Rose Luckin's blog

There is as ever much to do about the personalisation of learning through technology. This takes various different forms: it can, for example revolve around content and it can focus on the benefits or not and the personal devices that learners can use to support their learning and mobility. Of course one of the key ways in which each learner’s experience is individual and personal is through the different contexts in which they live their lives. A primary facet of this context for most school aged learners is through their interactions with their families. So are we doing enough to help families ‘make it personal’ and help each other learn effectively?

Like many of you I spend a considerable amount of time thinking about how best we might use technology to support learning. In particular of late I have returned to the thorny issue of trying to understand the role of technology with respect to theories of learning and wish to make an observation and pose a question as you head off to tuck into your Easter eggs.

It’s a sad day when the BBC Trust because of “allegations from some in the industry that Jam is damaging their interests” suspends a service that has received such a large investment.

What about the learners, teachers and parents?

There may not have been universal praise about the offerings available from BBC Jam, but at least it was available to a wide range of people and at best it was creative and exciting (see Augmented Reality).

One could debate the politics of this, but I would rather leave that to others. The key question for me has to be:
“ How do we make sure that the next portion of Jam is more appetising ”…

As part of a very enjoyable visit to the Brighton Science festival last weekend I went to a delightful talk by Ben Goldacre who writes the Bad Science column for the Guardian. You too can hear his talk on the website. As part of the talk he discussed what he described as a combat manual on ‘How to win an argument with a homeopath’. All this at a time when I was pondering on the reasons why despite over 20 years of development in technology enhanced learning we are still waiting for the revolution in formal educational practice CAL 2007 .

This got me thinking …

Personalisation through Learner Generated Contexts

Personalisation, like the term e-learning is a word that can cause confusion, and even consternation. So here is a thought about personalisation that a few colleagues and myself have been considering. It addresses the need for us to consider the evolution of learning in a technology rich environment. It also has the potential to alter the nature of knowledge, as we ‘know’ it.

What are Learner Generated Contexts?

Yes it’s a classroom nightmare that needs the ‘E’xpert treatment if the customers and staff are to be saved from disaffection and stress a la carte. The EXPERIENCE of Learning is what I am talking about here, this is the E we need to contemplate. Like Dan in I feel …overwhelmed let’s consider the physical and emotional needs of learners as well as their cognitive, meta-cognitive and reflective ones. And while we are at it let’s consider the physical and emotional needs of teachers along with their cognitive, meta-cognitive and reflective ones too. Does e-learning as most people know it do this? Sadly, all too often it does not.