Personalized Digital Learning - Take One (1)

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to take in a Digital Learning workshop after school hosted by the Surrey School district on Personalized/Digital Learning. So naturally, right after the workshop I went home and attempted to design a personalized Wiki project for my students to work on. I did my best to structure the assignment in a way that allowed for some basic requirements for all the students, but built in plenty of flexibility and choice for all the different learners in my class.  For example, all students were asked to complete a timeline but what type of web 2.0 tool they wanted to use was their choice, they needed to gather 10 links to websites that supported their research but again theses sites were up to them, and finally I had asked them to present their learning at the end of the project in any way they thought would best fit with their learning style. They could do a Power Point, a Prezi, an essay, a play, or create a movie.  The thing I found so interesting is that, students first reactions to this type of flexibility and choice was not excitement but rather frustration that I would not just tell them exactly what to do.  Some students just wanted a list of things to work through and hand in while others appeared to really enjoy the freedom and choice within the assignment. By the end of the project many students appeared to be very engaged and I did receive some very impressive projects, but nonetheless the majority of my class still seemed to prefer the more traditional teacher directed assignments and projects (I had the students complete a feedback sheet). It is important to remember though that this was the first attempt and this is still very much new to students and teachers, so I will keep at it and keep you posted.