12 Reasons Why Digital Personalized Learning is Not Special Education
A recent article in Business Insider describes how Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg got their idea for digital personalized learning from special education. A light bulb lit, and they realized that students placed according to their academic level online is needed for every child—not just students with disabilities.
They liked the way special education teachers wrote Individual Education Plans (IEPs) starting 40 years ago. Teachers carefully analyzed what individual students needed to learn. Gates and Zuckerberg appreciated that it wasn’t “one-size-fits-all.”
It is interesting that these two tech magnates claim to think this way, and to a certain extent their argument is convincing. Many of us who worked in special ed. would agree that every student deserves an IEP, and placing students on academic programs at their targeted level can be useful.
Most teachers use some form of technology today in their classrooms.
But there are troubling differences between what Gates and Zuckerberg see as digital 12 Reasons Why Digital Personalized Learning is Not Special Education:
