Different learners Different abilities

Learner diversity – pedagogical design and management

Every individual intellect is different; the means of learning, the artefacts generated are different; the learning process is different. All of us would have made the very same product by the end of this course; well that’s not the case!

Reality is we are learning in different pace, in different cognitive ways and expressing it differently. We are different learners and this sheer co-existence in set-up prepares us to reality, we gain from varied perspectives and draw respect for each other.

Why is diversity in the classroom important?

Diversities are welcome. Whether workplace or school environment, people who have abilities that are different from the ‘norm’ are excellent sources to learn from. Learners with different perspectives, gain from the each other’s’ feedback and also symbols of same democracy for all.

For the diverse learner, awareness of other commonly used learning skills and their endeavor to adapt to other means of leaning is very beneficial.

For the teacher, it is a fulfilling experience that acknowledges differences, differential abilities and even glorifies differences and working towards individual goalsetting and how to reach there.

Accommodating differential learning also take learners into new places and prepare them to participate in and contribute to a more just and diverse society and world.

Needs of Indvidual with Different learning styles and diverse learners

E- learning ecologies can achieve pedagogy management far more than regular physical set-up where the challenges are catering to students of different abilities levels, interest, personalities at the same time! The flip side of having different learners in a typical class and using one size fits all material like the same book, same exercise and same expectations of answers is bound to keep some students bored or over challenged or under challenged. This can be resolved to a great extent if student interaction of work is assigned to digital media where individual instructions can be worked out before task or even modified during task depending on the response.

Technology allows metacognition for differential learners to reflect, provide specific rubrics that are indicative yet allows flexibility is possible. It allows students to work on different assignments with guided criteria; thus, learning happens for the same topic but at different pace, space and evidences.

College students working at different space and pace but within the same space.

Talking about learning styles, Multimedia technologies help students who have difficulty in understanding abstract concepts by adding sound and visuals. Integrating technology enable delivering content to students with varied learning styles. While using material, the teachers can be mindful of the pedagogy in practice and use materials, image, language, examples that match background of students, so that they make sense of it.

Differentiated instructions and assignments

More on differential learning especially with digital environment

A teacher can differentiate by modifying:

-how they teach (process);
-what they teach (content);
-the product (evidence of learning); and
-the learning environment.

Recently, I had assigned projects on the topic of Solar system and students were given choice to pick up levels and choose the mode. Some made quizzes, some created PPT, some audio recordings some poems and some also made role-plays. The learners were different and assessing them against one template was not quite right. The advantage of asynchronous learning for differential learners is a boon as teachers can cater to each child specifically and work around his/her strength.

Thus e- environment can nurture Metacognition for diverse learners because the digital space does allow us to tailor make learning experiences and instructions.

The following are some popular platforms that not only caters to differential earning, diversified learners, it also integrates, customizes instructions, give right feedback and tracking progress - technology to manage desired pedagogy within learning diversities.Nearpod- Allows teacher to conduct a digital online class an monitor every child’s page and give feedback

• Blendspace allows differentiated instructions and by creating digital interactive lessons by integrating resources.
• Add picture
• Corespring is an assessment database
• Educreations is a unique lesson-creation tool for educators, works across platforms
• Flipgrid- sharing videos, creating social like environment, getting feedback.
• eSpark enables personalized content and tracking, especially for lower grades.

Content Differentiation: As every child or student is connected through e-mail relationship, the content that goes across can be made to suit the learner and so will be the assignments, assessments and feedback. Today we have so many ready-to -use and content and platforms that integrate them..

Learning instruction differentiation: Nearpod and Hapara provides near workflow or learning environment tools. Nearpod gives teachers the opurtunity to toggle between students in a class and provide individual instruction in 1:1 learning environment.

Using Technologies to Build cultures together in Multicultural classrooms -Dr. James. Hollenbeck Ph. D. Indiana University Southeast New Albany, IN Darina Hollenbeck, M.A. Jeffersonville High School, Jeffersonville, IN.

My two pence- Diversities is here to stay and it has been a dream for educators to make it meaningful experience for every active knowledge maker through varying multi-modalities and have  personalized learning goals. I am sure technology enabled environment can help us do so much more, however, the joy of a physical environment with real time peers and teachers of that of social constructivism pedagogy is something hard to achieve. The larger benefit of a possibility of achieving and managing pedagogy among diverse learners is a possibility only with technology.

Citations and reference:

1.Framework for e-learning Contents Evaluation Project-A position paper - The pedagogical design of technology enhanced collaborative learning; Minna Lakkala; Centre for Research on Networked Learning and Knowledge Building;Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki

2. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2014-09-16-opinion-how-software-can-make-a-differentiated-difference

3. Learning by design- Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2013). Towards a new learning : the Scholar social knowledge workspace,in theory and practice. E-Learning and Digital Media, 10(4), 332-356.495

4.https://newlearningonline.com/_uploads/7_van_Haren_ELEA_7_3_web.pdf

5. Enriching Online Education through Differentiated Learning-Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2016). New media and productive diversity in learning. In S. Barsch, & S. Glutsch, Diversity in der LehrerInnenbildung.Münster, Germany: Waxman

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcpwEoW1uY8 -what is pedagogy by Satchel.

7.https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/diversity-in-the-classroom

8.https://www.pearsoned.com/designing-pedagogy-in-the-reality-of-learner-diversity/

9.Using Technology to Bridge the Cultures Together in the Multicultural Classroom-Dr. James. Hollenbeck Ph. D.Indiana University Southeast New Albany, IN and Darina Hollenbeck, M.A Jeffersonville High

10.Enriching Online Education through Differentiated Learning
Montebello, Matthew; Pinheiro, Petrilson; Cope, Bill; Kalantzis, Mary; Haniya,
Samaa; Tzirides, Anastasia Olga; Amina, Tabassum and Searsmith, Duane.
University of Illinois, USA.

Enriching Online education through differential learning