Dear Mark and Priscilla,
As an educator and a mother, I am grateful for your most recent commitment to preparing future generations through prioritizing personalized learning.
Currently, I work as a district administrator supporting teachers in an effort to move toward personalizing learning for our students. When we talk about personalizing learning, we are talking about aiming for the highest form of differentiation possible for our students that takes the whole child into account, and we are talking about the cultivation of thinking skills in our students through shifts toward more student-centered practice. We want to help students be metacognitive, and to give them ownership over the content that they are learning.
I have been following your commitment to the development of an adaptive technology for personalized learning that would allow for students to have a more tailored approach to their learning. My understanding is that it would function as a tool for teachers to utilize with students to provide formative and summative feedback with regard to student progress. Quite a few years ago I was able to see high school math students make gains using an adaptive technology with a similar concept. However, I would add that it was only with a really innovative, skilled, and flexible teacher that students were able to thrive in this environment and make gains from the technology.
I also saw students come alive through extended learning opportunities in which students could choose and design their course, and then share their learning through reflection with teachers, experts, and peers.
I write to applaud your efforts and also to ask you to consider supporting other important components of personalized learning as you move forward in this journey. Students certainly need content, and they need content at their level specific to their needs. Additionally, students deserve to have opportunities to think deeply about their learning, and to build skills that will support their curious minds continuing to be curious and doing great things. Words like choice, passion, and innovation come to mind here. Above all I would say students deserve great teachers who understand how to navigate a classroom so very different from the ones in which we were all educated. How can we further support and develop these teachers at the undergraduate level, and how can we nurture and support these teachers who are already rising to the occasion?
Thank you for your commitment to future generations.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Smith
As an educator and a mother, I am grateful for your most recent commitment to preparing future generations through prioritizing personalized learning.
Currently, I work as a district administrator supporting teachers in an effort to move toward personalizing learning for our students. When we talk about personalizing learning, we are talking about aiming for the highest form of differentiation possible for our students that takes the whole child into account, and we are talking about the cultivation of thinking skills in our students through shifts toward more student-centered practice. We want to help students be metacognitive, and to give them ownership over the content that they are learning.
I have been following your commitment to the development of an adaptive technology for personalized learning that would allow for students to have a more tailored approach to their learning. My understanding is that it would function as a tool for teachers to utilize with students to provide formative and summative feedback with regard to student progress. Quite a few years ago I was able to see high school math students make gains using an adaptive technology with a similar concept. However, I would add that it was only with a really innovative, skilled, and flexible teacher that students were able to thrive in this environment and make gains from the technology.
I also saw students come alive through extended learning opportunities in which students could choose and design their course, and then share their learning through reflection with teachers, experts, and peers.
I write to applaud your efforts and also to ask you to consider supporting other important components of personalized learning as you move forward in this journey. Students certainly need content, and they need content at their level specific to their needs. Additionally, students deserve to have opportunities to think deeply about their learning, and to build skills that will support their curious minds continuing to be curious and doing great things. Words like choice, passion, and innovation come to mind here. Above all I would say students deserve great teachers who understand how to navigate a classroom so very different from the ones in which we were all educated. How can we further support and develop these teachers at the undergraduate level, and how can we nurture and support these teachers who are already rising to the occasion?
Thank you for your commitment to future generations.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Smith