leading, implementing, and sustaining innovations in personalized learning

Leading, Implementing, and Sustaining Innovations in

Personalized Learning

Tim Hudson, PhDVice President of Learning

@DocHudsonMath

Supporting the collaborative development of effective personalized learning models: Ideas that help leaders create and sustain innovations that benefit students, teachers, parents, and school culture.• Mission and Vision: What are our schools and programs “in

business” to accomplish?• Effort with Impact: How can data drive ongoing

improvement in student achievement and personalized learning models?

• Pedagogy and Technology: When does technology appropriately support personalized learning in pedagogically sound ways?

Is your school or district implementingpersonalized learning?


differentiated instruction?


differentiated instruction?blended learning?



competency-based learning?



competency-based learning?WHY?

• We are personalizing learning in order to ________________________________.

• Differentiated instruction will ensure that ________________________________.

• Blended learning is our model for guaranteeing ___________________________.

• Competency-based learning helps us achieve ____________________________.

Is Our Mission Clear?

Leading, Implementing, & Sustaining Personalized Learning

requires a clear and consistent commitment to Mission & Vision

• “Not schooling by habit or impulse.”

• “Without a commitment to mission, we don’t really have a school; we just have a home for freelance tutors of subjects.”

Plan Schooling Backwards

p. 11, 25, Wiggins & McTighe, © 2007

“Our mission is to ensure success for all our students. We will do whatever it takes to ensure

their success –

Schooling by Habit?

Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work, ©2008, DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, pp. 114-115

“Our mission is to ensure success for all our students. We will do whatever it takes to ensure

their success – provided we don’t have to change the schedule,

modify any of our existing practices, or adopt any new practices.”

Schooling by Habit?

Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work, ©2008, DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, pp. 114-115

The Mission of the Parkway School District isto ensure all students are

capable, curious, and confident learnerswho understand and respond to the

challenges of an ever-changing world.


Aspects of Personalized

Learning & Schooling




Competency-Based Learning


“People must learn to recognize when they understand and when they need more information…[People] learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitor their progress in achieving them… Transfer can be improved by helping students become more aware of themselves as learners who actively monitor their learning…”

How People Learn, p. 12, 18, 67



Differentiated Instruction







“…the contemporary view of learning is that people construct new knowledge and understandings based on what they already know and believe… A critical feature of effective teaching is that it elicits… pre-existing understanding of the subject matter to be taught and provides opportunities to build on – or challenge – the initial understanding… [A person’s] initial conceptions then provide the foundation on which the more formal understanding of the subject matter is built.”

How People Learn, p. 10, 13-15, 19



Blended Learning




Blended Learning

“…pay close attention to the individual progress of each [person] and devise tasks that are appropriate…Present [learners] with ‘just manageable difficulties’ – that is, challenging enough to maintain engagement, but not so difficult as to lead to discouragement.”

How People Learn, p. 24





Blended Learning






Staffing

Scheduling, Materials, TechnologyBlended Learning



Leading, Implementing, & Sustaining Personalized Learning requires flexibility, creativity and innovation to achieve the Mission

“A looming question is whether personalized learning that works in, say, a tight-knit, mission-driven charter school can be reliably translated into traditional district schools with many more students, less flexible schedules, keener

standardized-test worries and cultures steeped in established ways of teaching and learning.”

Summit Model & Basecamp Platform Pilots

C. Berdick, Tipping point: Can Summit put personalized learning over the top? www.hechingerreport.org © 2017


Mission-Driven

Standardized Test Worries

Culture of Teaching & Learning

Tight-knit

Less Flexible Schedule

“Traditional district schools with many

more students”

The only prerequisites for would-be Basecamp schools are:1. Commitment to Summit’s grading policy

• 30 percent of grades on mastery of content; students take tests only when they feel ready and, if they fail, can re-take them until they pass

• 70 percent of grades on students’ use of various cognitive skills, such as making inferences and clearly communicating their ideas

2. One-to-one ratio of computers to students3. Team of at least four teachers covering the core academic subjects for about

100 students




Summit’s Grading & Testing System

At least 4 core teachers for every 100 students

1:1 ratio of students to computers

Summit Basecamp Personalized Learning Pilot Requirements


Basecamp schools are creative with scheduling, finding myriad ways to fit in personalized-learning time, mentoring

and projects while carving out extra time for teachers to plan lessons jointly and confer about students.







Summit Basecamp Personalized Learning Pilots’ Creativity

Creative Scheduling

Teacher Time for Planning & Conferring






Creative Scheduling

Teacher Time for Planning & ConferringWhat about the

Learning?






Creative Scheduling


Learning Lives Here

And Here

FLIPPED-CLASSROOM ENRICHED-VIRTUAL

Graphic from H. Staker, M. Horn, Classifying K-12 Blended Learning, © 2012


What is happening with the teacher?



What is happening with the teacher?What is happening on the computers?



Blending is a means to what ends?

What is happening with the teacher?What is happening on the computers?



requires a clear definition and shared understanding of what

“Personalized Learning” means

Today’s Lesson: Fraction Operations

I haven’t learned anything new all year. This math class is boring.

This is way too hard. It doesn’t make sense.

I give up!This math class is just right for me – not too hard, not too

easy.


Today’s Lesson: Fraction OperationsWhy?

Today’s Lesson: Fraction OperationsWhy?

Because these students were all born during the same 12-month window about 11 years ago.

Seat-time policies, pacing calendars, standardized testing schedules, age-

based classrooms and weak competency-based tools make it difficult for me to personalize and

differentiate.

Student 1 in DreamBox Student 2 in

DreamBox

The Pacing Calendar (Fraction Operations)

is Here

Student 1 in DreamBox Student 2 in

DreamBox

Personalized Schooling


Industrial Schooling

Industrial Learning

Personalized (Relational)

Impersonal (Industrial)



Industrial Schooling

Industrial Learning



SchoolingStructures

fromAdults


Empowering Learning Experiences, Critical Thinking,

Creativity, Exploration.Students “Think & Do” using

Their Own Intuitive Ideas

School Policies & Structures are Designed for Efficiency,

Economy & Scale.Fixed Schedule, Location,

Path & PaceAge-Based Pacing Calendars

Traditional Lesson Paradigm of Mass Instruction

Teach, Practice, TestStudents “Sit & Get” the

Teacher’s Ideas



SchoolingStructures

fromAdults

School Policies & Structures are Designed for Students as

Unique Individuals.Strategic & Varied Schedules,

Locations, Paths & Paces





Industrial Learning



SchoolingStructures

fromAdults


Math is boring. Every math class is the same: Lecture,

practice, lecture, practice, quiz, test. It’s

not engaging, or authentic.

I know how to win at school. I just wait for

the teacher to show me how to solve familiar

problems.

I feel like it makes sense when my teacher shows it in class, but I’m lost when

I get home.

What are students doing in this lesson?

Is it personalized?If so, how?








Industrial Learning



SchoolingStructures

fromAdults

School Policies & Structures are

Designed for Students as

Unique Individuals.Strategic &

Varied Schedules,


Personalized

LearningSchool Policies & Structures are

Designed for Efficiency, Economy &

Scale.Fixed Schedule,

Location, Path & PaceAge-Based

Pacing Calendars

Industrial Learning



LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults








Industrial Learning



LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults









Teach, Practice, TestStudents “Sit & Get” Someone Else’s Ideas (Rote Knowledge)



LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults




Varied Schedules,


Empowering Learning

Experiences, Critical Thinking,

Creativity, Exploration.

Students “Think & Do” using Their Own

Intuitive IdeasSchool Policies & Structures are




Pacing Calendars

Traditional Lesson

Paradigm of Mass InstructionTeach, Practice,

TestStudents “Sit & Get” Someone

Else’s Ideas (Rote

Knowledge)



LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults

What are you ready to learn?

What do you think about it?

When were you born?

What did someone else

tell you to think?



LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults


What do you think about

it?When were you

born?

What did someone else tell you to think?



LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults


What do you think about it?

When were you born?

What did someone else

tell you to think?



LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults

Learning is not accomplished by putting thoughts into a mind, but rather by empowering a mind to

generate thoughts.- T. Hudson

Leading, Implementing, & Sustaining Personalized Learning requires a commitment to sound pedagogy both with and without

technology














LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults












BlendedBlended



LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults












BlendedBlended

Is there an app for

this?

Is there an app for

this?

Is there an app for

this?

Is there an app for

this?Personalized (Relational)


LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults

“True virtual manipulatives allow more than simply a viewing of objects on the computer screen. They allow increased engagement, forcing the user to interact with dynamic objects. Through this interaction students

have opportunities to make meaning and see relationships as a result of their own actions. And it is

this interactive engagement with a dynamic representation that is the key to the knowledge

construction process.”

From Virtual Manipulatives In The K-12 Classroom, Moyer, Bolyard, Spikell, 2002

Back at Summit Denali… the goal of personalized-learning time is not to replace teacher-student interactions but to enhance them.

By offloading some rote learning to a computer — such as memorizing the steps of cell division or the formulas for sine,

cosine and tangent — “we can make the most of the connections between teachers and kids,” he said. “We want more of those

interactions to be about big ideas, deeper learning and the sort of feedback that you can only get from a real, live adult.”



• the use of memory usually with little intelligence• mechanical or unthinking routine or repetition

Rote Learning Defined (Merriam Webster)

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rote




Varied Schedules,


Empowering Learning








Pacing Calendars

Traditional Lesson




Knowledge)

BlendedBlended



LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults




Varied Schedules,


Empowering Learning








Pacing Calendars

Traditional Lesson




Knowledge)

BlendedBlended

Summit Basecamp Platform



LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults












BlendedBlended

Summit Basecamp Platform

Summit computer

use



LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults

Teachers: Big Ideas, Deeper Learning, Feedback


Summit Basecamp Personalized Learning

Model


Teachers: Big Ideas, Deeper Learning, FeedbackComputers: Rote learning



Model


Blending to enhance teacher-student interactions

Teachers: Big Ideas, Deeper Learning, FeedbackComputers: Rote learning



Model






Summit Basecamp Personalized Learning Model

Creative Scheduling


Big IdeasDeeper Learning, Feedback, Rote Learning

“Technology–enabled innovations have a different problem… those that provide online content and learning materials, use basic pedagogy – most often in the form of introducing concepts by video instruction and following up with a series of progression exercises and tests. Other digital innovations are simply tools that allow teachers to do the same age-old practices but in a digital format.” (p. 25)

Fullan & Donnelly on Digital Pedagogy

Fullan & Donnelly, Alive in the Swamp: Assessing Digital Innovations in Education, © July 2013, www.nesta.org/uk

Most Schools Aren’t

Changing This

Ed-Tech is

Digitizing This





Pacing Calendars

Traditional Lesson


TestStudents “Sit &

Get” the Teacher’s Ideas


LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults


BlendedBlended

Most Schools Aren’t Changing This

Ed-Tech is Digitizing This






Teacher’s Ideas


LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults


BlendedBlended

Most Schools Aren’t Changing This

Ed-Tech isDigitizing This






Teacher’s Ideas


LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults


BlendedBlended

Most Schools Aren’t

Changing This

Ed-Tech isDigitizing

ThisSchool Policies & Structures are




Pacing Calendars

Traditional Lesson


TestStudents “Sit &

Get” the Teacher’s Ideas


LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults


BlendedBlended


requires ongoing data-driven improvement


Elements of Data-Driven Schooling & Learning

Teachers Planning & Conferring

Data about Student Performance

Data about Student Learning & Progress

Scheduling Teachers Planning & Conferring

Teacher Fluency with Data Analysis

Teacher Access to Data


Elements of Data-Driven Schooling & Learning

How frequently are teachers using data?

How rich are your student performance data?

How often are student data collected & reported?

When are teachers empowered to use data?

How well-equipped are teachers in using data?

When and where do teachers access data?

Leading, Implementing, & Sustaining Personalized Learning requires continuous professional learning about how other leaders

and schools are designing for Personalized Learning

Learning Personalized KnowledgeWorks

iNACOL

School Models to Explore

Leading, Implementing, & Sustaining Personalized Learning requires:

1. a clear and consistent commitment to Mission & Vision2. flexibility, creativity and innovation to achieve the Mission3. a clear definition and shared understanding of what “Personalized

Learning” means4. a commitment to sound pedagogy both with and without technology5. ongoing data-driven improvement6. continuous professional learning about how other leaders and schools

are designing for Personalized Learning

Thank you!Tim Hudson, PhD

Vice President of Learning@DocHudsonMath

Free Resources at dreambox.com/white-papers

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DreamBox Lessons & Virtual Manipulatives

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http://www.dreambox.com/reporting/assignfocus

Nurture Teachers’ Confidence as Math Practitioners

Through comprehensive and ongoing professional development, we walk side by side with educators to align professional learning to their instructional goals, deepen math understanding, and refine instructional practice.

“I love doing online courses that allow me to work on my teaching practices. One-on-one support is given to students to work at their

own pace.”

Jessica | TeacherCenter of HOPE, CO

Customized professional learning that goes beyond product training to:

• Support successful blended learning implementations

• Increase efficacy of instructional practice

• Expand math teaching “toolkits” by helping educators to learn

multiple teaching strategies.

101

Efficacy: Independent Validation from CEPR at Harvard University

Continue the conversation! Find us on Twitter at @DreamBox_Learn

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www.DreamBox.com/request-a-demo

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