Mass Customized Learning: A Quick Definition and Guide

Appalachia Intermediate Unit 8, working in a partnership with The Pennsylvania Leadership Development Center, created the Pennsylvania Mass Customized Learning Consortium last year.  The consortium is open to all organizations involved in learning throughout Pennsylvania and surrounding states.  Membership consists of those education leaders who will work to transform learning in their organizations to assure students (learners) receive learning at their learning level every day.  The concept of “Mass Customized Learning” was made popular through the work of Chuck Schwahn and Bea McGarvey in their book Inevitible: Mass Customized Learning: Learning in the Age of Empowerment.  Nationally, there are schools all over the United States implementing ideas of customized learning into their system; most notably in Lindsay Unified School District in California.  As the Pennsylvania consortium grows from our current 24 learning organizations, there is usually one basic question that leaders have as they contemplate joining with the consortium. 

Question  #1: “We already personalize and differentiate our instruction so we are already “customizing” education in our schools so why should we join with the consortium?”

            Answer: Mass Customized Learning is much more than “personalization”, differentiation” or “performance based”.  MCL has two premises:

1.     Dislodge  the industrial age model of schooling. 

2.     Become radically learner centered.

Think about the examples of customization in our world today.  If you use Facebook, Twitter or Amazon your interactive experience is customized to your likes and dislikes.  In our area of Pennsylvania you can have your coffee and sandwich selections customized to your exact taste at a Sheetz.  Technology has progressed to the point where learning leaders can now leverage the technological tools to create a customized learning environment for our students (learners).   

Mass Customized Learning advocates do not believe that we can "tinker toward utopia" (to borrow Larry Cuban's term) anymore.  Rather, we must work to create a new learning ecosystem that goes beyond the current educational system and allows learners and their families to customize their learning experience. Creating a learning ecosystem without barriers of time, space or place is essential for our learners and our society. We now live in a time and place where we can create a learning experience for all of our children that is not time based.  By “time based” I mean that students move from one grade to the next and from one concept to the next often without regard to actual learning.  It seems obvious that we should not accept an educational system that “teaches” students in “batches” based on their date of birth.  Rather, let’s create a learning ecosystem that meets every student at their level (academic, learning, social, etc) every second of every day. This is what we discuss and implement as members of the Pennsylvania mass Customized Learning Consortium.  To get a better understanding of the industrial age model of schooling, please watch the video below. 

Dual Enrollment 4.0

One of the biggest questions facing learning leaders in society today is how to create a system of learning that allows for equality in opportunities for students.  There are many ways in which learning leaders can attempt to address this issue. For example, my colleagues who advocate for a fair system of school funding are doing yeoman’s work in trying to adjust a system that is more responsive to a school and community’s needs. Besides the fiscal issues there is also a need to address equality of academic opportunity for students.  There are many facets in this area that need fixed, but the one that I am going to discuss today is equality of opportunity for college credits for high school students.  Specifically, I will discuss dual enrollment.

Dual enrollment is a program where high school students take a college class while still in high school.  This has many obvious benefits.  First and foremost, most dual enrollment credits are significantly cheaper than the credits the same student will take once they are a full time student enrolled in college. Therefore, students that have this opportunity benefit financially over those students that do not have the opportunity.  Dual enrollment models have evolved over time.  I believe the latest iteration of the dual enrollment model offers the greatest promise for poor, isolated underserved students, families and communities.

The first generation dual enrollment model was rather simple, and geographically limited.  In this model, students from high schools close to a college or university could physically take classes at the college or university and receive college and high school credit for that class.  In effect, once they passed the class, they would receive a transcript from the college and get high school credit.  This model was good for those few (very few) students who lived close enough to a college campus and/or could arrange transportation to the campus.  Unfortunately for the VAST majority of students, this model did not offer any significant improvement in academic opportunity.

The second generation of dual enrollment was a slight change from the first generation model.  In the second generation model, college professors would physically (or in some cases virtually) teach students from a high school, in the high school itself.  Again, the class would count toward high school and college credit.  This model attempted to address the lack of opportunity of the first model by having one person travel instead of a large number of students.  There are two significant drawbacks to this system.  First, the matter of geography was not really addressed.  This model still favored students and schools that were located near a college campus.  Second, in this model, if a high school did not have enough students enrolled in the class, then the class would not be offered.  Since the pool of potential students in this model is limited to the high school, most smaller to midsized high schools discovered this flaw in the system.

In the third generation of the dual enrollment model there was a significant change to address the weaknesses of the first two models.  In this model, colleges and universities would certify high school teachers and the curriculum they teach and then count that high school class as a college class.  In other words, the students will be taking the same class that they normally would in their high school schedule, except that the class will also give them college credit. This model largely addressed the problem of geography.  Geography is not a deterrent for students and staff.  In effect, any college or university that chose to do so could partner with any high school located anywhere, to offer a class that would be counted both as a college class and a high school credit.  This allows for flexibility for students, families and schools to offer a certified, high quality class that will allow students to earn a college credit.  The weaknesses in this model for those of us concerned with equality of learning opportunities is that smaller and midsized high schools will still have limited opportunities to offer a class (the pool of students to choose from is too small).  The simple math is that if there is not enough students to offer the class, then the school cannot offer it and the students lose the opportunity to take the class.

The IU8 Dual Enrollment 4.0 Model seeks to address the problem that small and midsized high schools confront by not having enough students to offer a class.  In this latest iteration of the dual enrollment model, classes are decoupled from an individual high school and offered across a broad array of high schools. Thus, the pool of potential students for a class is much larger.  In our model, students take the class in a blended format meeting face to face two or three times a semester and doing the rest of the work in an online format.  The other important aspects of the IU8 model are:

·       IU8 takes care of all of the logistics.  We have the teacher, the curriculum, the learning management system and the agreements with colleges and universities. 

·       The cost is $300.00 per class for a 3 credit course.  We believe strongly that equality of opportunity for learning experiences must not have as a barrier financial cost.  We are not happy even with $300.00 and will look to lower the cost even further in the future. 

The IU8 model of dual enrollment also gives students, families and schools flexibility in how they use the courses.  We believe that the best educational (learning) decisions are made within the context of local circumstances, thus we allow local constituents to decide how they will use the courses.  For example, a school may decide to count the class as a high school credit, or they may not count it as one of their graduation requirements.  Some schools may financially assist students in taking the class, others will not… that is a local decision (as it should be).   Students and families may decide to take the class on their own and get the transcript from the university with little or no involvement from their high school.  We believe this latest iteration of the dual enrollment model gives local schools and communities the most flexibility to customize the learning experience for students.

All models of dual enrollment are being used today to help students navigate their learning environment.  All of the models have their strengths and weaknesses and we believe that dual enrollment 4.0 offers the least amount of barriers for all students across financial and geographical landscapes.

Cynicism and The Current Education Accountability System

This blog is going to be a little bit of a stream of consciousness.  The reason for this different format is twofold.  First, I am still trying to “flesh out” my ideas and thinking on the subject.  By writing my ideas down it will help me make more sense of them.  Secondly, if there is anyone out there reading this blog, you can contribute to the development of my thinking by posting comments!

Is the current system of education where “accountability” and testing are paramount encouraging (or creating) cynicism in teacher behavior?  Let me explain.  Currently Pennsylvania is like many States where teacher evaluations are tied to how well students do on a test.  Good, bad or indifferent, this is the system that teachers finding themselves in.  On top of that, schools and districts are being judged by how well students do on tests.  This puts an incredible amount of pressure on students to do well on tests and for teachers to do everything in their power to assure students do well on the tests.  Let’s look at the students first. 

Imagine being in a system where you have to know the minute details of photosynthesis to get your diploma (I only mention this because I live with a biology teacher).  What is the value in knowing the minute details of photosynthesis?  I am sure there are very important reasons that people can give to defend the importance of photosynthesis to our students.  I can also imagine that at some point Pennsylvania (like other States) convened a group of science teachers and asked them to answer one question:  what is the most valuable things that a student must know to graduate.  I also assume that these content experts had a difficult time winnowing what they felt was necessary down to a manageable level.   As I go further in this thought exercise I can imagine that if I were asked to participate in a similar exercise for history, I would have a hard time getting to the “necessary” knowledge base for students.  With all of that being said, it still does not answer a simple question of “why”.  Why is this information important for students in our society?  Why do they have to know this material?  Why are we as a society forcing this down the student’s throats?  I do not have the answers to these questions.

Since we have no real good answers to the above questions, let’s look at the ramifications of the current system by asking this question:  does the current system of “accountability” produce a cynical response in the way teachers teach?  You can also ask two questions that are closely related: do teachers and school systems teach to a test and is that a good thing.  The answer to the latter two questions is “of course”; and the answer to the former is yes (in my humble opinion).  Teachers are forced to make sure that they “get through” the curriculum…regardless (or in spite of) actual student learning.  If someone is going to be tested on certain information for a Keystone test (Pennsylvania’s end of course exams),  most teachers are going to make sure that all students are at least exposed to that material.  They do this for two reasons.  First, they have a moral obligation to do everything they can to assure that students are placed in the best position to graduate.  In today’s world, that means passing an end of course exam.  We know the importance of a high school diploma and to assure that students reach that milestone is important for teachers and society.  Second, most people in the workforce want to keep their jobs.  This is a natural (some would say evolutionary) response.  Thus, teachers are going to make sure that they “cover” everything that will be on a test because they are being judged on how well students do on the test.  Someone might say, “Yea, so what.  What is so bad about that”…  my answer is simple.  By doing everything in their power to make sure they “cover” everything to make sure students do well on an end of the year test, the educational system has placed the institution ahead of the learner.  The learner is secondary in this scenario and there is no chance for them to be the primary concern.  If learning was fundamentally the foundation of the system, then teachers could design lessons of instruction that assured that students learned the information…even if it meant that some students did not “cover” all of the material.  Teachers would design lessons that allowed students to “show off” their knowledge in ways other than a test.  But that is not the reality of the system we are in.  Teachers must (for the students and their own sake) teach to the test…the learner be damned. (I want to make something clear at this point.  I realize there are “alternative” measures for students to prove their knowledge in the current system.  My question is this: who will take advantage of them after they have failed a tests at least once and truly do not understand the test questions or the concepts being tested?  Not many… most will just give up).  So I ask myself…does the current system encourage a cynical response to learning?  What do you think?

Of MOOC's and Master Degrees

What is more valuable for a person seeking employment in a public school setting, proof of completion in a world class MOOC, or Master’s degree?  Traditionalist would say that a Master’s Degree is proof of expertise and is a good indication of competence.  I agree.  A graduate degree from a well respected university is one way to “prove” that a person has a certain amount of competence in their field. However, I believe our society (and the education community) is undergoing a disruption that will have a significant impact on how educators (learning facilitators) do their jobs.

The educational sector is being disrupted in significant ways. To illustrate, I will share a story of my eldest daughter who is in middle school.  Emma is a very motivated student (a trait she is blessed to have from her mother) and is extremely goal oriented.  She studies hard and does well in school because she believes  that what she learns now will help her reach her goals in the future.   Emma can also be precocious.  For example, she has told her science teacher that she is bored in class and that she is familiar with the information that he is teaching.  She asked him if it would be all right for her to “go online and watch some TED talks and attend MOOCs and then they can discuss what she learns”.  To the teacher’s credit he said “yes”, just as long that she keeps up with her class work. Last night, I asked her how her “self training” was coming along.  She shared with me a lecture series that she had downloaded from Spotify about the meaning of life…she said it was “pretty good”. 

This story illustrates two major points that underlie a significant shift in the education sector. 

1.     Emma is in charge of her own learning.  I understand that not everyone learns like Emma.  My youngest son (in 4^th grade) would not be able to thrive in such a self-directed system.  But that does not mean that he is thriving in the current “default” system of education either.  The point is that even he should have the opportunity to have a varying degree of input into what and how he wants to learn.  Everyone should have a say in their learning.  Education is becoming radically learner centered.  This means that the needs of the learner are not just important; they are the most important facet in education. 

2.     The current system of education is not sufficient for today’s society.  This implies that learning is more important than education.  Education represents the institution where learning is supposed to occur.  Our current system of K-12 education places the institution above the needs of the learner.  That is not to say that the current system does not value student learning…it does.  Rather, our current system places at its first priority the needs of the institution above the learner.  We must move away from the current, industrial age model of schooling.

These two points underscore the importance of learning and the decreased importance of traditional credentials from the traditional education system.  For example, if I am a superintendent hiring a biology teacher what should I consider to be more relevant to my hiring decision,  an applicant that has a traditional Master’s Degree in “teaching” or someone that has worked their way through a series of high quality MOOC’s facilitated by the leading biologists in the world? I say the MOOC’s because the learning is important, not the traditional credential.  My answer may be unconventional; it may even be foolhardy.  However, I believe that the shift and disruption that is occurring in education justifies my response. 

I will discuss this topic further in other blog posts.  Please leave comments to start a discussion surrounding MOOC’s and master Degrees.