On Our Minds:

The Personalized Learning Mindset

by Anthony Kim

I recently attended Carolina Blends an event which brings together educators from the region to tour schools and learn from each other. On the tours, I noticed a big difference in the reactions between the educators who had what I call “the personalized learning mindset” and those who did not have it. I came to the conclusion that the personalized learning mindset was important for getting the most out of the tours.

I saw the educators who had the personalized learning mindset understand that the classroom is ever-changing. They tended to ask about changes in the classrooms and how decisions about the classrooms were made.

In contrast, the educators without the personalized learning mindset tended to ask more about specifics such as digital content. They tended to criticize what they saw, convinced they could do it better, and offered a litany of reasons why it would never work in their schools.

The personalized learning mindset has three components:

The belief that every child deserves a personalized learning experience
The understanding that personalized learning is a continuously evolving process, and
Knowing that this work is creative and answers are unknown until you try.

Read my blog post for a more in-depth discussion about the personalized learning mindset and share your thoughts.

Another District Moving To Personalized Learning

Nampa, Idaho
Nampa School District #131, serving more than 15,000 students in the Boise, Idaho area, will partner with Ed Elements to implement personalized learning. Our work with Nampa will focus on the development of their personalized learning vision and creating alignment across their initiatives. Nampa will launch one personalized learning school this Fall to act as a model for the rest of the district.

Partner Spotlight:

$Splash-math-Logo1-624169-edited.png$ Splash Math is a supplemental math program for Elementary grades (K5). Aligned to the Common Core, it enables students to practice math on all devices available in the classroom (iPads, Chromebooks, desktops, etc.). Over 12 million kids have improved their math skills in classrooms and homes.

Fun and Engaging Math Practice: Originally created for mobile/tablet devices, students love to “play” Splash Math. Interactive questions, reward mechanisms constantly motivate kids to practice towards perfection.

Adaptive Algorithm: A proprietary algorithm creates self-paced learning paths for students, helping teachers manage differentiation needs in large classrooms with ease.

Powerful Dashboard: Teachers are empowered with an analytics and tools that let them monitor progress of individual students as well as the classroom as a whole. The “Assignment” feature lets teachers further customize math learning for individual students easily.

Efficacy Studies say Splash Math works: Results showed that Splash Math students demonstrated significant growth (7.8% percentile points of growth) over the course of the 8-week pilot study, as gauged by a math performance measure based on three national, standardized tests. Specifically, students who used Splash Math with adequate to high fidelity showed large, statistically significant gains. A supporting year-long study to confirm these findings will be available by Summer of 2016.

Places to Meet Up

Connect with us at these events!

ASU GSV and the League of Innovative Schools: Apr 18-20 in San Diego, CA. These two events bring together leaders in Education and EdTech. See Anthony Kim's presentation at ASU GSV Tuesday April 19 at 3PM. And come say hi to our COO Amy Jenkins and Angela Chubb, our VP of Education Services!

Personalized Learning Summit 2016: Join us at the Personalized Learning Summit 2016, in San Francisco, CA. The Summit is a two-day event focused on guiding your personalized learning journey. If you have an invitation, save your spot now as places are very limited. Can’t make it? Follow us on twitter using @edelements and #plsummit and learn with us!