I have spent the last five years facilitating Personalized Learning (PL) in my LEA (School District).   Personalized learning is intended to facilitate the academic success of each student by first determining the learning needs, interests, and aspirations of individual students, and then providing learning experiences that are customized—to a greater or lesser extent—for each student. To accomplish this goal, schools, teachers, guidance counselors, and other educational specialists may employ a wide variety of educational methods, from intentionally cultivating strong and trusting student-adult relationships to modifying assignments and instructional strategies in the classroom to entirely redesigning the ways in which students are grouped and taught in a school.

While personalized learning in public schools may become the object of debate, most debates tend to center on specific applications of personalized learning—such as the strategies described above—rather than on the general concept or pedagogical philosophy (which is so encompassing, multifaceted, and far-reaching that it would difficult to isolate specific arguments for or against it). That said, the idea of “personalized learning,” in whatever manifestation, does have its ardent proponents and its equally ardent critics.

In some cases, criticism and debate about personalized learning may stem, at least in part, from a fundamental misunderstanding of the strategy. For example, the idea of “individualized instruction”—creating distinct courses of study and instructional strategies for every student—was popular for a brief of time in the 1970s until educators realized that it was impractical and unfeasible to develop unique academic programs for dozens of students in a class. Personalization, personalized learning, and personalized instruction—the practice of varying instructional techniques in a classroom to effectively teach as many students as possible—is not synonymous with individualized instruction as it was defined in the 1970s. The conflation of related but distinct terms and strategies such “differentiated instruction,” “personalized instruction,” and “individualized instruction” has likely contributed to ongoing confusion and debates about personalized learning, particularly given that these distinct terms are commonly used interchangeably.

It should also be noted that online schools and educational programs promoting “personalized learning” have also become the object of criticism, debate, and controversy. Many for-profit virtual schools and online collegiate degree programs, for example, have been accused of offering low-quality educational experiences to students, exploiting students or public programs, and using the popularity of concepts such as “personalized learning” to promote programs of dubious educational value.

Personalized Learning

This Blendspace was created for the ECOM P6106 Key Assignment.

Click on Here

My Personalized Learning syllabus

Work in Progress

For the 25 years of my work life, I was in a business environment as an Human Resources manager, an office manager, a payroll coordinator and an accounts payable and receivables manager. It was not until my forties that I decided to change career paths and become a teacher. I had earned a degree in Biology and one in Studio Art.  I found out that art teachers never leave their jobs, so a Biology teacher it was. At the time, I had no idea what becoming a teacher would entail, let alone a Biology teacher.  I had to relearn Biology all over again, usually the night before the I taught it.

Over the next fourteen years with Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools (CMS),  I continued to develop my interest in the relationship between technology and its place in education. I used the latest technology in my classroom to engage the students. Even though I was successful at teaching Biology it wasn't enough. I began to search out new technology to integrate into my classroom. My students wanted to create 3-D models, paintings, movies, and books to demonstrate their mastery of the concepts found in the Common Core.  I went to countless workshops and seminars and training sessions to learn the latest technology, but it still wasn't enough,  I wanted more.

So, in the autumn of my life,  I set out on the last leg of my technology journey by changing positions to an Academy Coordinator of an AOIT and working at completing my Master’s Degree in Instructional Technology at Lesley University.

More about the Renaissance School of Arts and Technology.

Renaissance is a first year member of the National Foundation Academy (NAF), we are a school of Information Technology (AOIT) that is built around a small school, career and college ready environment. 

There is one principal, 29 teachers and 575 students (9-12). We are equally mixed, one third African American, one third Hispanic and one third White. We are a Title 1 school with 72% free and reduced lunch and 63% female. Over 70% of our students come from single parent homes, and 47% do not have a high school graduate living in the home. But what we do have is a caring faculty, a pass rate of 90% and a graduation rate of 92%.

Welcome to my blog

My name is Lori Jones and I will be posting for my ECOMP 6106 course.  First time for everything.