"Personalized learning has a number of levels ..." c/o MIT Technology Review
"... There's a difference between adaptive learning and personalized learning," says Chris Dede, a professor at Harvard University in the Technology, Innovation, and Education Program. Squirrel is doing adaptive learning, which is about "understanding exactly what students know and don't know."But it pays no attention to what they want to know or how they learn best. Personalized learning takes their interests and and needs into account to "orchestrate the motivation and time for each student so they are able to make progress."
MIT Technology Review
Jutta Treviranus, a professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design University who pioneered personalized learning to improve inclusivity in education, breaks it down into further. "Personalized learning has a number of levels," she says: she calls them pace, path, and destination.
If the pace of learning is personalized, students with different abilities are allowed different amounts of time to learn the same material. If the path is personalized, students might be given different motivations to reach the same objectives ("Here's why statistics is relevant to your love of baseball") and offered the material in different formats (e.g., video versus text). If the destination is personalized, students can choose, for instance, whether to learn with a vocational school or university in mind.
"We need students to understand their own learning. We need them to determine what they want to learn, and we need them to learn to learn," Treviranus says. "Squirrel AI doesn't address those things at all. It only make it more efficient to bring all of the students to the same standardized place." pp.27-28.
path destination purpose |
pace destination path process |
pace destination path practice |
pace destination path policy |
In the first instance Treviranus's three P's are located in what I feel are the most pertinent domains in bold and underlined. 'Path' is placed in the intra- interpersonal domain because as explained the learning must have meaning, sufficient to motivate the student. This might be global, sharing this domain with 'destination' as an overall goal (personal ambition - aspiration). As ever, having my cake and eating it ... what is the rationale for the secondary... occurrences? Let's take 'destination', first, in the sciences and political domains this may relate to a student's particular interest in a subject, or course of study to enter a profession at a specific university. In the sociology domain, what are the other influences on choice for the student's 'destination'?
Individual choice is a great gift but only when it can be exercised, can it stand chance of being realised. In the group context, socially and politically is the 'path' and 'destination' (truly) open? The skills of teachers and mentors are key to the secondary execution of 'path'. Knowledge of the subject, technology, and as described the student allied with the latest educational research are essential. A teacher in a subject may prove an inspiration for a student: helping to generate an educational fusion.
'Pace' was placed in the sciences domain, to denote process, sequence, time; a curriculum delivered. In an exam there is no greater enemy than lack of time, but without the facts, knowledge, and insight to answer a question, time can make a mockery of us. Our 'pace' can also be noticed by our peers, which can be positive or negative socially and personally. 'Pace', is invariably political, as the calendar flicks whether by an analogue or digital turn. Outcomes and reports ultimately count.
The 4P's which I associate with each of the model's domains are italicised at the bottom of each domain.
Karen Hao, Born in China, taught by AI. MIT Technology Review - Allow me to introduce my selves, The Youth Issue. Volume 123, Issue 1. Jan/Feb 2020. pp.24-29.
It is interesting to reflect on the State's intervention in 2021 into tutoring and EdTech companies in China since this issue was published.
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