Using One Tool to Support Personalized Learning
Hey Coach,
I’m overwhelmed by all the tech tool options out there! How can I use one tool in different ways to personalize learning for my students?
Sincerely,
One Tool Wonder
Dear One Tool Wonder,
I hear you! The amount of edtech resources available to us is staggering! It can definitely be overwhelming. But can we use just one tool to personalize learning and make the classroom more engaging and empowering for students? I believe so.
Before we dive in, let’s talk a bit about personalized learning. If the whole concept is relatively new to you, be sure to check out our post entitled A Deeper Understanding of Personalized Learning. When it comes to personalized learning, it’s not just students choosing a path; it’s them blazing one. It’s not just allowing them to choose from several tools; it’s students knowing what information they need to communicate and finding the best way to share it. It’s not just students being responsible; it’s them setting goals and having a voice in their own learning. With personalized learning, students aren’t limited to a certain time, place, or path; instead they have discovered how to see possibilities within their learning.
With this in mind, let's look through the lens of one popular tool option and see how it can be used to create personalized learning experiences. Seesaw is a powerful (and free!) tool available to teachers, regardless of whether their schools have purchased premium access or not. Take a look at this graphic to see how this one tool allows for several possibilities for personalized learning.
I hope you can see that it’s not just about the tool. Though I selected Seesaw to illustrate my point, I could demonstrate this same concept with Flipgrid, Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, or your school’s learning management system -- any resource that is robust enough to support personalized learning. I encourage you to look at all the capabilities of a tool and select one that will provide you with a variety of possibilities for personalization throughout the year. It's our job to help kids understand the possibilities of how they can use a tool. Then, it's just a matter of setting them free to personalize for themselves and take responsibility for their own learning.
All the best,
Coach
