Differentiation and Personalised Learning

[Bobby2]

Aren’t we lucky to be teachers. Every day brings so many moments to celebrate with our learners. No two days are the same as we aim to get to know and support students in the best ways we can. Teachers never cease to amaze me with the creative ways they plan their programs to cater for all of the different needs and abilities in their classes. They are constantly on the lookout for new ideas and problem solving with colleagues to ensure each student is given the best chance to learn.

By differentiating learning as much as possible teachers are able to tailor their activities to suit where each student’s abilities are at, even if these abilities differ widely from others in the class.

Then teachers go the extra mile to personalise the learning, where they can, by including the student in planning how to best meet their needs by looking at their interests, how they work, and their goals.

Teaching is a real art. To juggle differentiating and personalising while covering a crowded curriculum and dealing with the daily ups and downs of school life takes a lot of skill and creativity.

That’s where Canvas can come in and help support teachers by providing ways to differentiate and personalise. This learning environment has so much potential for teachers to tap into to assign different tasks for individuals and groups, then embedding a variety of tools and challenges.

I recently found this great read by Amber Hainline to help me get an idea of how Canvas can help with Differentiation. Differentiating Assignments (k-12) in Canvas: Helping All Learners Be Successful  Well worth a read. I’d love to hear about how people are using Canvas to support differentiation and personalised learning in classes. Do you use groups? Favourite tricks? Tips and tricks to help the daily juggle?

[laurakgibbs]

Hi  @Bobby2   ! I am just back in town (went to see my dad right after classes were over), and getting caught up. I was so glad when I saw this post and the link to Amber's blog post.

For me, the mantra is CHOICE and VOICE.

CHOICE. I design my classes based on students choosing what assignments they will do, and then within each assignment there are lots of options for students to choose from (what to read, what to write, etc.), and they also set their own schedule. I prefer to keep things simple, so I don't use things like Mastery Paths or the other things that Amber mentions as Canvas features, and that's also why I don't do groups (I just use randomizers to bring the students into contact with each other). My goal is low-to-no administrative overhead, and I can thus spend all my time giving students feedback on their work.

VOICE. This is where Canvas I think falls really short; the discussion boards are just not a really good tool for bringing out student voice in a way that is really expressive and powerful. I prefer using other spaces where students can share their ideas, like their own blogs or websites or shared spaces like Padlet etc. etc. I was hoping my students would really get into Flipgrid this semester, but that experiment was kind of a bust. I am thinking I will have to feature Flipgrid more prominently to get students to use it. That's something I am pondering this summer. 🙂

[Bobby2]

As always you speak such wisdom laurakgibbs.

I totally agree and have seen greater engagement as a result. Thanks for the reminder. 

[jacobtowne7]

For some reason I thought I was a member  @Bobby2 ‌, all sorted now. Given we are corporate and our learning is slightly different to teacher/student relationship this article struck me as something we could potentially share

• We created a personalised/individual learning platform on canvas (for our educators on the ground in our services)
• What we do is have trainers in the field conduct assessments of our educators and identify gaps in their learning
• I made a clickable spreadsheet that looks at 25 key areas of their role they should be competent in in order to be the best at their role
• for example, person A may require 6 areas of extra training to "top up" the initial learning or refresher.
• I then assess and click on service and that automatically enrols them in the 6 small courses on canvas
• We track their progress and then re-assess upon completion to see if the added refresher training helps them on service.

This type of learning helps focus on what they are good at but top up with any extra/refresh their mind with those little bits.

This is a far better method that re-doing an entire course we feel and adds to the face to face training they receive on their service. Does that make sense? 

[Bobby2]

Love it  @jacobtowne7 . Learning with adults is just the same. But we often only get one shot, or two if we are lucky, with them. 

Super idea. How long have you done it for?

[jacobtowne7]

About 4/5 months  @Bobby2 ‌ was a new idea to try and engage the learner (constant battle!) and reduce time spent on training/not overload with what they have already done.
Like anything its maintaining the follow up and ensuring they are learning not just doing a course (again constant battle!)

[Bobby2]

We are warriors  @jacobtowne7 . It's worth the battle.