EDCI 338 Blog Post 1 – Personalized Learning and Social Media

My Definition of Personalized Learning

If I had to define personalized learning I would say that it is a dynamic approach to education where it adapts to fit each student’s needs, strengths, and interests, instead of treating everyone the same. It would be about moving at your own pace, setting goals that feel meaningful, and having teachers guide you while still keeping everything aligned with academic standards.

For me, an example of personalized learning was in one of my university classes where the professor gave us the option to choose the topic for our final project. Instead of everyone writing about the same case study, we could pick something connected to our own interests. I ended up focusing on a topic that tied into something that actually interested me, which made the work way more engaging and relevant. It felt like I had some authenticity over the learning process instead of just checking off an assignment box.

A reflection of a Time When Social Media Supported my Learning.

In my first year at UVIC I had a class where some students decided to create a private Instagram Dm where people could post questions, share study tips, and drop extra resources. What worked really well was how quick the feedback was. For example if I was stuck on something, I could post and usually get a response from classmates within an hour. It felt like having a study group that was always available, which made the course a lot less isolating.

The main challenge, though, was that it was still Instagram. It was so easy to get sidetracked by notifications or accidentally getting in a doom scroll session, so I sometimes lost focus. I also noticed that not everyone participated equally, which meant the group depended on a handful of active people to keep it going. Overall, it showed me that social media can be a great learning tool if you use it with some self-control and structure.