Imagine...

With all due respect to the late John Lennon, I want to talk today about a concept that has been brewing in my mind for some time and I ask you to imagine a different kind of educational experience.  I am not going to take credit for being the “author” of this idea.  Rather, I am just a person who has though deeply about education in many different contexts for awhile and this idea seems to make some sense to me.  The concept is called “mass customized learning”.  The idea is eloquently explained in the book Inevitable: Mass customized learning, learning in the age ofempowerment by Charles Schwahn and Beatrice McGarvey.  The best way to first think about mass customized learning is to think of other examples in our daily lives of mass customization.  For example, if you go to Sheetz and buy a coffee, the coffee can be made exactly the way you want it to be made, which may be different than the person behind you in line.  Your coffee that you enjoy as you are walking out the door is a perfect example of mass customization.  The coffee was made to your specifications.  Think about how mass customization can lead to a better educational experience for our children.  Imagine if all of our students had (at some level) their educational experience customized to their passions, interests and life stories.  Can a school system accomplish this mass customization at a granular level of detail…I do not know.  I do know that public education can strive to assure that the educational experience of our students is more in tuned to their personalities and interests.

I believe strongly in the power of prototyping and “pilot projects” and PT has a handful of educators who have read the book and are trying to incorporate some mass customized learning principles into their classrooms.  I will share their stories with you in the Friday blog.  We are also fortunate that on Thursday a group of teachers, administrators, and a Board member will have a chance to discuss mass customized learning with one of the authors.  Mr. Schwahn will meet with the group through an online discussion format Thursday afternoon.  I will let you know about that discussion in Friday’s blog.