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

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

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?