It's amazing how quickly tech tools are becoming mainstream. In a year's time the changes have been exponential, hence I find myself needing to outline the "playlist" path of my journey.
Playlists are essentially independent learning paths. You think about an individual student and his/her needs, interests and passions. Then you create a playlist of games, videos, and other online/offline resources to help that child achieve an independent or collaborative learning goal. Ideally you would create the playlist with the child so he/she could learn how to create their own playlists, but at first as I learn about this I may need to do it myself.
There are many organizations willing to create the path or playlist for you today--you sign your student up and then they independently travel the path created by the organization. Then there are those platforms where teachers, parents or students create their own playlists. In a sense this is taking the menu idea and personalizing it more.
How will I navigate this path?
First, I'll sign on to a number of playlist paths including Manga High, Power my Learning and Kahn. I've already got an account on YouTube. What great sources am I missing here?
Next, I'll begin to include playlist choices on tech time online menus--the menus are listed on the class website and give students a number of links to follow and choices to make about their learning. I can easily check in via online data lists to assess, and usually use the time to coach individuals, trouble shoot or finesse the plans as students study.
After that, I'll make sure that we have many classroom discussions about learning attitudes, routines, goals and effort. I'll work with my learners to create a student-friendly, vibrant learning atmosphere that encourages independent and collaborative pursuit and life long learning skills.
Then, I'll continue to grow the system for best effect by trying out new resources and assessing students' interests and learning. I'll keep family members and colleagues informed about this work via the weekly newsletter and readily available links.
The way we "teach" children is expanding tremendously--the choices are broad, deep and numerous. The key is to choreograph the lesson, day, week, month and year so that the learning is brain-friendly, student-centered, standards-based, enjoyable and responsive with the ultimate goal to give students a strong foundation of essential skill, a tool kit of life long learning habits and attitudes, and affirmation that they have what it takes to be a happy and successful.
