Share Your Story
The MTA is interested in hearing from educators about their experiences with personalized learning.
‘Personalized Learning’ and Education Technology
The MTA opposes any partnership or initiative that will flood classrooms with technological products at the expense of skilled teaching.
The unproven “personalized learning” movement is growing.
Personalized learning that emphasizes technology and online instruction above hands-on educators is expanding with state support. In December 2016, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education chose the LearnLaunch Institute to lead a public-private initiative, Massachusetts Personalized Learning EdTech Consortium, or MAPLE.
Massachusetts also has a national stake in the growth of the personalized learning industry — much of which is backed by the same donors who have pushed for a rapid expansion of charter schools. Funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and contributions from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will support the efforts of New Profit, a Boston incubator, to build and expand companies that sell technology products used in the classroom.
Despite the state-sanctioned push into for-profit education and a growing commitment of private money, it is important to note that personalized learning remains a largely unproven approach to teaching. Research has not shown that expensive technology helps improve learning. Nevertheless, donors are rushing in, emphasizing technology products over experienced, highly skilled educators.
The MTA opposes any partnership or initiative that will flood classrooms with technological products at the expense of skilled teaching.
MTA opposes DESE's MAPLE/LearnLaunch partnership
MTA leaders oppose the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s financial support of MAPLE/LearnLaunch, a personalized learning initiative that promotes more technology products in public schools. In a letter to the DESE, MTA leaders write, “Educators should be the ones making education policy and exploring new, innovative practices. These decisions should be driven by what’s best for students, not by profit.”
Good Reads
How Silicon Valley plans to conquer the classroom
Consulting fees and cozy arrangements between tech companies and school administrators are helping for-profit companies snare a growing share of the taxpayer-funded education market.
New York TimesPublic educators share fallout on personalized learning, privatization and edtech
Coverage of the Network for Public Education’s national conference shows speakers concerned about the rapid spread of personalized learning tools. “There has been a huge explosion of online learning and edtech in our schools … and online education is privatizing education through for-profit companies and their apps. But the reality is that online learning has not progressed really far.”
EdSurgeRAND researchers make it clear: Personalized learning is difficult to do
Early research on personalized learning shows that obstacles include a lack of time to tailor products to students and pressure to move students through the curriculum too quickly.
Education WeekTeachers struggle with personalized learning initiatives
A look at the RAND study concludes that “when implementing personalized learning initiatives, educators have faced many hurdles.”
EdTech: Focus on K-12Nope! Why adaptive software is not the same as personalized learning
In examining the limitations of technology on learning in the rush to bring more tech products into the classroom, the author notes: "What happens when interacting with a good teacher is much richer. So many of the activities we reflexively engage in as teachers aren’t possible to program into software."
eSchool NewsRAND report unpacks challenges and caveats about personalized learning
RAND researchers identify pitfalls including “poor integration of data systems, tensions between competency-based practices and meeting grade-level standards, and the time needed to develop personalized lessons.”
EdSurgeGates, Zuckerberg teaming up on personalized learning: $12 million grant suggests growing ties
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, two major donors to charter schools, jointly fund an experiment to expand personalized learning through a Boston-based privatization incubator.
Education WeekPersonalized Learning: What does the research say?
The U.S. Department of Education and others are investing heavily in personalized learning, but there’s little support in research to show it improves learning.
Education WeekBaltimore County buys the great technology hoax, for almost $300 million
Ravitch writes: “My own view is that it is far too soon to adopt technology as the primary vehicle for education because there is no evidence that it improves learning or that it reduces achievement gaps or that it is especially beneficial to children from low-income homes.”
Diane Ravitch BlogFour reasons to seriously worry about 'personalized learning'
Education author Alfie Kohn says that personalized learning is too focused on technology, not children, and is really all about teaching to the test.
Washington Post