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.
