Our district is doing something they are calling Mass Customized Learning.
In 2010, a book was published on this subject:
Inevitable: Mass Customized Learning. Although this was just 6 years ago, the widespread use of technology for education was a radical new concept at the time.
Common Core wasn't widely known, and hadn't yet been widely adopted. This was prior to the proliferation of using technology for data capture and collection, when it seemed to be widely believed that technology would be exclusively used for
presenting information to students, not for
collecting information on students.
grouping children by ability and not just by age
This is a good thing.
differentiation that goes along with it (which is never enough!)
Once "differentiation" meant differentiated instruction, curriculum and pacing... now it can mean anything that is different (and not necessarily better suited to meeting a child's educational needs in their zone of proximal development (ZPD))... therefore beware the meaningless
buzzword. I mention this rather frequently because there are always new parents joining who may not have heard the buzzword warning.
