Researchers Evaluate Tech.-Oriented, Personalized Learning

But determining what works is proving to be challenging

By Michelle R. Davis

The Digital Learning Council , a group formed by a pair of former governors—Republican Jeb Bush of Florida and Democrat Bob Wise of West Virginia—released a report in December calling on schools to do a better job using digital tools to personalize learning. The nation’s largest educational technology conference, ISTE 2010 in Denver last June, was packed with sessions about how technology tools can be used to play to students’ strengths and weaknesses. Prominent virtual schools are riding the personalization bandwagon, too, touting the use of digital tools to customize education.

But the question most educators ask is: Does this tech-driven personalized approach work? That’s where things get a little murky.

For starters, “personalization” in education can involve so many different approaches that it’s hard to define in a universal way. And experts say there are very few large-scale models of excellence, backed by research, for educators to turn to for guidance. Beyond that, it is hard for researchers to isolate the impact of the digital tools when evaluating a personalized-learning approach that emphasizes...