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Personalizing
Pedagogies
Introduction
Full Text (PDF Version)
Steven W. Gilbert, President,
The TLT Group
September, 2002; Rev. Oct. 2007
New applications of
information technology have provided a variety of choices not
only about what is taught and learned, but also about how it
is taught and learned. During
recent years, there has been much excitement about the new
opportunities to use information technology to meet the varied
needs of learners more effectively.
Individualization, learner-centeredness,
anytime/anywhere/anyone education are admirable intentions.
But there is a fascinating oversight at the center of
the movement that has individual differences among
learners as its core premise.
Why are individual differences among faculty
ignored?
Weren’t most faculty
members students earlier in their lives?
Does the aging process
effectively diminish differences among us?
Are faculty members self-selecting to such a great
extent that variety among them is negligible on most important
dimensions? I
doubt it. Consider
some of the many ways in which faculty members can be
effective teachers. It
would be absurd to expect anyone to be a highly skilled
teacher in more than a few of them.
See “Good Teachers & Good
Teaching”.
Chickering and Gamson’s Seven
Principles of Good Practice for Undergraduate Education
were derived from available research, very little of which
examines differences among faculty.
It is time to take that next step.
Many institutions have recently made commitments to
engage most of the faculty in improving teaching and learning
with technology; most
faculty members have already begun using applications of
technology in their day-to-day correspondence, research, and
course preparation; and
many faculty have also begun to use some of these tools to
enhance courses. Just
as new applications of technology have made it possible to
consider more realistically and intentionally different
learning needs, so has it become possible to enable faculty to
use their own different gifts and accomplishments more
effectively to improve teaching and learning.
In the long run, technology
can be used to achieve a deeply respected old goal in a new
way. In addition
to matching learners with teachers and learning needs with
teaching abilities, we can also use new technology options to
engage each with the other more meaningfully and with greater
mutual satisfaction. By examining and respecting differences in both groups and
finding technology applications that fit, we might achieve
better, more
cost-effective education.
This shift can be a
re-orientation, a set of modest corrections – not a
reversal or refutation of the movement toward learner- and
learning-centeredness.
Challenge (Request for Help)
Can you help identify applications
that “personalize pedagogy” by acknowledging the needs and
capabilities of all those involved?
-
Steven W. Gilbert |
