Personalized Learning
Published on Nov 18, 2015
No Description
MORE DECKS TO EXPLORE
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Personalized Learning
An Opportunity
Personalized learning platforms are both an established and emerging technology
The promise of individually tailored instruction and practice
Personalized or differentiated instruction and practice have been a holy grail of sorts in the teaching and learning community. Often touted as the key to reaching and developing the skills of all learners. The fact of existing in real time with students has made many forms of differentiation difficult, unwieldy or impossible. As well as questionable, because assessing efficacy of individual approaches is necessarily not realistic.
Personal learning platforms hold up one of the pillars of digital integration
This lead up to the idea of transformation is perhaps an audacious claim. But It sums up my feeling on the topic.
The power to transform the role of the teacher
While personalized learning undoubtedly changes the learner experience and potentially transforms the tasks and artifacts students practice... The immediate result is a radically different role for teachers who engage in the process of supporting differentiated learning with a level of control and freedom not possible with completely teacher dependent instruction and practice.
We have waited on the fullfilment of that promise as technologies try to catch up with dreams
acknowledging that the promise of transformative tools is often like chasing a rainbow...
We have an opportunity to explore this emerging field
We are in a time of rapid developement where in this emerging field we have the potential to influence both the way these tools are developed and also engage in shaping the market. Teachers have been largely consumers (often reluctantly so) of mass market curriculum. Because this is being driven by the sea-change of technology integration, established forces and markets are being disrupted. Educators impact on the direction of curriculum can be magnified by the potential precedence of "game changers".
And perhaps be part of defining what teaching and learning might be
follow up of previous slide
However Risk and Reward are a part of this evolving paradigm
We must acknowledge the reality of undertaking a new pedagogical realm. We have to be not only ready to fail, but see failure as a part of our developing understanding.
And waiting to see if this pans out also carries many inherent risks. Chiefly every year we wait to see if this fad will stick fails to leverage the benefits for a whole class.
And waiting to see if this pans out also carries many inherent risks. Chiefly every year we wait to see if this fad will stick fails to leverage the benefits for a whole class.
How can we responsibly respond to the call of this developing world?
If we choose to wait or pass then we relegate ourselves to voyeur status. Perhaps this seems safe but we can also find answers and participate in ways that explore the potential while not overreaching.
Starting points
- caution
- optimism
- investment
- exploration
Having a set of guiding principals is critical to developing a plan that will have achievable objectives.
Ultimately we want to see results and to know if those results indicate a benefit to students.
Ultimately we want to see results and to know if those results indicate a benefit to students.
Caution
There is reason to proceed carefully
Promises have been made ... and broken
research has been questionable or unintelligible or just plain beside the point...
We have often not known what to do with it... whatever it is.
research has been questionable or unintelligible or just plain beside the point...
We have often not known what to do with it... whatever it is.
Research
- The research on personalized learning is challenging to generalize from
- long range data is not available for most programs
- company provided data should be handled with skeptisism
- time to fully explore research claims should be a priority
Finding easily digestible studies on the efficacy of particular programs would require significant time investments. While piecemeal studies explore various aspects of the field; In trolling for potential research backing for this project most scholarly work was not easy to generalize or apply broadly to K-12 learning environments. This research may exist but may only be found with concerted long term effort and lots of hours to comb through multiple resources.
Most companies tout their research base, unfortunately their bottom line motivation should engender caution.
Despite the challenges due diligence should be undertaken before committing to a product to avoid embarrassment and waste.
(For EDTech 501)
This would be an excellent topic for a long format research paper but I feel it would require several weeks just to compile and sift research, which I felt was beyond the scope of this exploration of SAMR and emerging technology
Most companies tout their research base, unfortunately their bottom line motivation should engender caution.
Despite the challenges due diligence should be undertaken before committing to a product to avoid embarrassment and waste.
(For EDTech 501)
This would be an excellent topic for a long format research paper but I feel it would require several weeks just to compile and sift research, which I felt was beyond the scope of this exploration of SAMR and emerging technology
Readiness
- infrastructure
- equipment
- training
- enthuisiasm
- teacher/learner skills
While readiness can be an ongoing effort it is critical to set up the prerequisites for success.
This should be explored in depth with other processes if these elements are not in evidence.
This should be explored in depth with other processes if these elements are not in evidence.
Restraint
- realistic timelines X2
- time to work through challenges
- progressive rollout
- limited commitment
In order to properly learn from and make critical judgements about potential learning systems a restrained approach is advisable.
consider the LAUSD ipad debacle...
consider the LAUSD ipad debacle...
Optimism
There is reason to hope
In counter point to previous ideas we should not be paralyzed by the potential hazards.
transformative
- teachers' roles shift away from managing tasks
- learners proceed at differentiated, just right pacing
- tasks are engaging and meaningful to 21st century learners
- gamification of practice changes the learner/practice paradigm
In specific reference to Dr. Ruben Puentedura's SAMR model of technology's potential to impact learning...
Personalized learning systems have the potential to radically change the role of the teacher from presenter and manager to facilitator and guide as well as maximize effort where it is specifically needed. Personalized learning programs could occupy students in engaging, practical learning experiences without direct teacher supervision allowing teachers to remotely monitor practice and pinpoint support. Potentially increasing opportunities for accelerating learning for many students with shorter whole group instructional periods. Teachers could provide short mini lessons and then opportunities to apply with immediate feedback on the penetration of skills and concepts.
An in depth conversation of gamification could be explored at another time as well as looking into eliminating affective barriers to skill acquisition by removing subjective (human) corrective feedback.
Personalized learning systems have the potential to radically change the role of the teacher from presenter and manager to facilitator and guide as well as maximize effort where it is specifically needed. Personalized learning programs could occupy students in engaging, practical learning experiences without direct teacher supervision allowing teachers to remotely monitor practice and pinpoint support. Potentially increasing opportunities for accelerating learning for many students with shorter whole group instructional periods. Teachers could provide short mini lessons and then opportunities to apply with immediate feedback on the penetration of skills and concepts.
An in depth conversation of gamification could be explored at another time as well as looking into eliminating affective barriers to skill acquisition by removing subjective (human) corrective feedback.
potential
- to meet each learner where they are
- expansive ongoing automatic data
- expansive and fast content
- location independent monitored practice
The actual realization of each of these elements will have to be part of the ongoing evaluation of each program.
Investment
innovation isn't free
Time and money
perhaps most importantly the learning time of students will be impacted
perhaps most importantly the learning time of students will be impacted
exploration
- adequate platforms for exploration
- systems audits
- budget for multiple projects/failures
Without vertical integrated support, district, school and classroom and the flexibility to try and fail (in hopefully small ways) it will be impossible to make good judgements about the products.
deployment
- infrastructure
- management
- training
- communication
These elements should be developed and at least in place for the experimental environments. Trying to pilot a program with significant challenges in any of these areas would potentially confound any results of a exploratory program.
management
- leaders
- market model
- service
- review
These are next step elements to consider before developing extended rollout procedures or plans.
payment models
- freemium
- subscription: learner, school, district
- multi-year contract
- user data subscription
- fee for module
- subsidized
We must consider that the market for these systems is evolving and the implications for large future rollouts if the pilots indicate promise would be large, potentially "deal breaking". Looking into this early might avoid long term budget problems.
opportunities!
a few possibilities
Yay, here are some potential products/services. it's what I've been building up to...
Things we've tried in our district
- Renaissance Place
- Sumdog
In our district we have already had quite a bit of experience with both the accelerated learning services and STAR assessment products from Renaissance Place.
we have also tried limited deployments of Sumdag as supporting materials for struggling students.
Both are relatively "experienced" players in this field.
we have also tried limited deployments of Sumdag as supporting materials for struggling students.
Both are relatively "experienced" players in this field.
Renaissance Place
- widespread use
- broad research base, mixed findings
- inconsistent enthusiasm for full scale K-12 use
- expensive subscription per module times user, fee model
- more traditional practice (not gamified)
Since we have begun to move away from using these products in our district due to inconsistent results. a detailed discussion would be more appropriate elsewhere as the challenges to effective integration stem largely from institutional/systemic challenges.
Suffice to say that as a district we never fully committed to the personalized learning system components and so we could not definitively make a judgement. In my opinion.
There is a body of research on STAR assessments which are a component of the Accelerated Learning modules.
Suffice to say that as a district we never fully committed to the personalized learning system components and so we could not definitively make a judgement. In my opinion.
There is a body of research on STAR assessments which are a component of the Accelerated Learning modules.
Sumdog
- multiple subscription options/freemium
- some existing district users, knowledge base
- Fully Gamified, digital reward system
- uncertain ability to manange tasks/align with teacher directed curriculum
- robust multi platform delivery
Sumdog originated as an NCLB funded startup with a gamified reading program that was fun and highly engaging to struggling students and showed some promise (though I have not found detailed research to back this up).
It has since developed into a full fledged internet based program with many different grade and subject modules as well teacher management and data analysis tools.
I am in the process of evaluating this system in my classroom as they have a "freemium" model as well as an ipad app that is free. and so I can explore on my own with limited district support.
At this point the various "games" are available for free exploration for the students provided they have attained mastery of the requisite skills. This makes it fun and potentially effective free practice but may be problematic for aligning to other curricular materials. Caveat: I have not fully explored this product so I may be mistaken in this assumption.
It has since developed into a full fledged internet based program with many different grade and subject modules as well teacher management and data analysis tools.
I am in the process of evaluating this system in my classroom as they have a "freemium" model as well as an ipad app that is free. and so I can explore on my own with limited district support.
At this point the various "games" are available for free exploration for the students provided they have attained mastery of the requisite skills. This makes it fun and potentially effective free practice but may be problematic for aligning to other curricular materials. Caveat: I have not fully explored this product so I may be mistaken in this assumption.
Evolving players
- MobyMax
- Knewton
Both of these developers have expansive products.
to date I have only been able to scratch the surface of both.
Moby Max appears to be a Sumdog competitor with broad K-8 curriculum support. It also offers many feature free through a Freemium market. It may have more teacher definable characteristics than Sumdog. Which would support already adopted curriculum better.
to date I have only been able to scratch the surface of both.
Moby Max appears to be a Sumdog competitor with broad K-8 curriculum support. It also offers many feature free through a Freemium market. It may have more teacher definable characteristics than Sumdog. Which would support already adopted curriculum better.
Moby Max
- freemium/scaled subscription cost
- designed for teacher management
- data/RTI ready
- ongoing development/potential to define content
I have only briefly explored this program. Their customer support is very pleasant! I hope to get a better initial take when I can take it for a test drive with my students.
Knewton
- open content platform
- user generated content delivery
- potential to impact development/partner
- elementary tools are limited but in development
- freemium model, evolving payment structure (unknown future costs)
Knewton is a fast growing (and young?) company. I was only able to explore their platform in the most cursory fashion. They do not presently offer primary lessons so I contacted them with questions and received promising feedback that they were seeking partnerships to continue development of K-12 solutions. their model is somewhat different in that users can contribute content then have it analyzed and then integrated into their system. This could be very promising for having a system that is more user definable and works with existing materials.
smaller pieces
subject or skill specific programs
The previous systems and programs provide the potential to meet the needs of whole classes or schools. There are a multitude of more focussed products that leverage the potential of personalized learning for more discrete skill sets. An exploration of these products could also be the focus of a district initiative.
There also exists the potential to use one of many specific skill apps/programs
And we wrap up with the idea that if we are uncomfortable or not ready to tackle the more expansive programs, perhaps an exploration of more digestible products would allow us to develop effective evaluation and deployment strategies that could lead to growth/improvement of the integration of personalized learning .
Shall we..?
Perhaps a little cheeky for a district board meeting, but an important prompt to make a decision.
Tobias Holleman.
Tobias Holleman.
