Personalized learning is the “Absolute Priority 1” of the new Race to the Top—District competition, and the latest Speak Up National Research Project reports that 74 percent of administrators believe that digital content increases student engagement and 50 percent find that it helps to personalize instruction. Attend this web seminar to learn what the Speak Up National Research Project and Project Tomorrow discovered about what students, teachers, parents and administrators see as the future of personalized learning, how new technologies and digital content are transforming learning in elementary schools, and how these factors affect the decisions administrators need to make today.

1. The Future of Personalized
Learning in Elementary Schools
Results from the Speak Up 2012 National
Research Project and Project Tomorrow

2. Julie Evans
CEO, Project Tomorrow
Chief Researcher, Speak Up
National Research
Project
www.tomorrow.org/speakup
Neal Manegold
Instructional Design Lead
DreamBox Learning
Presenters:
@NealManegold

3. Speak Up Findings: our discussion
• How are elementary students personalizing learning
already, both in school and out of school?
• What are their parents’ aspirations?
• How well are today’s elementary schools meeting
the student & parent aspirations?
• What is the teacher & principal point of view on
personalized learning with new tech tools?
• What does personalized learning really mean?

4. • “Personalized learning means to me that I
am teaching a child where they are and
what they need in order to be successful. It
means that I am not just teaching the
curriculum, but teaching a child.”
• Elementary Teacher (NC)
• Response to Speak Up 2012 Question

5. Annual national research project
 Online surveys + focus groups
 Open for all K-12 schools and schools of education
 Institutions receive free report with their own data
Collect ideas ↔ Stimulate conversations
 K-12 Students, Teachers, Parents, Administrators
 Pre-Service Teachers in Schools of Education
Inform policies & programs
 Analysis and reporting of findings and trends
 Consulting services to help transform teaching and learning
Speak Up National Research Project
+ 3 million surveys since 2003

6.  Learning & Teaching with Technology
 21st Century Skills: Digital Citizenship & Global Awareness
 Math and Science Instruction
 Students’ Career Interests in STEM
 Professional Development / Teacher Preparation
 Internet Safety
 Administrators’ Challenges
 Emerging Technologies both in & out of the Classroom
 Mobile Devices, Online Learning, Digital Content, E-textbooks
 Educational Games, Social Media tools and applications
 Flipped Classroom, Print to Digital, Online Assessments
 Designing the 21st Century School
Speak Up survey question themes

7.  K-12 Students 364,233
 Teachers & Librarians 56,346
 Parents (in English & Spanish) 39,713
 School/District Administrators 6,011
 About the participating schools & districts
o 8,020 schools and 2,431 districts
o 30% urban / 43% rural / 27% suburban
o All 50 states + DC
 Honor Roll of States with highest participation:
TX, CA, OH, IN, AL, NC, WI, AZ, FL, PA
National Speak Up 2012 Participation:
466,303

8. Speak Up 2012 National Reports
www.tomorrow.org/speakup

9. Digital Conversion
K-12 Digital Learner

10. Digital Conversion
K-12 Digital Learner
Personalized
Learning

11. Personalized Learning
A shift in what we do, but also
in our attitudes and values

12. Views of K-12
Students, Parents
, Teachers &
Administrators
Speak Up 2012
National Findings
Personalized Learning

13. (c) Project Tomorrow 2013
How do you use technology and the Internet at
home?
Students in grades 3-5:
Play online and video games 60%
Doing Internet research on things that interest me 47%
Watch TV shows online 42%
Participate in virtual worlds 30%
Text message family and friends 29%
Share photos 27%
Update a personal online profile 22%
Create videos to post online 19%

14. (c) Project Tomorrow 2013
18%
26%
12%
41%40% 41%
30%
54%
Smartphone Tablet Digital Reader Laptop
K-2 Students Gr 3-5 Students
What personal access do you have to these
mobile devices?

15. (c) Project Tomorrow 2013
Every day 17%
A few days a week 54%
Thru a mobile device? 19%
How often do you access the Internet from home
to help you with your schoolwork?
Students in grades 3-5:
71%

16. (c) Project Tomorrow 2013
How do you use technology at school for learning?
Play educational games 61%
Do Internet research for assignments 58%
Take tests online 42%
Complete writing assignments 39%
Create presentations 34%
Check grades 32%
Watch online videos 20%
Use online textbooks 14%
Email or text my teacher 13%
Students in grades 3-5:

17. (c) Project Tomorrow 2013
How important is the use of technology to your
child/student’s future?
Elementary
Schools
Middle Schools High Schools
Parents Principals Parents Principals Parents Principals
Extremely
Important
54% 51% 57% 50% 58% 49%
Important
34% 42% 32% 42% 32% 43%
Somewhat
Important
10% 6% 9% 7% 9% 8%
Not
Important
2% 1% 2% 1% 2% 1%

18. (c) Project Tomorrow 2013
What concerns do you have about technology use at
your child’s school?
Parents of elementary students:
Not enough computers for every child to use 41%
Technology use is too dependent upon individual teachers 31%
Students don’t have access to technology 20%

19. (c) Project Tomorrow 2013
Cell phone
without Internet
access
Smartphone Tablet
computer
Parents – 2008 90% 32% 5%
Parents – 2012 35% 73% 49%
Increased interest in digital learning?
Growth in mobile device access by parents

20. (c) Project Tomorrow 2013
Elementary
School
Parents
Middle
School
Parents
High School
Parents
Communicating via text
messages
86% 86% 86%
Maintaining a social
networking site
62% 55% 52%
Watching online videos 40% 36% 34%
Streaming online TV
shows
37% 34% 32%
Playing online or mobile
app games
30% 28% 25%
Using Twitter 14% 13% 13%
Use of social media by parents, also.

22. (c) Project Tomorrow 2013
What’s waking up our administrators in the middle of the
night?
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Test scores
Funding
Achievement gap
Parent communications
Adequate technology
High School Principals Middle School Principals Elementary School Principals

23. “Children learn best when they are engaged
with the content, can manipulate it so that
their learning is flexible, and when learning
is social- in that they share and exchange
ideas about their learning within real world
applications. Technology can bring into the
classroom the real world and help learning
become alive and real in time.”
School Principal (NY)
Response to Speak Up 2012 Question

24. (c) Project Tomorrow 2013
What are the benefits of using digital content within
instruction?
Elementary school principals say:
Increases student engagement and motivation 69%
Personalizes learning 51%
Improves quality of instructional materials 44%
Increases relevancy of instructional materials 43%
Improves teacher productivity 44%

25. (c) Project Tomorrow 2013
But, why the particular interest in intelligent adaptive
software?
Elementary school principals say:
Providing “just right” instruction 67%
Differentiating instruction within large classes 66%
Enabling self-directed learning 65%
Supporting teachers with real time reporting 54%
Increasing the effectiveness of using technology 46%

26. (c) Project Tomorrow 2013
Looking to the future
What experiences/skills do you think pre-service teachers should
have within their teacher prep programs? Elementary principals
say:
How to differentiate instruction using technology 65%
How to source and use digital content tools 58%
How to implement intelligent adaptive software 55%
How to leverage educational games within instruction 41%

27. (c) Project Tomorrow 2013
Teachers’ use of digital content
Type of Digital Content Elementary Teachers
Videos found online 48%
Games 44%
Real time data 24%
Online curriculum 21%
Online textbooks 19%
Animations 19%
Self-created videos 6%
Intelligent adaptive software 5%

28. (c) Project Tomorrow 2013
Teachers’ use of digital content
Type of Digital Content Elementary Teachers
Videos found online 48%
Games 44%
Real time data 24%
Online curriculum 21%
Online textbooks 19%
Animations 19%
Self-created videos 6%
Intelligent adaptive
software
5%
Growth of
69% since
2008

29. (c) Project Tomorrow 2013
Teachers’ use of intelligent adaptive software
Amongst teachers who are using intelligent adaptive
software, what are their goals?
Collect meaningful assessment data 71%
Create a learning centric classroom 70%
Facilitate student collaborations 69%
Help student visualize difficult concepts 69%
Practice or reinforce skills 68%
Introduction of new concepts 66%
Address different learning styles 64%
Increase student engagement 63%

30. Imagine you are designing the ultimate
school for today’s students,
what digital tools and resources would
have the greatest impact on learning?
Do we have a shared vision?

31. (c) Project Tomorrow 2013
Creating more personalized learning environments
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Games
Online textbooks
Tablets
Schoolwide Internet
Intelligent Adaptive Software
Elementary Principals Elementary Teachers
Elementary Parents Students Gr 3-5

32. Targeted and thematic reports
Online learning trends
Mobile learning & social media
Print to digital migration
Social learning
Intelligent adaptive software
New digital parent series
Presentations, podcasts and webinars
Research reports: digital content, mobile learning, 21st century skill
development, professional development
(c) Project Tomorrow 2013
For more Speak Up data and reports

33. “If I was a teacher, I would make learning fun with
smartphones, tablets, and websites by letting
everyone bring their own to school. In my class, we
would have textbooks on tablets so there would be
no cutting down trees. Kids in my class would have
everything on their smartphones, tablets, and they
could download apps for science, math and reading.
It would be a lot of fun if there were
smartphones, tablets, and websites at school. The
kids in my class would really love it.”
Fifth Grade Boy (PA)
Response to Speak Up 2012 Question

34. Thank you.
Let’s continue this conversation.
Julie Evans
Project Tomorrow
jevans@tomorrow.org
949-609-4660 x15
Twitter: JulieEvans_PT
Copyright Project Tomorrow 2013
This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material
to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright
statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by
permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written
permission from the author.

35. One View of Personalization
• Content Delivery: Making recommendations for
lessons, videos, readings, or assignments to do
next (often “crowd-sourced” & using “big data”)

36. • Assessment: Giving a
student slightly harder or
easier problems next
Another View of Personalization

37. Personalized Learning?
Will County, Illinois One-Room Schoolhouse, http://polarbearstale.blogspot.com/

38. Personalized Learning?
• Learning to Drive a Manual Transmission

39. Future of Personalization
• “In the Moment”
• Track, Analyze & Respond to Everything
– Answers
– Strategies
– Specific Mistakes
– Interactions, Investigations
• Lessons Built Specifically to be Adaptive
• Responding Similar to How a Professional
Educator would in a 1-1 situation

40. Improve Learning through
Personalization.
Not Prescription.

41. Plan Backwards
• “Contemporary school reform efforts…
typically focus too much on various means:
structures, schedules, programs, PD, curric
ulum, and instructional practices (like
cooperative learning).” [or personalized
learning].
• Certainly such reforms serve as the fuel for
the school improvement engine, but they
must not be mistaken as the
destination…*which is+ improved learning.”
p. 234-235, Wiggins & McTighe, © 2007

42. Learning is intensely personal

43. Goal: Improved Learning
• Personalization
o A strategy to achieve learning goals for all students
o Honor each student’s ideas
o Enable sense-making
o Support transfer of learning
o Levels of achievable challenge
o Curriculum matters
o Pedagogy matters
o Enhanced by technology

44. Learning is Not Linear
© Rovio

45. Learning is Not Linear

46. Learning Theory
“The notion that learning comes about by the accretion
of little bits is outmoded learning theory. Current
models of learning based on cognitive psychology
contend that learners gain understanding when they
construct their own knowledge and develop their own
cognitive maps of the interconnections among facts
and concepts.” (pp. 5–6)
Shepard, L. A. (1989, April). Why we need better assessments. Educational Leadership, 46(7)
quoted in Schooling by Design, Wiggins & McTighe, © 2007 p. 46

47. Personalization shouldn’t be linear.
Typical “adaptive” programs
DreamBox Learning: Intelligent Adaptive Learning Engine

48. Personalization Requires Differentiation
• Teachers have a responsibility to ensure that all of their
students master important content.
• Teachers have to make specific and continually evolving
plans to connect each learner with key content.
• Differences profoundly impact how students learn and the
nature of scaffolding they will need at various points in the
learning process.
• Teachers should continually ask, “What does this student
need at this moment in order to be able to progress with
this key content, and what do I need to do to make that
happen?”
Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom
by C.A. Tomlinson & M.B. Imbeau, ASCD, © 2010, pp. 13-14

49. Formative, Personalized Feedback
What incorrect answers would we expect on 29 + 62 = ?
– 19 Student adds all four digits
– 33 Student believes this is a subtraction problem
– 81 Student does not regroup to the tens place
– 92 Arithmetic error in ones place
– 811 Student adds each column independently
– 2962 Student combines digits
• How would you “score” each error?
• How would you respond to each error?
• What lesson(s) need to come before & after?
• Which of these errors are “naturally occurring?”

50. Honoring Students’ Ideas

51. Learning Principles
• “An understanding is a learner
realization about the power of an
idea.”
• “Understandings cannot be given;
they have to be engineered so
that learners see for themselves
the power of an idea for making
sense of things.”
p. 113, Schooling by Design, Wiggins & McTighe, ©2007

52. Engineered for exploration

53. Engineered for realizations

54. Engineered for understanding

55. Curriculum & Pedagogy Matter
• Single Linear Sequence
• Learning Objectives
– Narrow, Behavioral
– Isolated Knowledge
– Low-Level Skills
• “Giving” Understandings
• Students as Listeners
• Weak Progressions
• Lacking Connections
• Millions of Pathways
• Learning Objectives
– Big Ideas, Sense-Making
– Conceptual Frameworks
– Strategic Skills
• Authentic Conceptions
• Students as Doers
• Consistent Progressions
• Coherent Connections
Prescription Personalization

56. What Are Students Doing?
• Acquire Knowledge
– Watching & Listening
– Practicing (problems like the examples they just saw)
• Make Meaning
– Manipulating, Exploring
– Testing Ideas
• Transfer Independently
– Strategizing amidst Complexity
– Solving Open Ended Problems with no Scaffolding

57. Support educators with real-time data
to help personalize instruction

58. Support educators with real-time data
to help personalize instruction

59. Adapt continuously to individualize the
learning path for each unique mind

60. Q & A

61. Sign up for updates at:
dreambox.com/iPad

62. For more information visit:
www.dreambox.com