Learning from the slopes!

I'm not a skier. I have never been skiing, until recently that is.

But as I was learning to ski (or rather learning how to pick myself up from the white stuff) lots of my time was spent thinking about my learning (on the slopes) and the things that supported my ability to learn and get going.

I'm really interested in notions of personalised learning.
Personalised learning requires personal activity and learning activities that are adaptive to the demonstrable needs of the learner. This is true in the classroom and on the slopes. Personalised learning does not throw the learner in too far at the deep end but develops the learners confidence and hence their inquisitiveness and willingness to progress. Personalised learning does not swamp the learner with feedback nor provide fedback that is inaccessible to the learner either.

All of these things were so beautifully reinforced to me as I tried to ski. Putting ourselfs in situations that make us the novice (skiing in my case) was great to see some of the things about learning relate to me.

Being a novice and thinking about learning was just great.

Always Learning - HEA Assessment and Feedback Event

Helen and I have this notion of Always Learning. It’s said with a slight tease but it reinforces the idea that everywhere you look you are presented with opportunities to learn new things.

Much of the traditional forms of learning are undertaken in lecture rooms, seminar spaces and laboratories, etc. but the informal settings provide fruitful settings for learning too. On our taxi Journey to the Higher Education Academy for an Assessment and Feedback one day Event (one of the three events organised by the Academy to support the JISC Curriculum Delivery / Curriculum Design programme, we were taxied by Gordon.

After a few passing pleasantries about weather etc., Gordon rattled off fact-after-fact about York Minster. Gordon had said that he was not interested in History in School but was just passionate about the space. Gordon was not an undergraduate, Gordon was not a postgraduate student neither he was just a guy that reminded me that learning is a lifelong endeavour and learning opportunities occur everywhere.