learn; the need to resource and support learning.


A normal day at the chalk/IWB face.

Every learner matters - No learner left behind -

Every teacher empowered – no teacher left behind

we move forward by …..?

[John Pallister]

There is a national aspiration to support personalised learning; to
create a learning environment where the learner takes more control of
their own learning. This will require a shift from teaching to
learning. This shift is happening quite slowly, teachers are unsure
about their new role and how best to morph into it. They are confused
about how their learners will operate in a personalised environment
with many questioning the viability and value of personalisation.

Whatever personalised learning is, reflective learning is at the heart
of it. It is likely to ignore the demarcation lines that currently
exist between formal, planned learning and unplanned, informal
learning. It will build on learner expectations that they will
communicate, collaborate, create, mix, repurpose and publish/share
information. Learners will expect anywhere, anytime access to
learning using devices and systems that they currently use or want to
use.

The skills set that learners will need to function in this environment
have been defined as the Personal Learning and Thinking Skills. The
ePortfolio process supports reflective learning; supports Assessment
for Learning ; supports Action Planning; has the potential to engage
the learner and will support personalised learning.

Many of the tools required to support learners as they operate in
Personal Learning Environments already exist, and generally learners
can, and enjoy using these tools. ePortfolio tools exist.

Unless ‘something’ is integrated into the curriculum, it is very
unlikely that the ‘something’ will happen. This message has been
delivered very clearly by early attempts at harnessing the potential
of the ePortfoliio process. The curriculum plans currently being use
by teachers are teaching plans/tools that are not available to
learners. As responsibility for planning learning moves towards the
learner, we will need to investigate how the ‘school’ curriculum
relates to the learner’s curriculum.

The shift from teaching to learning cannot happen until we work out
how we can ‘ensure’ that young learners have access to, and can
navigate through a set of essential learning experiences that will
provide them with the knowledge, skills and competencies that they
will need to develop as successful learners, confident individuals and
responsible citizens. We need to design a ‘curriculum’, or menu of
opportunities, that the learners could use to help them to decide what
learning they need to plan, before they follow their personal
interests and learning plans. It would be unwise to delegate, for
young learners, total responsibility for their own learning, without
having first given them access to something that provides them with
suggested learning opportunities and learning expectations. It would
make sense for teachers to design this ‘curriculum’.

When the curriculum is revised/designed/developed so that it
accessible to the learner, the learner will be able to use it to help
them to plan their learning. When learners get involved in this
process they will be using the ePortfolio process. The ePortfolio
process will be integrated into their ‘curriculum’; the learner will
derive the benefits of the ePortfolio process. Personalised Learning
will be happening! Or will it?