What We Learnt From Flexible learning and how we apply this in Our Teaching:

Learning in the 21st century requires relevant and empowering experiences for all young AIbertans. There is a need to broaden what students learn, when rhey learn, where they learn, how they learn, and the rate at which they progress in achieving learning outcomes. Personalized learning involves the provision of high-quality and engaging learning opportunities that meet students' diverse learning needs, through flexible timing and pacing, in a range of learning environments with learning supports and services tailored to meet their needs (Alberta Education 2010, 14).
The concept of personalized learning to describe a setting in which various learning environments and technology platforms for learning are used to achieve flexible timing and pacing of instruction is described in Inspiring Action on Education (2010), Alberta Education's vision for policy directions, legislative change and transformational shifts for education in the province: (McRae, P. (2010). What does more flexible teaching and learning look like? ATA News, 45(8), 3-3. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/822914045?accountid=39660)

Flexible learning is not a new phenomenon. Students in higher education have for a long time chosen from a variety of courses, studied their textbooks in a variety of locations and times, and selected from a variety of resources in the library. Learning also takes place outside of the explicit course settings, as students interact with others or take part in events such as guest lecturers or debates or use built- in tutorials to help them learn how to use a software package. But the term flexible learning is the focus of a new wave of interest. ‘There must be more flexibility to meet the needs of the learner, through adaptability to different learner needs, learning pattern and settings, media combinations’(Van den Brande,1993:xxi).

 No flexibility option is very simple to carry out in practice .If an institution wishes to commit itself to flexible learning; it needs to make explicit choices as to which flexibility dimensions it will focus upon and what range of options will be feasible to offer within these dimensions. These dimensions include (collis, 1998b): Improving flexibility in location, programme, type of interactions, forms of communication, and study material etc.

Just as flexible learning is difficult to describe and multidimensional, it is also complex to implement it in practice from the perspective of the instructor, learner and educational institutions. Also it is very important that who wants flexible learning: full-time students, working persons or learners having little expenditure.

There are main four key components of flexible learning in higher education:  Institution, Implementation, Pedagogy, and Technology. So, defining the term flexible learning in a way that can be made concrete within of the institutional framework that will shape and steer it, implementation strategies that will make it happen, pedagogical approaches that will give it learning value and technology that serves as its tool. So, knowing about flexible learning will help me a lot in my further studies and with this approach everyone can be a learner at any stage of his age.

Flexible learning is learning with a no. of choices in terms of time, content, instructional approach, entry requirements and delivery of studying material. These are the main five dimensions of flexible learning:

The five dimensions of flexibility (Source: Collis and Moonen, 2004)

It is really very necessary to use flexible learning in our life whether we are student or lecturer because today is the time when everyone is quite busy with their schedule and we cannot make anybody fix for a particular time .So it is the necessity of the time to use the flexible approach in our life to get the best of the time. Being a Mathematics Teacher Flexible Learning has become more important to me.Before this I was of the view that in mathematics only Face -To-Face Teaching and Learning is the most effective but after studying about Flexible learning I came to know about Online, Distant and Blended Learning and How these Types of Learning can be as effective as face to face learning and even more than that. I want to use this flexible approach in my further studies and teaching.