In my presentation and workshop last week at the BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils spring conference, I provided the list below of Personalized Learning Resources. The list is aligned with the categories I provided in my previous two entries:

• John Holt resources [unschooling] (johnholtgws.com)
• Dr. Maurice Gibbons (selfdirectedlearning.com)
• Reggio Emilia [child-centred] – see Wikipedia entry for bkgnd and links
• Pam Proctor books I and II [child-centred] (honouringthechild.com )
• Finnish School System (see Dr. Pasi Sahlberg)
• SelfDesign Learning (selfdesign.org)
• Multiple Intelligences (Dr. Howard Gardner) – Google
• Constructivist Learning – Google
• ‘New Culture of Learning’ (book) – (newcultureoflearning.com)
• Reinventing Schools Coalition [differentiated] (reinventingschools.org)
• BC Education Plan [differentiated] (bcedplan.ca)
• Canadian Self-Regulation Initiative [differentiated] (self-regulation.ca)

What about 21st Century Learning?  is a question I was posed a couple of times. I said 21CL isn’t on my list because in 21CL I see a domination of teacher-and-school-driven curriculum served up with razzle-dazzle technology, and almost no reference to Personalized Learning. Ever. IMO 21CL is a boxed-in approach to education that remains firmly rooted in 20th and 19th century conventions to control learning. As author Peter Jarvis noted in his book, ‘Paradoxes of Learning‘, “Learning is wider than education … the reduction of human learning to the social institution of education is one of the typical features of the modern era. But all the social institutions together cannot contain learning, since learning is fundamental to human being and to life itself.”

In sum, there are many ways and means to introduce PL into learning culture, and it is a reality of much corporate training, personal coaching and the therapeutic (caring) industries. Try it, you’ll like it! And so will your students and children. 

For information on my book: Learn Your Way! SelfDesigning the Life You Really Want, Starting Now (2011) and to order a copy, go here.