Differentiating Personal and Personalized Learning

As educators, we’re interested in listening to kids discuss their classroom experiences. Recently, one of us (Hansen) listened to his school-age son, Anders, talk excitedly about a project he completed in his advanced photography class: Create an original work of art using digital images and Photoshop.

Anders’ excitement was centered on his final product, of course, but underneath it was more about the control he had in completing the assignment — the ability to identify his final project, research the process and identify necessary skills and resources he needed to achieve his goal. He was in control of his own learning, and it was personal to him.

Student-Centered

Over the past decade, education has witnessed a monumental paradigm shift in classroom instructional focus from a teacher-centered to student-centered model. The International Society for Technology in Education has codified 14 Essential Conditions of student-centered learning. One condition is that “students (move) from passive receivers of information to active participants in their own discovery process. What students learn, how they learn it and how their learning is assessed are all driven by each individual student’s needs and abilities.”

Just as Anders became excited during his personal project, most students are excited to have input into their learning and engage in self-directed activities, personalized to fit their interests. While the traditional classroom model and curriculum call for standardization to ensure everyone meets minimum criteria, students at all levels are benefiting most from more individualized approaches.

We know students are individuals and, as such, they learn differently. Thus, we must shift to provide content in different modes and at different (individually appropriate) times. The shift to student-centered instruction coupled with technology allows teachers to create personal and personalized learning opportunities for each student.

Differentiating Terms

What are personal learning and personalized learning? They sound the same, so are they different? Generally, personalized learning is used as an umbrella term, inclusive of both personal learning and personalized learning strategies. When you ask educators to describe each, they mention similar characteristics: student-centered, authentic, engaging, self-paced, flexible and project based. Yet some differences exist.

Personal learning centers on plans that allow student input into goal setting. Personal learning planning is a collaborative process among the student, teachers and others (counselor and parents) to determine student-specific learning goals. Once these are identified, the onus for creating a learning path is on the student. The student controls the learning process and is free to explore resources and content, following her or his own interests and needs to meet the goals, thus creating a personal-learning path. 

Personal learning requires a higher degree of self-direction and metacognitive skill. Therefore, this approach is more commonly used with secondary school students.

Subtle differences exist around goal setting and developing the learning environment. In personalized learning, the teacher sets the goals and creates flexible learning alternatives for students — stations, resources and projects. Although teachers identify options, students’ own curiosity and interests drive their individual learning. In personalized learning, the teacher’s role shifts from deliverer of content to resource curator and learning guide.

Technology’s Role

Technology plays a critical role in personalized learning by providing access to resources, collaboration and opportunities to publish. Eric Rush, a 3rd-grade teacher at Ticasuk Brown Elementary School in Fairbanks, Alaska, identified the tools he uses in his personalized classroom. “I need something more engaging for these kids to do. … Different programs that involve reading, like Epic! (an online library that’s interactive on devices) and Lyrics2Learn, which is like karaoke for kids,” he says. “Students are now engaged [whereas] before some of them were not reading.

Using such tools, Rush adds, provides his students a “feeling of success.”

Neither personal nor personalized learning present the use of technology as an automated learning approach. Teachers are not leaving students alone online in hopes learning will occur. Personal and personalized learning are about empowering students, which in turn results in increased levels of motivation, engagement, creativity and self-direction. Both approaches are structured and based on standards and competencies. While teachers are familiar with standards-based approaches to learning design, the U.S. Department of Education says “competency-based strategies provide flexibility [and] personalized learning opportunities.”

Assessment ensures student progress toward academic goals in either personal or personalized learning. Beyond data collection to drive instruction, however, flexible assessments can serve as motivators for students. Performance-based assessments and scoring rubrics provide guidelines and clear indicators of success for students on how to meet identified competencies.

Additionally, the growing popularity of digital badges helps motivate students to “level up” to the next, more challenging task. In Chart Students’ Growth with Digital Badges, university professors Kristin Fontichiaro and Angela Elkordy state, “Digital badges ... can recognize the soft skills not captured by standardized tests, such as critical or innovative thinking, teamwork or effective communication.”

Implementation Duties

Classroom educators are seen as most responsible for creating dynamic learning opportunities for students, but other stakeholders, especially administrators, have an active role in ensuring the use of these more adaptive, customized strategies.

For superintendents, it’s about starting with a systemic vision, inclusive of all stakeholder perspectives. For this shift to be successful, teachers must feel encouraged to take risks; parents must be aware that not all learning can be reported in a test score; and principals must know how to assist and evaluate their teachers during the change process.

In developing a vision, Karen Gaborik, superintendent of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District in Alaska, recommends leaders “be courageous in your vision of how to best serve the needs of children in your community. At the same time, be very clear about the processes and supports necessary for that vision to become reality.” Equally important is for leaders to ensure the “vision for personalized learning to be districtwide,” she adds.

Her district has been piloting a personalized learning program in one 3rd-grade classroom and is expecting a systematic rollout this semester.

Having a clear strategy for implementation is equally important. This begins with evaluating district, school and teacher readiness to develop a detailed plan with defined goals for a purposeful program rollout. This plan should include professional development and budget figures. It also must ensure access to technology (school and home) and identify technology and infrastructure needs. Gaborik terms it “a sustainability plan” to increase long-term success.

Funding for technology-related initiatives, covering upfront costs and ongoing maintenance, can be an obstacle for school communities. The New Media Consortium/2016 Horizon Report says a major barrier “is a lack of infrastructure within school systems to support dissemination of personalized learning technologies at scale.” Gaborik says she has relied mostly on internal funding, but her district’s technology implementation required support at all levels. The school board, she adds, “is investing in innovation and investing in education.”

Student Choice

For those in leadership roles, it is less about deciding to adopt personal or personalized learning approaches and more about supporting student-centered learning.

“Parents want this for their kids,” Gaborik says. “They want education to be relevant for their kids. Parents want students to graduate prepared for the jobs of tomorrow.”

Those jobs require students to think critically, apply knowledge creatively and solve problems. They must be self-motivated and ready to be leaders. Personal and personalized learning help students develop all these requisite skills. Schools today should be about taking steps to bring student voice and choice into the teaching and learning process. In the end, it’s about reaching and teaching students as individuals.