Personalizing Learning: Reflective and Participatory Design for Autonomous Learning

Business in the Knowledge Society needs managers and employees who are autonomous lifelong learners,flexible and adaptable. To enable this, education in the 21st Century requires that students become active and independent learners. A key problem is how is this transition, from the relatively passive learner model that the majority of educators and students most readily recognize, to that of active learner, to be achieved? This book describes a method of enabling this transition by involving learners in a participatory design process that transforms their ability to understand their own learning - and that of others. The methodology, allied with the design and development of a personalized online environment, provides the framework, the processes and the set of outcomes that allow the student or trainee to develop into an independent and autonomous lifelong learner. The book should be of great interest to managers, educators and students alike. The emergence of social networking has made the approach even more valuable as the opportunities for sharing learning resources, matching learner types and creating effective teams have continued to increase.

Ray Webster, BA, MSc, PhD, received his PhD in Educational Research from Lancaster University and his MSc in Intelligent Systems from Brunel University. He has worked in information systems/education in several countries, including Vietnam, Malaysia and Turkey. He is currently Adjunct Associate Professor, Murdoch University, Australia.