Personalized (Online) Learning Fails at Classroom Dynamics and Socialization
Let’s get together, yeah yeah yeah
Think of all that we could sha-are
Let’s get together everyday
Every way and everywhere
And though we haven’t got a lot
We could be sharin’ all we’ve got
Together
Think of all that we could sha-are
Let’s get together everyday
Every way and everywhere
And though we haven’t got a lot
We could be sharin’ all we’ve got
Together
~Haley Mills, From Walt Disney’s The Parent Trap
The public school classroom is a sacred community. How students socialize in school will be how they interact with each other as adults. Online learning drastically changes classroom dynamics. Students miss important humanization and learning skills when schools focus too heavily on technology.
Personalized learning, the way it is defined and set up, where students work mostly alone online, is an anti-socialization experiment that could haunt us for years to come.
Schools which emphasize personalized learning are realizing a gap is created when it comes to student communication. See Ed. Week’s “Sometimes Personalized Learning Feels Impersonal.”
Technology has much to offer, but it should not replace real teachers and classroom dynamics. Technology is a tool.
NPR’s recent personalized learning piece “The Future of Learning: Well It’s Personal” alludes to how tech shortchanges students.
In the report, Jade Davis an expert in emerging technologies in education, and the director of digital project management at Columbia University Libraries says:
I think of kids with machines that have algorithms attached to them that move them Continue reading: Personalized (Online) Learning Fails at Classroom Dynamics and Socialization
