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.