Personalized learning is one of the buzzwords commonly heard thrown about in educational circles today. A recent issue of School Administrator (the journal of AASA) is focused on personalized learning . The Oregon (WI) School District has some good resources and belief statements that discuss how they are working to personalize learning on a district level. Inevitable is a blog that deals with the need to change, according to their site, from mass production (an industrial age process) to mass customization (an information age process). Tied to this is the need to really reconsider grouping students by age. A chapter specifically addressing transformational technologies is included (http://www.masscustomizedlearning.com/docs/InevitableChapter2.pdf). Vermont’s Agency of Education provides personalized learning plan resources for districts as well. According to Salman Khan, “ The strict grouping of students by age provides yet another axis along which education could be sliced up” and compartmentalized. Maybe the fact that parents, teacher and students are so upset with standardized testing isn’t simply the “testing” part of the equation. We need to review the how and when we are teaching. In this case, thinking outside the box may mean outside of the traditional boxy classroom.
