Personalized learning has become more than another “buzz” word in global education. It is the standard to ensure each learner is given the tools necessary to achieve their best education. School and district leaders must not only acknowledge the power of personalized learning but take the steps needed to empower teachers to be able to make the positive changes necessary to allow personalized education to grow throughout their districts.
For some, this growth means redesigning the layout of classrooms or creating new learning centers which are personalized learning friendly. For others, it means continuing to increase in their knowledge so as a teacher they can offer individualized blended learning opportunities in their schools and districts. And, for others, it simply means understanding that being an educator is not about us, it is about each individual student.
This begs the question, “What needs to change in school systems to allow a broader, faster and smoother personalized learning implementation at scale?” Although there is no single answer which will work in every school or district, the basis of the answers are similar.
School and district leaders must look at how they can ensure all teachers have the opportunity for adequate and meaningful professional develop in the area of personalized learning. Furthermore, they must then support this training with the necessary funding to allow the needed changes in both the physical learning spaces and technological atmosphere the newly obtained knowledge from the professional development requires.
This includes examining school infrastructure to ensure that students receive the same opportunity within the school that they receive outside the school. As the United States Department of Education put forth in their 2014 publication Future Ready Schools: Building Technology Infrastructure for Learning, “Outside of school, many students enjoy technologies that give them 24/7 access to information and resources and that enable them to find, curate, and create content and connect with people all over the world to share ideas, collaborate, and learn new things.”
The time of education happening in silos has come to an end. As education moves further into the 21st-century, school and district leaders must stand with their teachers and not only continue to usher in the personalized learning movement, but ensure it grows and is accessible by every learner.
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