Giving Compass' Take:

• The authors discuss three considerations for educators to think about to enhance personalized learning instruction in the classroom.

• What is the role of technology in personalized learning?

• Read about this personalized learning program that showed concerning results for students.

In a recent post, we shed light on the difference between blended learning—an instructional modality that describes integrating technology to deliver some content—and personalized learning—a philosophy that believes in a combination of modalities and goals for better and (and in some cases, new) outcomes for students.

Though the definition of personalized learning could encompass many modalities, there are innovative classroom design and support components outside of standard pedagogical approaches that are often missed. Here, research reveals three considerations that go beyond the curriculum to help educators make students’ personalized experiences more effective:

  • Consideration 1. Have you thought about staffing structures? One of the most valuable forms of personalization is authentic, personal relationships between students and teachers.
  • Consideration 2. Are you personalizing supports? Personalized learning will also require personalized supports and connections, since no series of 0’s and 1’s amounts to truly knowing students and their families.
  • Consideration 3. Are you thinking beyond only digitization? Personalizing learning without technology is a daunting task reserved for some of our nation’s best teachers. However, technology combined with factory-model classroom structures will not achieve personalized learning.

Read the full article about personalized learning by Thomas Arnett and Julia Freeland Fisher at Christensen Institute