Personalized learning

Yesterday, I was fortunate to attend the CASE conference at the Westin Hotel in Westminster, CO. One of the main topics that we covered was Blended Learning and how to personalize learning. I think that personalized learning is the path that we have to go in if you really want students to reach their individual potentials and education in the United Stated to be comparable with other countries. In order to do that, we need to change the way that we look at the Education system. The first thing we need to do as teachers is relinquish control over the students and take control of the learning environment. Students have to be responsible for their own learning. The problem that I see, is that we have been stuck in the same model since the Industrial Revolution. Technology has changed, learning can be accelerated, and we continue to structure our schools the same exact way. I believe that even as early as Kindergarten, that students need to be free to choose how they learn. Weather that is through a more traditional means, self paced with devices like tablets, or project based where kids work in groups and learn together to solve a problem. Let's change the way we dictate how our kids learn. Let's give them the freedom to learn for themselves and teachers act as facilitators instead of Sage's.