Three Supports for the MCL Vision

IU8 has been extremely focused over the last three years on promoting and supporting learning that places the learner and the learning experience at the center of education.  I am so proud of the hard work that IU employees have put into building partnerships with school districts that shifts the focus away from content and onto the learner.  In our conversations with educational leaders around the Mid Atlantic region about our learning ecosystem, we always point out that the learner and the learning experience are the prism through which we view our actions.  Taking this view (some might say “radical personalization”) shifts our thinking in significant ways.

If one believes that the learner and the learning experience are truly at the center of ALL that we do, then we must believe that serious systemic change must occur within our education system.  As noted in an earlier blog, these changes do not necessarily mean we must look at changing the entire “system” all at once.  That is too overwhelming.  However, all of us can change our part of the world in which we have control.  These “little changes” multiply until they lead to exponential change.  In my view, the necessary changes that lead to this exponential transformation are at the heart of Mass Customized Learning.  MCL is a mindset that the system in which we operate must (and more importantly CAN and WILL) change. 

Think of MCL as a three legged stool supported by Mindset change, performance based learning and personalization.  These three traits support the vision of Mass Customized Learning.  The work of Carol Dweck and the value of a growth mindset is essential for changing the learning paradigm.  Students, as well as teachers, must have the belief that effort builds intelligence.  This belief serves as a bedrock foundation for MCL.  You must understand and believe it to really have change.  The next leg in the stool is performance based learning.  Performance based learning is simple: learners should not move on to another lesson until they have shown that they have mastered the current lesson/topic.  The days that we just move learners on from one topic to the next regardless of whether they have actually learned anything (just for the sake of “getting through the curriculum”) are over.  Let’s take the word “learning” seriously and use it with integrity: we need to act with the moral clarity to assure our learners (and their families) that schools will not allow learners to be “pushed” through in the name of finishing a curriculum.  Finally, personalization of the learning experience is essential for systemic change to occur.  We have the knowledge and the technology to create a radical personalized learning experience for all of our students.  For years we have had pockets of personalization that occurred in certain schools or subject areas.  We have now progressed to the point where we can do this for all learners.  All aspects of learning support the vision of systemic change that is inherent in the MCL vision.