There are several ways learners can interact when studying, and each of these ways requires a somewhat different mix of media and technology to be adapted to each learner in a personalized way. Through this chapter, the authors try to link personalization, collaboration, and adaptation in digital learning. To do so, they begin by defining digital learning after giving a historical overview of the concept. Then they define the notion of the group in learning and the place of the individual in the group. Also they describe the concept of personalization, and at the same time, they adjust the meaning of personalization in digital learning. To define the concept of collaboration, they situate the place of the individual in the group in digital learning, so they could define the notion of adaptation; and they define the role of adaptation in digital learning. Finally, they present the different interactions between the three concepts in digital learning.
TopIntroduction
Educating is developing a person's potential so that he can improve as a human being. Children attend school, adults attend training, each seeking to learn more in order to improve their skills in a field and acquire new knowledge, skills, and understanding. Education is a liberating and fantastic experience that allows us to move forward in our lives, to find happiness and security, and offers us a multitude of opportunities through new experiences. Education allows us to broaden our knowledge and understanding.
To make meaning for education, it should be personalized: we cannot learn if we do not see the usefulness of what we are learning and how that learning can be applied to our personal situation. In order for education to be useful, it should be put into practice and, for that, everyone must take full ownership of the learning process.
We cannot “provoke” education in an individual; we can only resort to strategies that will allow the learner to learn, to want training, to give it meaning and to appropriate it. The teacher accompanies the child when he discovers the world of Education. This is what the Greek root of the word “pedagogy” means: “to accompany the child “.
In order to personalize learning, the knowledge, skills, behaviors, and approaches to be acquired must be meaningful, understandable and relevant to the learner, and must motivate him to want to know more. This is not an easy task and requires strategies, dedication, careful thought, constant reassessment and attention to detail. It can be conducted with limited resources and a large number of learners.
Learning is, only “personalized”: when a learner learns with what he knows and what he is. He learns in a unique way, using his “method”; he learns because he engages himself in an activity that allows him to progress... and that is precisely why we cannot let the personalization of learning work in a completely random way. It is up to the teacher to set up situations and to propose tools so that everyone can work and progress in a personalized and demanding way at the same time. Based on the work of Sylvain Connac, we propose questions that we will answer through this chapter (Connac, 2013):
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How can we identify what is right for everyone without assigning them to reproduce what they already know how to do?
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How to “customize” without systematically “individualizing” and taking the risk of breaking up the class?
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How to combine personal work, small group work, and the group Course in a genuinely collaborative and cooperative pedagogy?
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How can a class be prepared upstream and managed on a daily basis in order to “adapt” its teaching methods?
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How do we integrate Information and Communication Technologies in our teaching/ learning and adapt them to the learners?
If heterogeneity is often recognized as a barrier, it appears here as an inescapable and indispensable resource, personalized not only being a consideration of the individual but of a person. It is, therefore, a question of taking into account the way in which each learner learns, what he or she is, what he or she needs, what he or she succeeds in, but also his or her social dimension, his or her relationship to others and to society, and his or her participation in the construction of that society.
The idea of mechanization of teaching already existed when the psychology professor B. F. Skinner created the machine for learning in the mid-1920s. Already at the time, Skinner's creation offered the learner the opportunity to get feedback based on their answers. It was, of course, limited, but this behaviorist was convinced that it was the future.
Nearly a century later, this is exactly what happens with machines that can compute millions of algorithms every second. Whether Knewton or Aleks, the market for adaptive learning is gradually growing and is beginning to interest American educational institutions. In spite of this, we must not delude ourselves. The approach is far from widespread. Therefore, there is not yet a curriculum using this approach alone.