Listen and learn: Edtalk 
Recorded Session
Participants will be able to...
(1) communicate the Why behind the work of designing student-driven learning experiences.
(2) articulate the process or lens for How to effectively and efficiently design the scaffolding needed to support empowering learners with choice.
(3) connect their learning to one or multiple entry points identified in the session as "Eight Areas Where Personalization May Be Possible."
(4) identify generative AI tech tools and understand how those tools can enhance and/or expedite the lesson design process and implementation to make personalized learning not only possible but sustainable.
An Educational Challenge: Participants will discuss the familiar challenges that come from presenting learners with autonomy and choice (when the choice is offered without scaffolding or context preceding it). This conversation resonates with many educators, offering a point of connection but also prior learning that this approach builds upon and addresses.
Tech Tools: The generative AI tools are changing too rapidly to say definitively which specific ones will be the best to use to these ends in June. The session will share some of the latest AI tools, and at this moment, sites like Byte AI, Curipod, Diffit, and MagicSchool AI serve as the best resources at this moment. Those of course would be paired with example prompts that could be entered into a chatbot like ChatGPT, Bing, Bard, or Claude, all serving to support a specific task within an area of personalizing learning.
Models Employed: The Eight Areas for Personalizing Learning as outlined in "Empowered to Choose: A Practical Guide to Personalized Learning"
Instructional Strategies for the Session and Evidence of Success: The hour timeframe will afford a number of turn and talk/think, pair, share activities (2-4 times). These opportunities will serve as the evidence for success for participant outcomes 1 and 2. Additionally, participants will receive a digital note-catcher with hyperlinks to relevant resources. That note-catcher will also include a brainstorming section that will ask participants to make connections between the content of the session and their own work, which will provide evidence of success for participant outcomes 3 and 4.
The session opens with a brief introduction followed by a story that illustrates the problem of practice that this session will address. This signals the first think, pair, share as participants are encouraged to reflect on what choices they offer learners in their learning and where that practice can (and often does) fall short of the desired outcome(s) due to things like off-task behaviors, students selecting the easiest option, etc. This addresses Learner Outcome (1). This segment spans 8-10 minutes depending on the share aloud time.
Next, key terms are introduced, inclusive of the definition of personalized learning and how to discern personalization from differentiation and individualization. This teases out the Why behind learner-driven learning, which sets up a smooth transition to the How. That piece of information is communicated through a sample timeline that visually illustrates the general process for how to design the scaffolding necessary to ensure that a student choice opportunity achieves the intended aims. In short, the How takes place through the intentional scaffolding of the options that learners will later get to choose from. This segment takes approximately 12 minutes, at which point a second turn and talk occurs to give participants a chance to process their learning and address Learner Outcome (2).
The session then shifts to the What, where the process of designing a lesson is broken down into eight of its component parts. These eight areas where personalization may be possible offer educators space for their professional discretion on where to begin (or extend their current efforts) with this work, adjusting according to their own professional preferences, understanding of their student population (ie age, prior experiences), and content area. Think of these as entry points, and at this time, participants learn about each of the eight prior to selecting one (or more) to brainstorm for on their digital note-catcher. The act of brainstorming addresses Learner Outcome (3). This segment takes around 15-18 minutes in total.
Part four of the session presents participants with a number of generative AI tech tools that can support their efforts to design personalized learning experiences for their students. A series of 3-5 slides, presented to the group as a whole, preview the potential of each tool prior to participants having a six-minute window of time to individually access the "Empowered By AI to Choose" interactive chart located on the digital note-catcher. Each of the eight areas where personalization might be possible is provided there as a hyperlink, each to its own page with a list of generative AI prompts and AI tech tools that aid the educator (and explain how those tools can help) as they design for that specific learner choice. Having first explored those resources, participants take part in another think, pair, share where the "think" portion asks them to identify and explain in the note-catcher how the AI tools can support their work. This addresses Learner Outcome (4). Then participants share with one another, and then a handful of participants share aloud. In total, this portion takes 20 minutes.
If there's time, space for follow-up Q&A is provided. Otherwise the session winds to a close with a closing message, a book giveaway, and a mention of how to stay connected.
A complete list of the supporting research for this work is outlined in my book, "Empowered to Choose: A Practical Guide to Personalized Learning." The primary influences on this approach to personalization include Dr. Jim Rickabaugh of the National Institute for Personalized Learning and devoting fifteen years of my life to teaching, coaching, collaborating, and consulting with educators across the US in support of their efforts with this work.
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