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Editor’s note: This article is based on the 2022 Vivi and Screencastify industry report “Using Technology in the Classroom to Better Engage Students” where more than 750 teachers shared insights into their current challenges. Read the full report here and click here for part 1 focusing on student engagement.
"Our job as educators is to motivate and excite our students to figure out what their passions are and encourage them to find careers based on them. And personalized learning has the power to transform the students [so they can] learn, create, innovate, and figure out what it is that they need to be successful."
In a recent episode of EdTech Heroes (listen below), Michelle Hearn spoke to the power of personalized learning via tools such as video. But it’s not just teachers who have taken notice in recent years.
What is personalized learning?
First, let’s talk about what personalized learning is. Personalized learning recognizes that all students have different skills, different styles, and different needs.
In a personalized learning environment, the teacher doesn’t teach students as a collective in the traditional way. The class is segmented so that each student can receive focused and relevant attention right when they need it.
The teacher can then coach each through learning that is tailored to meet their own strengths, skills, needs, and interests.
Investing in personalization
For generations, students have sat through a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching. Whether it’s the subject matter, the environment, or the way the class has been delivered, the technique hasn’t resonated with students.
In recent years, the biggest change has been the level of investment into research and the development of technology. The Gates Foundation committed hundreds of millions to support research into personalized learning and, under President Obama, the US Education Department invested half a billion dollars.
Video for personalized learning experiences
Middleton City Schools — a New York district — takes a forward-thinking approach and uses technology such as Screencastify, leading to membership into the elite group of the "League of Innovative Schools", which is a national network that connects and supports the most forward-thinking leaders in education.
Middletown is also nationally recognized as a leader in personalized learning instruction by Education Elements.
Middletown teachers leverage Screencastify to record their lessons and add in questions with tools like Interactive Questions and then assign that as like a classwork or a part of a choice board. From there, she said they create small groups with their kids to work on enrichment or intervention activities
Lear more about how the district uses video here.
The benefits of personalized learning
Those who advocate for personalized learning cite a number of benefits. According to research conducted by Education Week in 2018, more than half of U.S. school principals felt personalized learning either showed promise or was a transformational way to improve education. Among the most prominent benefits cited were:
- Empowerment
- Engagement
- Achievement
Although teachers have always had the ability to help individuals better understand the content, what makes personalized learning so interesting in today’s classrooms is the way technology can support its use at scale.
For the first time, tools like video are giving students real choice in the way they can structure their day, as Hearn points out here.
Providing educators the right tools
Learn much more about why personalized learning is here to stay in the Vivi and Screencastify ebook. And click below to begin your journey to improving personalized learning in your classroom through video.
