Personalized Learning Technology Scenarios

Personalized learning is defined as “the tailoring of pedagogy, curriculum and learning environments to meet the needs and aspirations of individual learners.” The adoption of personalized learning is gaining momentum as educators and administrative leaders believe that the change from the current teacher centered pedagogy, to a student centered approach, will improve student engagement and by extension, student outcomes.

One of biggest challenges in implementing a truly personalized learning program is the fundamental change in teaching practice that is required. As discussed in my previous post, planning, strong leadership and excellence in program delivery are required for this transformative initiative to be successful.

Personalized learning requires that students have a device (PC, tablet, mobile phone, etc…) to access the digital content and resources. Whether access to a device is afforded by the institution or students bringing their own devices to campus in a “bring your own device (BYOD)” model, providing secure access to the network and management of the device are critical. The five scenarios below provide a high level overview of the typical technology provisioning model institutions will follow in supporting the implementation of a personalized learning initiative. In each scenario, the situation is explained and specific challenges are enumerated regarding device access and management.

Subsequent postings will go into detail regarding reference architectures, technology options and services to enable secure device access to the institution’s network and device management options to ensure device configuration is kept current.

The five scenarios are as follows:

1. The Greenfield

The Situation: The college, university or school district has deployed desktop machines in its computer labs but has not yet created a mobile learning environment. This may be a new school, or IT might simply be waiting for technologies to mature before adopting a mobile technology strategy.

The Challenge: The administration wants to give students mobile devices that its curriculum officials have recommended and that the IT department can easily manage.

2. Adding PC Devices (Windows, Mac OS) Computers to Existing Mobile Devices

The Situation: The college, university or school district has purchased iPads or Android based tablets for student use, or it is allowing individuals to use their personal devices on the institution’s network. Administrators/IT want to add PC based devices to the mix, but they need a solution that will allow IT to easily manage all devices.

The Challenge: The existing collection of consumer-oriented devices is difficult to manage. For example, each time the IT department needs to distribute a new application to multiple devices, IT must buy the software through the appropriate app store. Since those stores make no provisions for volume purchases, IT must give each student a voucher to download the application individually. IT has no control of these downloads and no way to confirm whether students have completed them successfully — or used the vouchers to buy something else entirely.

Because there is no enterprise-level management capability, securing the mobile devices is a challenge. Also, because each device can support only one user profile and login, sharing devices among students is difficult.

3. One Device Per Student

The Situation: The institution has provided each student with his or her own device to support a blended or personalized learning initiative.

The Challenge: Institutions in this scenario face the same range of challenges as schools in scenario 2. The devices are difficult to manage, users must download applications individually from an app store, the institution can’t control or confirm those downloads, the institution lacks the enterprise management capability to properly secure the mobile devices and devices are not easily shared among students.

4. One Device Per Many Students

The Situation: The school has purchased a limited number of mobile devices to be shared by all of its students. The school utilizes a homeroom model or a cart model for device deployment during the school day.

The Challenge: Schools in this scenario face many of the same challenges as in scenarios 2 and 3. The devices are difficult to manage, users must download applications for non- Windows devices individually from an app store, the school can’t control or confirm those downloads, the school lacks the enterprise management capability to properly secure the mobile devices and devices are not easily shared among students. Institutions in this situation face other challenges as well. When students share devices, it is extremely difficult to manage their progress. For example, if Student A is working on Chapter 3 of a program and Student B is working on Chapter 6, the next time Student A receives a tablet and starts work on the program, the software might automatically jump to Chapter 6, causing confusion. Also, when a student enters personal information on a device, there is no way to wipe that information before the device passes into another student’s hands.

5. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

The Situation: The institution allows students, faculty and staff to bring personally-owned devices to campus. Users connect these devices to the campus network to access resources, applications and systems that the institution owns.

The Challenge: The large variety of devices and OSs present on campus creates a challenge for an IT department that needs to give users secure access to the enterprise network and resources. The IT department must implement basic password protection on each privately owned end-user device. IT needs a simple, consolidated method for distributing in-house applications, as well as purchased applications, to all devices.

IT must do this without relying on app stores, which don’t allow for volume purchases and downloads. The IT department must be able to distribute software licenses to end users and harvest unused licenses for reuse. If a user’s device is lost or stolen, IT must be able to remotely wipe all enterprise-owned software and data from that asset. In addition, IT must ensure that the student’s personal device — which becomes an institution resource in a BYOD context — is not being used to access inappropriate content.

The numerous technology scenarios can make the implementation of a personalized learning initiative seem daunting. To distill some clarity within all this complexity, institutions must take a step-wise logical approach to break the problem into addressable chunks. The technology discussion in this step-by-step progression should never be at the front-end of the process. Technology must not drive decisions. Technology is a tool that is put in place to support the goals of the program, not drive the direction of the program.

State of Technology in Education

State of Technology in Education

What is the role of technology in education? Does the integration of technology, through initiatives like blended learning programs, into the everyday teaching and learning practice consistently improve education outcomes?

This all important question has been chronicled broadly and furiously debated. Viewpoints vary widely with numerous published reports detailing the introduction of technology into the education environment and its impact on learning outcomes.

The conclusion: The data is all over the board!

There have been several stories published that support the correlation of improved test scores and increased graduation rates to the introduction of technology into the learning environment, while other reports telling the story of programs that had a negligible effect on these key metrics. Additional headline grabbing articles in the press told of multi-million dollar investments in technology, mostly for one-to-one programs, that endured challenges and fell flat (here and here).

The programs that haven’t made the grade share a common set of hurdles that can often be attributed to one or more of the following shortcomings:

1. An incomplete strategy
2. Poor stakeholder buy-in, and
3. Overall poor execution

The corollary is that the programs that did have a measurable impact were:

1. Sound in strategy
2. Gained system wide buy-in, and
3. Benefited from excellent planning and strong execution

Benefiting from the application of the learnings provided by the early one-to-one learning programs and with the improvement opportunities the passing of time has allowed, the education industry has progressed up the overall blended learning maturity curve. As a result, select examples (here and here) of recent one blended learning initiatives, have improved. But we are still not uniformly where we need to be.

A meaningful conclusion can be drawn from the decidedly different outcomes the programs referenced above achieved. In the successful programs, educators used technology as a tool as a component of broad initiative to enable the blended learning approach. They didn't just port their content online and continue teaching as they've always done. They fundamentally changed the method of teaching, their learning practice, to afford each student a more personalized learning experience. By integrating technology into the overall learning experience, it has allowed students to self-determine the pace, place and have flexibility when they learn so they can achieve and demonstrate mastery of academic standards on their schedule. The blunt force application of technology without changing the teaching and learning practice can’t paper over, or create a fast track to achieving the desired, or using a more appropriate word, needed outcomes.

Unfortunately, much of spend in education that has been directed at classroom technology in the past didn't always involve changing the practice. It was put into the environment and often just used as a different medium to teach the same as was done in the past. For example, interactive white boards were being placed in classrooms en masse 5 to 10 years ago, but most often they just ended up replacing the old chalkboard instead of encouraging student engagement. Early laptop programs, where machines were put into student’s hands with the hope of improving collaboration and blended learning experience, often ended up being used as expensive digital readers for e-textbooks. The chart below, provided below by the Cato Institute, highlights the historic disconnect between the hope of technology in classrooms driving improved outcomes and reality of technology usage without an accompanying change in learning practice. As can be seen in Figure 1, total spend on a student throughout his or her K-12 education has nearly tripled (adjusted for inflation), up 288%, from 1970 to 2010 as standardized test scores were flat for reading and math and actually marginally lower when it comes to science scores.

Figure 1. Trends in American Public Schooling Since 1970. http://www.cato.org/blog/new-naep-scores-extend-dismal-trend-us-education-productivity

The U.S. education system needs to produce productive 21^st century citizens who are college and career ready as well as technologically proficient. To accomplish this goal, a holistic approach to planning and implementation needs to be followed.  A recommended framework to help guide educators and administrators plan for the adoption of blended learning programs is listed below:

Solicit inputs, in a public forum, from all stakeholders (students, teachers, administrators, community, IT) regarding expectation and concerns regarding the implementation of a blended learning program. Talk about the vision and objectives and the role of each participant.Formulate a strategic plan that captures the specific objectives of the program and the framework to achieve those objectives.

1. Socialize the plan to all stakeholders. Be open to change and adjustments based on further input.
2.  Identify the overall program leader who has decision making authority to assign the resources to be successful. Recruit a champion or leader from each stakeholder group to be part of the leadership team.
3.  Identify and establish targets for key metrics that will be used to measure success.
4.  Don’t be afraid to make some mid-course corrections. If something isn’t working and a better path is identified, gather consensus and make the change
5.  Over communicate status, issues, concerns to all stakeholders. This is a system change and everyone needs to have access to information, and a path to provide inputs, so they are continually engaged.
6.  Form communities to help leverage the experience and work of others. Community types may include:
• A network of educational institutions that share common goals,
• Educator communities to share best practices, digital resources, learning objects
• Student communities to share resources, peer reviews, discussion forums
• Parent communities to share thoughts and ideas
• Any other stakeholder group where communication and sharing will help!

The tremendous amount effort required and the numbers of challenges that will be faced are difficult to enumerate as institutions embark down the path of enabling a truly blended learning environment. The evolution requires exceptionally visionary leaders, dedicated educators and technology partners who understand that to engage today’s learners and to capture the possibilities that technology promises they must follow a new path, a path that puts students at the center of the learning process and embraces personalized learning.

Hello -- Welcome to my blog. Hopefully you  intended to land here and will find the thoughts and information posted here insightful and relevant to the work you're planning or already have under way!

My goal is to use this space to share my thoughts, perspectives and recommendations on not only the role of technology in education, but also a deep dive into the actual technology options available to thought leaders in education. One of the most important aspects to any technology strategy is to take into account the needs and concerns from all stakeholders involved in the process including students, educators, administrators, community and education IT.

Before I dive into a specific topic in this first blog post, I would like to share some background on myself. First, I am a huge believer in the power of technology. The caveat around technology is that for it to be able to deliver on its promise, it can’t be implemented in isolation. Technology is a key piece of the puzzle needed to help people reach their potential, but it must be complemented with thoughtful planning, a clear strategy, organizational alignment and focused execution.

I have been immersed in the technology industry for over 20 years. My last 10 years were spent at a large technology company where I held various senior level positions focused on leading programs focused on solving customer problems. I enjoy sitting down and working with customers to work through their concerns, issues and priorities to identify the strategy needed to help them reach their goals. With this blog I intend to continue that discussion and share the knowledge and best practices that I’ve gained through my experiences.

There are several topics I’ve lined up to cover in future blog posts including:

• State of technology in education

• Personalized/Individualized learning

• The hurdles of bringing technology into education

• Review of the learning platform landscape

• Digital Content

• Bring your own device / 1:1 technology initiatives

• … future topics are in the works

So, welcome to the “Views on Education Technology” blog and please feel free to provide constructive input or post questions. This, as with any important initiative, will work best when we can share ideas, best practices, and learn from community input.