Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S2

S2 |
EDUCATION WEEK OCTOBER 22, 2014
n
Taking Stock of Personalized Learning > www.edweek.org/go/personalized
'Personalized Learning' Eludes Easy Definitions
A number of
education and
technology
organizations
are seeking to
forge a clearer
understanding
of what this
concept really
means
I
By
Sean
Cavanagh
n the diverse and ever-changing
world of educational technology,
the term "personalized
learning" seems to be
everywhere, though there is
not yet a shared understanding
of what it means.
Many school officials, and
companies scrambling to do business
with them, use that omnipresent
phrase to refer to efforts to tailor
lessons to students of different ability
levels-an appealing concept,
given the pressures schools face to
raise the achievement of students
coming to academic topics from very
different starting points.
Over the past few years, a number
of education and technology organizations
have sought to move beyond
generalities to forge a clearer definition
of what personalized learning
really means-in the hope that the
guidance will provide more specific
and useful information to the K-12
community.
As it stands, districts see the potential
in personalized learning to
meet the demands of a student population
that has grown more diverse,
with a wide range of academic and
language needs. And technology,
in the view of many,
offers a powerful tool for
achieving that goal. They
point to the myriad digital
devices, software, and
learning platforms offering
educators a once-unimaginable
array of options for
tailoring lessons
to students'
needs-
and
Personalized
Learning:
for collecting data on each student's
individual performance.
Yet many obstacles persist. School
leaders are struggling to strike a
balance between safeguarding sensitive
student data and being able
to collect and use such data to individualize
learning. Districts are
also facing challenges in making
their personalized learning strategies
work, and in determining how
to evaluate the true impact of those
strategies on student learning.
The challenge for schools is to
bring those elements together in a
holistic way, one that creates more
opportunities for students, said Andrew
Calkins, the deputy director
of the Next Generation Learning
Challenges, a grant competition that
encourages personalized learning,
among other goals.
"The thing to understand about
personalized learning is that it describes
a methodology, rather than
just a set of goals," said Mr. Calkins,
whose nonprofit organization, EDUCAUSE,
manages the competition.
EDUCAUSE, which promotes the
use of technology to improve education,
also has worked to create a
clearer definition of what personalLEARN
MORE
ADDITIONAL COVERAGE:
SPECIAL REPORTS:
Getting Personal
Teachers, Technology, and Tailored Instruction
Does It Work?
Join the Digital Directions LinkedIn group for a discussion about
the benefits and drawbacks of personalized learning. What are
the best uses of personalized learning in K-12 schools? How is the
approach being misused? How would you rate the educational
technology industry's performance in providing personalized
learning products and services that work well for teachers
and students?
COMMENTARY:
www.edweek.org/go/dd-linkedin
Planning for Life After High School
"Individualized learning plans" empower students to plot
a postsecondary course, whether for college or careers
People vs. 'Personalization'
Retaining the human element in the high-tech era of
education
For links to these reports and stories:
www.edweek.org/go/personalized-links
TECHNOLOGY COUNTS:
K-12 Seeks Custom Fit
Schools Test Individualized
Digital Learning
Sizing Up Blended Learning
Schools expand opportunities, confront
shortcomings
'Personal Learning Environments'
Individual personal learning environments
emerging as K-12 trend to watch
Testing Digital Tools to Improve Formative
Assessments
An Oregon high school is testing a mix of technologies
and formative assessment approaches to personalize
instruction
Arizona Leader Uses Technology
To Personalize Learning
Under Gail Pletnick's leadership, students in Dysart's
schools are learning at their own pace, only moving on
when they've fully grasped concepts
'Ocean' of Digital Data to Reshape Education,
Pearson Report Predicts
Aspirational vision of what success might look like in the
rapidly changing world of "big" educational data and
personalized learning is mapped out
ized learning means.
A core piece of that definition, in
Mr. Calkins' view, is that "the default
perspective is the student's-not the
curriculum, or the teacher," and that
schools need to adjust to accommodate
not only students' academic
strengths and weaknesses, but also
their interests, and what motivates
them to succeed.
Yet some say that too much of
what is being labeled "personalized
learning" in classrooms today misses
the mark.
Shaping the Concept
Many technology-based approaches
to personalized learning
amount to nothing more than tailoring
or personalizing the reading of
texts to students of different abilities-rather
than personalizing a
mix of activities that give students
a richer and more meaningful educational
experience, said Elliot Soloway,
a professor of computer science
at the University of Michigan who
has studied and developed digital
education tools.
"Everybody's saying they're doing
it-but we have to go one level
deeper when we say 'personalized
learning,'" Mr. Soloway said. If
schools and technology advocates
don't set higher standards for what
they mean, the movement "will not
be sustainable," he predicted. "It will
peter out."
The allure of personalized learning
is evident in the way that both the
education community, and companies
trying to do business in schools,
shape the term to suit their needs.
A perusal of the sessions at the
2014 International Society for Technology
in Education conference, the
biggest ed-tech gathering in the country,
held in June, provides a glimpse
of personalized learning's many permutations.
One
session offered school administrators
insights on "personalized
digital toolboxes." Another advised
audiences on how to use information
technology to enable "personalized
connected learning."
There was an event on "systemic
adoption of personalized learning,"
and "self-sustaining personalized
learning." There were sessions on personalized
learning for entire districts,
for kindergartners and 1st graders,
PAGE S4 >
http://www.edweek.org/go/personalized http://www.edweek.org/go/dd-linkedin http://www.edweek.org/go/dd-linkedin http://www.edweek.org/go/personalized-links

Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report

Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - SR1
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - SR2
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S1
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S2
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S3
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S4
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S5
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S6
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S7
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S8
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S9
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S10
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S11
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S12
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S13
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S14
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S15
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S16
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S17
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S18
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S19
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S20
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S21
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S22
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S23
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S24
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S25
Education Week - October 22, 2014 - Special Report - S26
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