Students and teachers naturally develop their personalized collection of apps, websites, and browser extensions. In our podcasts and written here and on the Web Resources for Learning site, I have spoken about developing one’s Personal Learning System (PLS) that supports this process. It is time for me to focus on how teachers develop and curate their favorite instructional tools and systems. 🙂

I plan to develop a new page in the Web Resources for Learning site that lists several categories of ways teachers interact with students and specific instructional techniques from the WR site. The next step will be to list a few tools that support each category, just as on the Personal Learning System page. The Information and Communication Literacies (ICL) approach to instruction will be a guiding theme.

And as personalization is the driver for much of our instruction, there will be a handful of apps, websites, and extensions that teachers can draw from to give their students choice and, yes, personalization in which ones they choose to use. This needs-based approach is at the center of what we do in instructional technology. Many teachers use different tools for different needs. They might use their school system Learning Management System (LMS) for specific communication, collaboration, instructional, etc. needs, while turning to Google Classroom for others. This hybrid approach comes naturally but might need to be formalized as some might not realize other areas of digital instruction can also be constructed and implemented, especially in support of blended learning.

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