Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Personalized Learning for North Reading Students

One of the proudest achievements for our district this year is our status as a catalyst district in the Massachusetts Personalized Learning Edtech (MAPLE) Consortium.  According to the MAPLE website, “MAPLE is a public-private partnership between the LearnLaunch Institute and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to catalyze personalized learning in the Commonwealth with the purpose of better preparing students for their future” whose vision is “to catalyze personalized learning enabled by technology in K-12 public education.”

The concept of personalized learning is not new but it is emerging as a trend in education due to several factors.  The students we meet in today’s classrooms need to be engaged and the learning needs to be relevant in order for them to transfer the knowledge beyond the classroom and to apply it to the real world situations that await them in the future.  The industrial model of education, where one-size-fits-all, is no longer appropriate for today’s learner.  With increased access to technology students can learn in self-paced, personalized spaces and at times that are conducive to the most productive learning.  

The MAPLE Consortium’s mission is to “energize solutions to ensure student access to personalized learning throughout public education in the Commonwealth. By building public will and connecting schools with necessary resources – professional learning, digital tools, funding strategies, and a rich evidence base – innovative models of teaching and learning will scale and student engagement and achievement will improve.”

Our administrative team has also participated in sharing activities with many districts to learn from one another.   These conversations have allowed us to reflect on our readiness to implement personalized learning and how to measure the success of our initiatives across the district.

As we look toward our 1:1 initiative beginning in the Fall of 2017 for our students entering grade seven we have placed the support system in the hands of our digital learning team.  This team, led by our Digital Learning Director, Dr. Daniel Downs, includes a digital learning specialist at each school (shared for middle/high) and also K-12 district-wide positions.  This team has led our 7th grade teachers in a full-year of professional development centered around the essential question, “What are the opportunities for improving instruction that are made possible through the 1:1 initiative for our students?”  We are also focused on the ways in which we can measure student learning outcomes and the benefits of going 1:1.

It is important to note that technology alone will not bring about increased student learning opportunities without the further alignment of student needs and instructional methods.  Our essential question has allowed us to focus on a vision for the classroom that represents a change from the status quo.  Flexibility is the key in terms of the space, time, place, and the mode of the learning.  As a district we are very excited to continue to explore the concept of personalized learning and to more fully realize the potential benefits for our students.