For those of us working to stoke Personalized Learning in education, we can take heart that the personalization movement is alive and well and growing in two other fundamental segments of society: Business and Healthcare. In business, the personalization movement has arisen in almost stealth fashion to surround us. Look about and you’ll see evidence […]
Innovation Valued & Revered in Business, MIA in Education
Innovation must wonder why it is as cast as society’s bi-polar child. On the one hand it thrives in business, technology and health-care, domains to which we flock to see the latest gadgetry, invest in start-up opportunities, even volunteer to join beta-testing groups. This past week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was a perfect […]
Help Make 2014 a ‘Year of Learning Dangerously’ – and how
Memo from the “Creating Our Best Future” Dept.: As a learning innovator I see widely divergent gestures toward the nurturing of learning across education, gestures that have significant implications throughout society. And in scanning the education landscape my emotions in the past year swung from arm-pumping enthusiasm to head-shaking discouragement. With this in mind and […]
Child-Centred Learning & Planetary Health
When I ponder the question: What kind of education system will best support a future characterized by the most robust and vital learning? I find the answer in the natural world. Check out any healthy ecosystem on our planet and you’ll see life sustained by rich, robust biodiversity and complex interactivity. This diversity helps systems […]
Personalized Learning in the news for valid reasons
The first week of September means back to school for millions of kids and young adults in North America. What happens this first week will largely presage the events of students’ learning lives in the coming school year. I’m not talking about what classroom seat is chosen or whether a new math textbook is handed […]
School’s Out! Bring on the school slide(s)
Well, it’s a wrap on another school year as of a few days ago. And with the end of school about a gazillion kids are suddenly ratting around poking their noses in all kinds of places and doing all kinds of nefarious activities. I’m being facetious but the start of summer holidays also brings alarms […]
Personalized Learning III – Resource Links
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 […]
Personalized Learning II
I would like to provide some additional insights into Personalized Learning, following my last entry a couple of weeks ago. BC History: We tend to forget that here in BC we had momentum in the late 1980s (no, we didn’t have the internet, but we weren’t driving horse buggies either!) for introducing a system-wide, learner-centred […]
Interpreting the “Personalized Learning” Landscape – A Zookeeper’s Guide
On May 5th, I am giving a keynote presentation at the BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Groups (BCCPAC) Spring Conference and AGM (link here) on the theme of Personalized Learning or PL. I thought I’d take this opportunity to provide a brief overview of the PL landscape as it exists in education today. What’s most […]
It’s a DIY / MAKERS’ World! (i.e. Learn Your Way!)
Everywhere I look today I’m being drawn into a secretive, seductive world: DIY. Be a Maker. Build a Treehouse, or a pair of snow goggles, or a solar theramin (I had to look that up). Learn how to identify animal tracks in the snow, or mushrooms in your neighbourhood. Get your bike or your […]
Michael’s book, Learn Your Way! SelfDesigning the Life You Really Want, Starting Now is an ERAC-approved middle and high school textbook for career planning and health education courses (British Columbia), and it has received many endorsements. Contact Michael directly to obtain a pdf copy of the book.