This document discusses personalization in education. It begins by defining personalization and distinguishing it from personalization. It then explores some organizational, pedagogical, and technological issues related to personalization. Some key challenges discussed are managing increased variety from personalization within existing systems and determining where individuals and institutions can make interventions to support personalization. The document concludes by thanking the audience.

1. Unpacking Personalisation Scott Wilson and Oleg Liber Hi everyone from AoC/NILTA! I’ve added some comments in the Notes field as well so take a look

2. A bit about me

3. Objectives for the next 40 minutes Develop a shared understanding of the term personalisation Explore organisational issues Explore pedagogical issues Explore technological possibilities

5. Why Personalisation? Why now ? Because we can Smokescreen I.e. justification for something else?? Bandwagon, following the trend Someone thinks its what people want Engaging young people Something else to try Increased learner variety, fragmentation of culture, people are now more individual Inexorable logic The Americans are doing it so we must follow??

6. What is (NOT) personalised? An ipod (the music) Not - broadcast TV MySpace, YouTube Not - A newspaper (debatable) A diary This presentation Not - the curriculum and assessment Not - conference keynotes Learning

7. What is (NOT) personal? Not - Yahoo etc An opinion Students choice of course Taste and style Record collection

8. (a)Personal or (b)Personalised? Customization (for you) Pimp my education Choice (limited, informed) Choice of route not outcome The illusion of choice Giving choice (even if they don’t want it) Giving learners a voice Facilitating a sense of ownership

9. Personal or Personalised? Personalised learning content Resource-based learning, popular in 1970s Personalised system Skins, Portals Personal choice of tools Beyond browsers and email clients; phones, personal web applications Locus of control Technologically enabled person, not technologically enabled institution Personal <> Personalised

10. Personalisation Types (Fraser, 2006) Adaptive Personalisation: adaptive provision based on intelligence. Typically used in CRM. Customisation: user choice from among a set of options Dynamic Personalisation: collaborative co-creation of system, process, and outputs DfES: “ In an educational setting, personalisation means working in partnership with the learner and employer - to tailor their learning experience and pathways, according to their needs and personal objectives – in a way which delivers success.” Personalised Personal Adaptive Customisable Co-created Participative Individualised Convivial

11. More choice = less diversity?

14. Cybernetic view The whole structure and processes of an organisation - at any level of granularity - can be characterised as efforts to manage variety In the context of education systems this variety management is typically focussed on matching the variety of learners and learner needs with variety offered by the education system However, the simplest model for achieving this is not to personalise or allow customisation, but to instead mass-produce and amplify education If this is altered, the new state must also provide equivalent management of variety or be non-viable

15. amplification, attenuation Amplification: broadcast communications, documents, multicast, policies, delegation Attenuation: filters, prioritization, threshold sensors, summarized aggregations, analyses

16. self-organisation pairing, teams, peer-support, intra-organisational communities

17. Adaptation/individualisation e.g. library, parents, after-school club, wider social network, extra/inter-organisational communities

18. … and further out: the college view Strategy, development Resources provision monitoring Self-org

19. What this means… From a cybernetic viewpoint the challenge of personalization is its effect upon workload and how this can be addressed. Assuming no massive increase in resources this means an alteration in one of the other dynamics of the system

20. Where can colleges make personal(ised) interventions?

21. Course management Negotiating Learning: teacher and student commitment, requirements Coordinating students: Timetable, resources, materials, lectures, reading lists, activities, pedagogy Monitoring: Is learning happening? Is pedagogy working? Self-organised collaboration Coffee bars, IM, blogs, resource sharing,… Development: New resources? Strategies? Pedagogies?

22. Another approach To the personal experience: Individualization and Adaptation

23. Disaggregated learning Knowledge disaggregated into subjects and syllabi Organisational reasons Problems of transfer well known E.g. applications of mathematical ideas Modules and units give more options E.g. new 10-hour components But fragment further

24. … and further out: the personal view

25. Hey, its this again

26. Where can individuals make their interventions?

27. How can technology help reassemble the fragments?

28. Self management Negotiating Learning: Commitments to different activities Coordinating courses: Managing time, scheduling, resources, materials, colleagues, reading, activities, making overall sense Monitoring: Am I making progress on each course as I expected? - reflection Self-organised collaboration Finding synergy between courses, activities,building networks Development: New courses? New materials? New colleagues? Where next? PDP

29. Emerging personal systems Yahoo 360 http://uk.360.yahoo.com/ Pageflakes http://www. pageflakes .com/ Netvibes http://www. netvibes .com/ Google IG http://www. google .co. uk / ig Flock www.flock.com Elgg http://elgg.net “ Office 2.0”: http:// itredux .com/office-20/database/

30. Issues for colleges Technology Organisational Pedagogic

31. Issues for learners Technological Organisational Learning

32. Conclusions

33. Thanks! Scott. bradley . wilson @ gmail .com http://www.cetis.ac.uk/members/scott