When you walk into your school, what do you see? Are kids motivated to learn? Do you see effort and persistence? Are teachers excited about all the kids in the school? Just as the Iceberg Illusion by Sylvia Duckworth, @sylviaduckworth, shows, sometimes we only showcase success after learning has happened. This post is about creating a culture of learning that is visible in your school as learning is happening.

Why do we need to do that? The idea of school is changing. It has to now because the world has changed and keeps changing. Life for our kids is so different than it was ten or even five years ago. For learners to grow and flourish, we need to create learning environments where every child is recognized as a learner while they are learning. Some kids never get showcased or recognized. A culture that values every learner will empower them to discover the joy of learning.

“Culture has been defined as ‘the way we do things around here.” Richard DuFour

Schools have been doing things the same way for hundreds of years. Culture change or shift is defined as lasting changes to the shared ways of thinking, beliefs, values, procedures, and relationships with the stakeholders. A school needs trust in changing beliefs, values, and relationships. Change is a difficult process. There are so many types of relationships in schools that impact how people think about school. Teachers and leaders are learners, too.

“If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” John Dewey

Here are 18 ways several authors shared in their books how teachers and leaders can celebrate learning as the culture:

Recognize the joy happening right now in your school

I chose a few of Dean Shareski’s @shareski suggestions in his book, Embracing a Culture of Joy: How Educators Can Bring Joy to their Classroom Everyday, on capturing and sharing the joyful moments:

1. When the bell rings and students don’t leave because they are in the midst of an engaging conversation.
2. When students are fully attentive as the teacher reads them a story.
3. When students cheer at the success of a third try at a science experiment.
4. When a teacher asks students about their soccer game.
5. When a student solves a difficult problem.
6. When a student comes in early to work on a project.
7. When a teacher acknowledges a student as an expert.

Be the Change

According to Eric Sheninger @E_Sheninger and Tom Murray @thomascmurray in their book, Learning Transformed: 8 Keys to Designing Tomorrow’s Schools, Today, here are a few of the strategies they suggest for leaders to help colleagues begin the process of changing their professional practice: 

1. Lead by example even when (initially) it might be a lonely place. Real change comes from colleagues modeling expectations for one another.
2. Share current research and practices that support the change you are championing.
3. Encourage colleagues who might be resistant to change to attend professional learning opportunities with you. At the very least, make sure you share your experiences during a faculty meeting or in personal conversations.
4. Help others see the value of the change on their own.
5. Be patient. Like you would your students, treat your colleagues with respect and remember how satisfying and rewarding it is when you help students succeed.
6. Get your students involved. There is no better way, in our opinion, to convince educators to change than when they can see firsthand the impact it has on kids.

Begin with Reflection

I chose a few of Pernille Ripp’s @pernilleripp, suggestions in her book, Passionate Learners: How to Engage and Empower your Students, on how teachers can reflect on making learning visible:

1. Film your teaching. Are you talking more than your learners? Are they not listening or were you too focused on covering the curriculum?
2. Have students time you. Set the timer for 10 minutes and when it goes off, stop talking. If you need more time, negotiate with your students.
3. Give them time to be experts. Find out what your learners are passionate about. Then facilitate opportunities for them to share their expertise.
4. Stop answering all of their questions (or at least some of them). Ask a question back instead of answering or refusing to answer. Ask something like “How will you find out?” and maybe keep going by asking “How else can you find out?” Also, wait and see if other students share the answer or help another student.
5. Don’t stop asking yourself the hard questions. Would you still like being a learner in your classroom? Trust in yourself and your ability to create a better environment for all the learners who are in your class. Push yourself forward so that you do not become stuck in a routine. Learners change every year and so should our approach.

I want to come back to the idea of the Iceberg Illusion from Sylvia Duckworth at the start of this post. What is the culture you see when you go into your school? What are you missing? Is it only about the successes you see or is it the learning culture that happens every day? How can you make learning visible so every child is valued?

 “If culture changes, everything changes.” Michael Fullan

Thank you, Dean Shareski, Eric Sheninger, Tom Murray and Pernille Ripp for sharing your writing and ideas with the world! I highly recommend educators and those in my PLN to read your books. Thank you, Sylvia Duckworth, for giving me permission to use your drawing in this post. For more information about her work, please go to sylviaduckworth.com.

If you have any tips, resources, or comments on creating a learning culture, I welcome you to share below.

Guest Post by Linda Ullah @linda_ullah, Online Instructor, Krause Center for Innovation, Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, California

In 1970, Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner wrote an article in The School Review (Vol. 78, No. 3 (May, 1970), pp. 429-434) entitled “Teaching as a Subversive Activity.”  They point out the best educational environments are ones that are open-ended and inspire wonderment through interesting activities. I started using the term “Teaching as a Subversive Activity” when No Child Left Behind was enacted. I just now learned where it came from. Forty-seven years later, in spite of legislation to the contrary, the best educational environments are still those that are open-ended and inspire wonderment through interesting activities that empower learners to develop agency.

My Experience to Wonder and Be Curious

Throughout my long career as an educator, I experienced several swings of the pendulum–several “reforms.”  Teaching, for me, has been a long process of learning. I’ve been fortunate to work with outstanding educators who really care about their learners. It is that caring that is the key to empowering learners to wonder, to be curious, to be excited about learning.

In the 1990s, while teaching at Edenvale School in the Oak Grove School District in San Jose, CA, my learners became interested in local history when the school was celebrating its 25th anniversary. Encouraged by my principal, Meril Smith, I wrote an Apple grant and got 8 networked computers, some software and a dial up AOL connection. The grant was based on our local history project which my learners entitled The Great Edenvale Detective Caper. This was my foray into project-based learning and into personalizing learning, although, at the time I was unaware of these pedagogies. I blundered my way into them instinctively because it seemed like the right thing to do. I still remember standing in the middle of my classroom watching every learner fully engaged in the project and not needing my help.  The project morphed and continued over the next three years.

During that time my learners, and other learners at the school, wrote, self-published and sold a book entitled The Mysterious History of Edenvale, Proceeds from the book were donated to the Adopt-a College program to help provide college scholarships for former Edenvale learners. Edenvale learners also wrote and performed in a local history play named “Edenvale 95111”, created a school-wide, local history day with games and activities for each period of history, designed and painted a local history mural on campus, worked with East Los Streetcapers to help design a piece of street art near downtown San Jose, and created a local history museum on campus. The project took on a life of its own because the learners were in charge of it. On occasion, I still hear from my former learners wanting to know if I still have copies of the book that they might borrow or purchase. I’ve managed now to save just one copy for myself.

As Edenvale school became networked, more opportunities for my learners to work with others presented themselves.  I joined some National Geographic Network science projects during which my learners worked with research scientists and learners from other schools around the U.S. and the world to do real scientific research on acid rain, recycling, water pollution.  This led my learners to become more interested in pollution, and I was fortunate to be selected and trained in Global Project Based Learning in Qiryat Shemona, Israel along with teachers from several other countries.  I was partnered with a high school in Sao Paulo, Brazil and my elementary school learners worked with high school learners on a cross-curricular project centered around water-pollution. My learners and I also participated in several Jason Project projects working with scientists and learners from around the world doing research on volcanoes, coral reefs, rainforests, etc. During this time I noticed that the more I allowed my learners to control what they wanted to learn about and how they wanted to learn it, the more excited and engaged they were.

In 1995, I took a part time position as a technology learning coordinator in my district for the Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project–a federal technology challenge grant through Joint Venture Silicon Valley involving schools in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.  I remained in the classroom part time.  As a group of educators, the TLCs (technology learning coordinators) under the direction of Michael Simkins became a powerful professional learning community as we learned from each other about project based learning, collaboration, and coaching. My learners worked with learners at Frost Elementary School and the Live from Mars Project to create shoe factories (their choice) for a Mars Colony. The following year, my learners chose to create the Mars Virtual Olympics. The teachers I coached began to do collaborative projects with other classes and schools as well.  My passion for connecting classrooms around the world began to grow.

Three Questions for Educators to Wonder

1. How do we empower our learners through wonderment and interesting open-ended educational activities when standardized testing looms like a hungry tiger looking for prey?
2. How do we assure that our learners are fully engaged critical thinkers who remain the motivated, joyful learners they were before they started school?
3. How can we as educators assure that our learners have the skills they need to live and work in a global economy and in a world where technology connects us in both positive and negative ways?

Becoming Globally Literate to Understand Diverse Cultures

Globally literate people have an understanding of diversity, culture and language that allow them to live and work in peace with each other. We live in a culturally, racially, religiously and linguistically diverse world full of wonderful opportunities. Giving our learners the chance to work with learners who live in other cultures can only strengthen global understanding and hopefully promote world peace. In our global economy it is critical that our learners develop an inherent respect for the many cultures, races, religions and languages of the world.

The rationale behind global project-based learning is to give learners the opportunity to become aware of and appreciate each other’s cultures, languages, and religions so that they will develop positive working relationships around a common goal and develop an empathy for peoples from other parts of the world. Ultimately this multicultural understanding and empathy will promote a healthier environment, better living conditions for all, and worldwide peaceful relationships. Peace and prosperity in the 21st Century depend on increasing the capacity of people to think and work on a global and multicultural basis. As technology opens borders, educational and professional exchange opens minds. (Institute of International Education)

Real Learning Provides a Sense of Wonderment

The first question I get from teachers is: “…but I have standards to “cover” before the “tests”.  This is followed by the statement: “ I have to assure my learners show …x… on the state tests.”  Since I view teaching and learning in an era of “accountability” as a subversive activity, my reply is paying homage to standards and standardized test does not mean you have to sacrifice real learning. Real learning happens when learners are empowered, excited and engaged. It is that sense of wonderment that Postman and Weingartner discussed.

Begin by finding out what excites and interests your learners.  Discover (perhaps with your learners) where those interests and the standards intersect. Think cross-curricular.  If you are at the secondary level, look for a partner teacher who teaches a different content area.  If this is new to you, look for global projects that meet your learners interests and the standards.

Global projects you can join:

• Global SchoolNet
• Global Collaborative Projects  
• ePals
• iEarn
• The Global Classroom Project
• Launching a Virtual Book Club
• Kid Link
• Skype in the Classroom
• OneWorld Classrooms
• Online Projects for Kids
• The Jason Project
• Center for Integration in Engineering and Science Education Projects
• Flat Stanley
• Connect Your Class to the Outside World
• Projects by Jen (Links to an external site.)
• Global Collaboration Day Projects

Examples of virtual field trips:

• Google Expeditions
• 10 of the Best Virtual Field Trips
• Discovery Education–Virtual Field Trips
• Virtual Field Trips Web Site
• Skype in the Classroom-Virtual Field Trips
• Virtual Field Trips–Scholastic.com
• Virtual Field Trips for the Classroom
• This is What Google Expeditions Can Do in a Classroom

Find a friend or family member who is traveling and have them blog their trip for your classroom and/or take a Flat Stanley along with them. For example, in 2006 Flat Stanley went with me to Singapore and Bangladesh for a friend’s classroom.

Finally, look for a colleague or friend who teachings in another school, another state, another country and begin to plan a project that connects both of your classrooms.  My eCoach is an excellent collaborative planning tool.

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Former President Jimmy Carter once said, “We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.”  One of the best gifts we can give our learners is to help them, through their interests, develop wonderment about the world and the people who live in it.

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Linda Ullah has a M.Ed in Special Education and a M.A. in Instructional Technology. She is an online instructor for the Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College.  She has been an elementary classroom, special ed, Title 1 and GATE teacher, a technology learning coordinator, teacher in residence at the Krause Center for Innovation , a school development coach for the New Tech Network, a coach for the Friday Institute at NC State University, and a coach for Personalize Learning, LLC.

Follow Linda on Twitter: @Linda_Ullah

Guest post by Paula Ford @prford5, Kindergarten Teacher at Manuel De Vargas Elementary School in San Jose, CA. This post is a continuation of her post on Traveling Toy Animals with her learners in California and with Ashli Engle’s class in farming country in Indiana. 

Our question: How is the city and the farm the same and different?

We have now concluded our PBL, and would like to share the rest of our adventures with our traveling toy animals. The children worked together to answer all the questions their friends posed in Ashli Engle’s Kindergarten class in Indiana.  Each child sent a letter to their Indiana friend, individually answering their questions.  In addition, our class worked together to make an iMovie about what it is like to attend school in Silicon Valley.

Some of the questions from our Indiana friends asked about what our children’s parents do for work.  To help answer that questions, some of the children took iPads home with them to spend a day at work with their parent.

The children in Indiana mailed letters back to us, answering all of the questions we had posed.

They also sent us a few videos. The first was of the children walking around the perimeter of their school (they took the mice with them). We were amazed by the all the trees and the horses right on the edge of their school site!

Here is a video of what it is like to attend school in a farming community in Indiana:

Many of our children have never seen the snow, and were excited to see that our friends in Indiana play in the snow at recess.  This video had a strong message for us: though we may look different on the outside and do different things, everyone has something in common.  For example, they had a pajama day and read books to celebrate Read Across America day just like we did.  We are not so different after all.

Our mice looking out the classroom window in Indiana

Toy horses from Indiana 

After receiving the videos and answers to our questions, we found that we still had more questions we wanted to ask. We arranged a Skype video session for our children to ask and answer follow up questions.

Following the Skype session we reflected on our learning and revisited the original Driving Question: How is the city and the farm the same and different?  We realized that now we are experts on this subject, and we shared this knowledge with our friends and family.

Our PBL Wall

Though this PBL has officially ended, it really is just beginning.  Originally, we intended to return the mice and horses back to their original owners. However, the children decided that they would like to keep the animals they received as a special memory of this PBL.  In addition, the children have requested to share their contact information with each other so that they can continue to communicate together, and include their families in this process.

Our friends in Ashli Engle’s Kindergarten class in Indiana

Mrs. Ford’s Kindergarten Class with the horses and letters from our Indiana friends

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We know there is an urgent need to change education so all of our children are prepared for their future. I embedded this amazing video below from Prince EA “I just sued the School System!” I believe teachers, administrators, parents, and kids will find that this 6 minute video will help them get the conversations going around WHY they need to change the education system. However, before you watch the video, I suggest you consider HOW you might want to change the idea of “school.”  Try what is called “active listening” while watching this video by taking notes to capture your thoughts. Consider these three ideas:

1. Most teachers learned how to teach in a 20th century system. How can teachers shift their thinking so they are future focused?
2. Technology has impacted every part of our lives. How does technology impact what kids need to learn and the teacher’s role in the future?
3. Schools continue to look and operate like they did over 120 years ago. If there was no such thing as school, how might you design learning and the learning environment?

Video “I Just Sued the School System!!!”

What did you come up with after watching this video? Go ahead and make your case on what you see needs to be changed by adding a comment below. Or use this video to start your own discussions around change.

The teaching profession was designed around a system based on teaching compliancy. For years, students have been doing what they are told to do to progress through each grade. Teachers have been mandated to follow prescriptive curriculum and pacing guides. Teaching subjects not kids and giving grades has been the norm for over 125 years. I firmly believe NOW is the time to throw out this model and design a system that encourages critical-thinking, creativity and innovation.

What about you?

The teaching profession cannot and should not be about students or teachers following orders. Our world needs citizens who can think on their own so they know right from wrong and do what is in their best interests. Too long I have heard students ask this question: “what do I need to do for an A?”

How about getting rid of grades?

Check out Starr Sackstein’s TedTalk A Recovering Perfectionist’s Journey to Give Up Grades. Teachers are overwhelmed with all the mandates, paperwork, new initiatives, etc. I’ve heard some teachers say “just give me the curriculum to teach because I have too much on my plate.”

What about taking some things off of teachers’ plates?

Teachers are working harder now than ever. Instead teachers are held accountable for test scores and grades and are the ones responsible for everything students learn. Direct instruction is what they know as students themselves and what they learned in teacher education programs. Wasn’t technology supposed to make teaching easier? They use technology for direct instruction because that is the only way they believe they can control what is being taught. Teachers are concerned about letting go, because they are not sure they can trust students to do the work. They also are concerned that there are no guarantees that students are learning.

What if there was something you could do to change this?

Pernille Ripp wrote in her book, Passionate Learners, for teachers to ask themselves “would you want to be a student in your class?” If you say no, there are two choices:

1. you can close the door and continue with the status quo, or
2. you can change how you teach transforming one lesson or project with activities at a time that will engage kids in the learning process.

Now if you say yes, then share what you do. Open your door and collaborate. When you start small and include voice and choice with engaging activities, something happens to your class and you. You never want to go back to the status quo. It is about building that trust so everyone cares and respects each other.

This is what happened to me long ago and to teachers who are challenging the status quo now. As soon as I gave up control, everything just fell in place. I had to learn to trust them. I encouraged kids to pursue their interests, gave them a voice in their learning, and had them brainstorm solutions to challenges. At first, kids were tentative. They were concerned what would happen if they made mistakes or didn’t come up with the one right answer. When they realized that there didn’t have to be one right answer, they enjoyed being part of the process and wanted more. This was the fun part; they were encouraged to keep looking for more questions and challenges that made them think deeper.

What do you do when students are concerned about changing how they “do” school?

It is a difficult but crucial decision for students to take over control of their own learning. It all starts with a plan and the conversations that build a culture of learning. Sit down with each student and listen to their concerns. Listening is an art. Teachers were taught to be the ones to lecture and do all the talking. It’s not easy to stop and listen to the kids and to each other. Especially if we believe we have to make sure they get the right answers and don’t want them to make mistakes. Believe that they can learn from mistakes. We have to let go and listen, share, and learn from each other. In fact, we can learn from play. Check out John Chase’s post Free to Learn.

So as a teacher today, you probably have some questions and concerns about all of this. That’s okay. Talk about those concerns with your colleagues. Share them with your kids. When kids know that you have concerns too, then you can have those conversations with them. It’s okay to show your vulnerability. It’s about working together to create an environment that allows risk-taking so your class becomes a caring, compassionate community of learners.

All of us were born passionate learners. We came into the world curious about everything around us. We had a strong desire to want to talk, crawl, and walk. Watch a toddler take their first step, and you see passion-based learning. Listen to a musician practice a difficult piece until they are ready to perform. Watch a skateboarder try a new trick over and over — that takes persistence and passion to not give up.

You don’t always see that same type of passion in “school.” In many cases, school has been associated with pacing guides, required curriculum, grade-level standards, bell schedules, grades, and teaching to the test. In these situations, the teacher or the administration are the ones in control. The teacher tends to become the one held accountable for the learning. Yet to really LEARN something, the learner needs to own and drive their learning.

The focus on teaching and doing work that wasn’t relevant to me changed my thinking about who I was as a learner. I learned to play the game of school and “do” school so I could get “through” school.

Why do we have to change school to focus on passion-based learning?

School changes what kids believe what they are supposed to learn. If you ask kids around 3^rd or 4^th grade what they are learning in school, you might hear answers around how to behave, be a good listener, or how to do well on a test. We learned how to be compliant and follow the rules. Is this really what we want as the focus of school?

Now it’s time to bring back creativity, joy, and focus on the power of passion for learning.

A few suggestions from some awesome educators to encourage passion-based learning in your school:

1. First few days of school.

Get to know your learners right away before you start teaching. Every teacher and learner deserves a new opportunity to achieve. Consider waiting at least two weeks before jumping into academics. If you already started teaching academics before getting to know everyone, pull back. Check out Rich Czyz’s ideas for the First few days of school 

2. Get to know your learners and their interests.

Invite your learners to share what they are interested in and their talents and aspirations. Have you ever thought of spending time one-on-one with each learner maybe schedule a lunch date? Ask them to start a journal or portfolio so they can share stories of their interests. Check out Michael Wesch’s Journey to the Joy of Learning so you too can see each learner differently.

3. Share interests.

Ask learners to do a pair/share where two share with each other what they are interested in. Invite them to ask each other:

1. What are three things you are really interested in?
2. Why did you choose each of those?
3. Which one excites you the most? Why?
   

Then have them choose one with the help of the partner to share their first choice with all learners in the class. Encourage the class to ask questions and provide feedback with these two prompts

1. I like…
2. I wonder…

4. Explore interests.

Encourage them to explore their interest and how it might have a connection to the real world. Since you are probably still a part of the current traditional system, invite your learners to connect to required standards. Have them create a mind map of their interest and ways they can connect to what they know, what they have to learn, what they would like to learn, how they could demonstrate that they learned, and what questions they might have.

5. Identify a real-world problem.

Sometimes learners cannot connect their interest with a real-world problem. You could start with a problem where they might be able to make a real difference if they could solve that problem together. Walk around your school and go outside to observe what is around you. You and your learners may find a problem or issue you never thought about before. This is called “generative curriculum” which means coming up with questions and direction for learning as you learn.

6. Plan learning.

Let them plan together or individually using the following 3 questions from George Couros that drive Passion-Based Learning from his blog, The Principal of Change

• What will I learn?
• What will I solve?
• What will I create?

7. Make learning meaningful.

Dr. Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D [https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/ ] shared experiences where she noticed that there was a problem with how she was being asked to learn. She was cramming and memorizing information, being tested for mastery prior to having enough practice time and learning facts with no context or relevance to what she needed to learn. In her post, she hit the nail on the head when you wrote, “The unintended consequences of these artificial and unnatural ways of learning include believing that learning should be difficult, painful, disciplined, and not fun. She also discussed the importance of context as relevant meaningful tasks.

“Learning can and should be natural, fun, and engaging.” @jackiegerstein.

I agree with Jackie that learning has to be meaningful and have a purpose.

[Source www.personalizelearning.com/2015/04/learning-can-and-should-be-natural-and.html]

8. Build a new culture of learning.

Give good reasons for learning. Watch this video from Dr. Tae about the culture of learning  with secondary science teachers and university professors. What is the secret to learning? Real learning is mostly self-motivated paired with the right mentor.

Read Terry Heick’s article Promoting a Culture of Learning  that walks you through using a gradual release of responsibility model:

• Show Them
• Help Them
• Let Them

9. Create a Makerspace.

Diana Rendina, Media Specialist/School Librarian at Stewart Middle Magnet School in Tampa, FL transformed her library to serve as an informal STEM learning space for her learners. Check out Renovated Learning to follow her Makerspace journey.

10. Develop Passionate Learners.

I highly recommend that you read Pernille Ripp’s book “Passionate Learners.” Pernille, a 7th grade Language Arts teacher at Oregon Middle School, Oregon, Wisconsin,being met. She then listened to their answers and tried to develop pathways writes her story how she had almost quit teaching because she didn’t like the teacher she had become. She started by asking her learners which needs they have that are not that may include their requested modifications.

Example Passion Projects

Julie Rogers Bascom, Service-Learning Coordinator for Edina Public Schools in Minnesota, shared with me how the following year-long Passion Projects engaged learners in authentic real-world activities. [Edina Service Learning http://www.edinaschools.org/domain/78]

All 680 tenth grade learners in Edina High School’s Pre AP Language Arts Class engaged in a year-long Passion Project, digging deep into their interests as a way to meet learning standards.  Each learner chose a topic of importance, researched and investigated the theme they chose and wrote a ten-page research paper. As part of this course, each learner took action for an identified problem in their area of interest. One learner who is interested in computer science held an e-waste collection, filling two semi-trucks with electronic waste, diverting the waste from the landfill. One learner, concerned about clean water for a village where her grandparents live, designed a water filter that would help filter out excess fluoride from wells in rural India.  Another learner, having been a foster child, lobbied for awareness and advocated for resources for foster families.  Following the service-learning cycle:

IPARD – Investigation > Planning > Action > Reflection > Demonstration, learners used their knowledge and experiences from their research to solve community problems by engaging in authentic service-learning. 

When you look at the bigger picture, it all comes down to one thing: passion to learn and changing the focus to learning not on teaching. This has been my mission for over 25 years. Now I’m finding more and more examples of passion-based learning. Julie’s example of service learning is more than an assignment. The learners found a problem they were passionate about and used critical thinking skills to solve it their way.

When I think of all the educators I know who stretch their thinking and go the extra mile like Diana, Julie, Rich, Jackie, Pernille, and George and others, I know that no one can transform education alone. We all need to share and learn together. I found my purpose. It is to learn all I can about learner-centered environments, connect to others who believe all learners can learn their way, and share their stories of transformation of “school” to cultures of learning. I wrote this quote over ten years ago…

“Go with your strengths and interests, find your passion and, then discover your purpose.”

I am thinking of changing that last part to “and your purpose will discover you.”
Has your purpose found you?

[This post was created for an article in the Fall OnCUE 2015 issue]

After attending conferences and reading numerous articles that focus on personalized learning, I just have to say it. We’re not there yet. Some of us are, but the focus keeps moving back to traditional teaching methods. There is also much focus on companies that boast about their technology that personalizes learning. I’m having an uneasy feeling that the rhetoric is really confusing people, and sounds too good to be true. Are these methods and programs doing what they’re supposed to be doing? Are we talking a good talk when we say all the right things but then continue with the status quo? Or are some taking a good idea and framing it one way but actually implementing personalized learning  for the wrong reasons?

Why am I saying this? Because to do it right, we have to transform the whole system. There are educators that jump in head first, take risks, turn the learning over to their kids who become expert learners responsible for their learning. Teachers share their successes. We share their stories. It’s great and the kids win. The teachers win. The school community wins. Then we hear from these same teachers stories of these kids moving to the next grade (the system may not be competency-based nor have all teachers adopting personalized learning) where they may go back to a traditional system with grades, tests, etc.

It’s just not fair to do this to our kids. We give them opportunities to celebrate their successes, let them take risks, maybe fail and learn from mistakes, unlearn and learn again. Then when they move to another teacher or grade level, we take their voice and choice all away. I hear kids say “I just do what I have to do in school so I can get out.” or this: “I just want to pass the tests.” Oh my!!!

Grant Lichtman’s article Take aim at innovation with students at the center is what made me think about all of this. He mentioned that technology is not innovation and stated, “As a group, schools are still mired in the mindset that technology is the innovation, not that it is a tool embedded in innovation.” Lichtman also says  — it’s about flipping the learning to what he calls it Flip 2.0 – turning the learning over to the kids. This is different than flipping the classroom. This got me thinking that it is not just the confusion about how to personalize learning. it is about coming up with a shared understanding of what personalized learning is.

Then there are districts that start in high school but they don’t take the time to plan or involve the kids. It’s about time to ask our kids several questions:

• What is working and what is not working for you in school?
• What advice would you give your teachers about how to teach you?
• What do you need so you can learn?
• How would you design school?

Personalizing learning means the learner owns and drives their learning. It means the teacher plays the role of facilitator and advisor. They become a partner in learning with their kids. Think about the current system. Personalizing learning turns everything upside down. Teachers don’t know how to do this. They need help. All of us need to work together on this. Actually most of us experienced learning in traditional teacher-directed classrooms. In fact, during the last 10 to 12 years, the focus has been mostly on creating prescriptive curriculum that teaches to the test. We didn’t involve the kids. We didn’t ask them what they wanted. It’s time to change that.

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Update about this site:

I’ve been focusing on making learning personal for years and am co-founder of Personalize Learning, LLC with Kathleen McClaskey since 2012. I keep this site, barbarabray.net, so I can share from my own view what is happening with learning, to learners and teachers, and how the system needs to change. Everything I do with personalizing learning now is with Kathleen. Two heads are better than one and I have learned so much from her. We co-authored Make Learning Personal, published October, 2014 by Corwin Press and, yes, I highly recommend it if you want to make learning personal. Just had to say that :o)

So why am I writing this here? It’s because I want to keep this site so I can do a little of my own ranting. I need my readers to go to our website, Personalize Learning to get the latest information and resources about personalized learning. All of the latest charts, resources, and even my services around personalized learning are on the Personalize Learning website.

 The PDI chart was created for a reason: to clarify the differences in these terms. In 2010, the National Ed Tech Plan defined all three of these terms as they are related to instruction. We needed to emphasize the differences: Personalization is learner-centered. The other two, Differentiation and Individualization are teacher-centered. Personalization or Personalized Learning means the learner is driving their learning. When the learner takes responsibility for their learning, teaching and learning changes. The roles of the teacher and learner change. We welcome you to share the PDI chart and use it for action research, professional learning, and to go deeper and clarify the terms so learning is deeper, relevant, and engaging.

Education is being juggled more than ever between pedagogy and corporate control AND it is personal — for you — for me — for our children.

The marketing strategy of adaptive learning systems is that of 24/7 services that you can access at any time, in any place and at any pace. Education has adopted this language to reduce costs with business-like customization and streamlined productivity. The expectation is for a flexible education system that will also be more efficient and cost effective.
[Source: Rebirth of the Teaching Machine Through the Seduction of Data Analytics: This Time It’s Personal by Phil McRae]

“The adaptive learning system crusade in schools is organized, growing in power and well-funded by venture capitalists and corporations. Many companies are looking to profit from student and teacher data that can be easily collected, stored, processed, customized, analyzed, and then ultimately resold”.

There’s money in it, but not for the right reasons nor for the right people: our children. I read this research by Phil McRae and it all made sense. This time it is personal. Corporations are taking our educational system, shaking it up and spitting out children who cannot think for themselves. They are calling it cost-effective but actually, adaptive learning systems are more costly than we know. It is all about the data this time. This is so dangerous for our society that I have to speak up and hope you speak up about this also. We need to fight for our children and their future and their data.

Framing adaptive learning systems as “personalized learning” has to stop.  This image “At School in the Year 2000” – a futuristic image of learning as depicted on a postcard from the World’s Fair in Paris, Circa 1899 predicting what learning will be like in France in the year 2000. It is scary that this depiction is becoming true in the US and other parts of the world because we are being sold a bill of goods. Corporations and politicians are really good at framing what they believe we want to hear around a philosophy or concept that markets something they want to sell or use.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

The idea of children having their own personal choice how they will learn is being redesigned as increasingly data driven, standardized, and mechanized learning systems. Children should not be treated like automated teller machines or credit reward cards where  companies can take their valuable data. It is all about control and saving money. But who’s money? Yes, technology can help personalize learning, but what technology and how? And who’s data?

Let’s be real: adaptive learning systems are for those things that can be easily digitized and tested like math problems and reading passages. They do not recognize or encourage high quality learning environments that are creative, inquiry-based, active, relevant, collaborative, and what our children need to be global citizens who are critical thinkers and problem-solvers.

We did this before. McRae reviews the history of using technology to control learning. It was all about feeding information to kids and controlling what they learned. B.F. Skinner did this in the 1950s where learning was about measurability, uniformity, and control of the student.

I grew up then and remember having problems understanding some concepts. That was mainly because everyone in the class was supposed to learn the same content at the same pace — too much content — too fast for most of us. I was provided an “intelligent tutor” outside of the classroom and sat in front of a screen answering multiple choice questions about what I read. I felt stupid and ashamed. It still didn’t make sense, but the teacher didn’t have extra time to spend with students falling behind.

I know I’m smart, but I felt stupid in many of my classes. If I went through that then, how many others felt like me? I wanted to give up, but one teacher and my parents believed in me. They spent time with me figuring out why I didn’t get it. That’s all I wanted — time with a real person who cared. We didn’t have all the technology then that we have now or I would have googled it and figured it out by myself. The problem with the technology then was that it wasn’t personal for me. It was the same worksheet I didn’t understand in the first place now on a screen.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) became the next big thing. Programs like PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations)and Computer Curriculum Corporation (CCC) were building labs for schools for large numbers of at-risk children paid with Title I money and categorical funds. I remember these because I was asked as technology coordinator and professional developer to help set them up. Schools put these labs in any area that would fit. Some high poverty schools had them set up next to heaters and most were managed by a parent or para-professional. Teachers would rotate their classes in and out every week. Kids were so excited at first to play the games that supposedly taught concepts they needed to learn.

After about six months, kids got bored with the games and clicked on any keys just to get through the games. There was nothing relevant or made sense for them to be there. Kids are so much smarter than we give them credit. When they were in their classes, they felt like they could maybe ask questions about their learning. But, in the lab, there was no one or no way to question what or if that was the one right answer. After a few years, the labs were dismantled or used for other purposes. But all the money was gone so there was no one left to run the labs or train the teachers.

CAI is now back as “adaptive learning systems.” Some of the old programs have been repurposed with more interactivity. McRae states it as “adaptive learning systems still promote the notion of the isolated individual, in front of a technology platform, being delivered concrete and sequential content for mastery. However, the re-branding is that of personalization (individual), flexible and customized (technology platform) delivering 21st century competencies (content).” [Source: McRae’s research]

CCC’s SuccessMaker is now Pearson’s adaptive learning system. Other adaptive systems have repurposed content but they still promote building mastery with sequential content. It is similar to the old worksheets repurposed using new technology. Dreambox refers to Skinner’s teaching machine and “adaptive learning as a computer-based and/or online educational system that modifies the presentation of material in response to student performance. Best-of-breed systems capture fine-grained data and use learning analytics to enable human tailoring of responses. The associated learning management systems (LMS) provide comprehensive administration, documentation, tracking and reporting progress, and user management.” [Source: http://www.dreambox.com/adaptive-learning]

Source: U.S. Department of Education , Office of Educational Technology, Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Educational Data Mining and Learning Analytics: An Issue Brief October 2012, page 30

Dreambox is now framing their system as “Intelligent Adaptive Learning” and others are starting to use the term “Intelligent Tutors.” Companies are creating hundreds of white papers and studies to prove that adaptive learning systems benefit our children. Be careful! Read them closely for the messages being delivered. We need to be critical consumers for our children’s sake.

McRae writes why we are so seduced for adaptive learning systems:

“First, it is seen as opening up possibilities for greater access to data that can be used to hyper-individualize learning and in turn diagnose the challenges facing entire school systems. Second, the modern teaching machines, and the growing reach and power of technologies, promises to (re)shape students into powerful knowledge workers of the 21st Century.”

 As I said in my own situation, all I needed was time and someone who cared and listened to me. Today the technology is at our fingertips and children are using technology at younger and younger ages. We don’t need to spend millions on these systems. Information is available when we need it now. We just need to teach our children how to acquire the skills that help them access, evaluate, and use the information they find. We cannot feed information to children from “Teaching Machines” like what was in the 1899 postcard and what Skinner projected. It didn’t work in the 50s or the 90s. It won’t work now. This is dangerous for our children and our society.

Our children need caring and compassionate classrooms that encourage independent, creative and collaborative work. Technology is changing rapidly. We don’t need to go backwards and plug our children into machines. They will do that on their own but they need guidance in a different way. They need to know what is happening with their data. Schools protect student data, but adaptive learning systems sell the data to third party companies. Consider all the free social media and other programs available that collect data from you. You probably are aware when you sign in to certain programs, they know you and your data. But you might not have known that your child’s data including social security numbers and health concerns are being sold to third parties. This is dangerous! It will get even more dangerous if the government funds it and encourages the use of adaptive learning systems without some oversight.

Teachers need to know how to facilitate a different kind of learning environment that is flexible, personal, and creative. Personalized learning means that learners own and drive their learning not the technology using algorithms based on performance that controls learning. Learners need to learn how to think on their own. This will not happen if adaptive learning systems control how and what they learn.

It is personal now! Let’s all work together and do the right thing for our children. Teach them to learn, unlearn, and relearn. Show them that they can drive their learning so they can reach their fullest potential.

School starts soon for many. Some have started already. If you think of your classroom as a community of learners right away, then the culture changes. What is the culture of your classroom? Do you…

• spend hours and hours getting your classroom ready?
• buy lots of posters and materials to put on bulletin boards?
• arrange all the furniture just the right way?

If so, you have set the culture of your classroom where you are in control, you manage what happens in your classroom, and your classroom is teacher-centered from the start. I’m not saying you have to take everything down and start over, but think about what it might look like to your learners if you…

• left the bulletin boards and walls empty so the room was an empty canvas ready for the community to design?
• had all the furniture in the middle of the classroom and had each learner help arrange the desks or tables together?

This sounds like chaos and you may not be ready to do something like this. So start slow. The classroom is where your learners will be part of for almost 9 months. It is their home with you. Consider your life as a learner. What was it like? Did you have any say in how you would learn or contribute to the classroom?

Communities work if there is trust and respect. I remember sitting at desks in rows. Fear was one way to control the class in the classes I attended. Was it yours? Did it work? I didn’t feel much respect in many of my years as a learner – even in college. I felt I knew a lot but was not given many opportunities to share what I knew or dreamed about or wanted to know. I was tested on facts that were not relevant to me. I remember an art class where the teacher scolded me because I went outside the lines. I came from a home of artists where there were no lines. What about you? What was it like in school when you grew up?

Some of you probably hear ” if it was good for me, it’s good for my child.” Remember your experience and what it might feel like for your learners in your classroom. Their lives and experiences are connected and different than many of their teachers. Their experiences include the Internet, mobile devices, and have everything at their fingertips.

If you already set up your classroom or that’s just too out there for you. Then take a chance to arrange your furniture in an unconventional way. Then ask your students for feedback. Keep some of the walls or bulletin boards empty and ask your students to submit ideas on what to put on them. Have ways to hang student work or questions from your students from the ceiling.

Some more ideas for the first few days of school:

• meet and greet each student at the door with a smile and a handshake.
• invite everyone to contribute to the class rules — include some off the wall, funny rules.
• use an icebreaker or have them tell a story so everyone has a voice the first few days.
• share what the expectations are for the year and ask for feedback.

I’m sure some of you are thinking “this is an open classroom and I saw it before.” I’m talking about learner voice and choice. This is a classroom where everyone is part of the community and sharing in decisions. There is a feeling that each voice matters. I am only touching on a few points and know there are so many wonderful teachers out there who can share more.

How would you build a community of learners where there is trust and respect?