There is a movement in education that has been gaining momentum across the country and it prioritizes learner-centered practices as a means to empower students to own their learning. Personalized learning (PL) is not new, in fact, many schools have incorporated aspects of PL such as authentic learning experiences, student agency, and flexible pacing. Ohio is prioritizing this shift toward learner-centered practices and has established the Ohio Personalized Learning Network. The Ohio Department of Education has partnered with Educational Service Centers across the state and Knowledge Works to provice this grant-funded opportunity to any educator, school, or district in Ohio. Madison-Champaign ESC was one of 10 Educational Service Centers to receive this grant to fund a full-time Personalized Learning Specialist. Tracy Merica serves in this role and serves schools in the central region of the state. Personalized learning specialists can provide professional learning opportunities, coaching, resources and support for teachers, principals and district leaders.

Below are the ways that any educator, school, or district can engage with the Ohio Personalized Learning Network and Personalized Learning Specialists.

Professional Learning Pathways

Explore Personalized Learning - On demand resources for educators interested in learning at their own pace. The online modules are meant to develop foundational knowledge of personalized learning and spark interest in shifting traditional teaching and learning practices. These modules will be released at the end of January and are available to any educator in Ohio. Click here for more detailed information about the online modules.

The Explore phase consists of three modules:

• Module 1: What is Personalized Learning?
• Module 2: Why Personalized Learning?
• Module 3: Beginning Your Personalized Learning Journey

Launch Personalized Learning - Is your school or district ready to reimagine learning? Schools or districts can join a two-year cohort. This is an in-person cohort that meets 4 times per year and offers additional opportunities for virtual learning and collaboration with other school and district teams. OPLN is currently accepting new school or district design teams for the 2023-2024 school year.

Focus Areas for Launch

• key implementation strategies for the classroom
• assessment approaches
• leadership tactics
• implementation practices
• strategic planning

Transform Systems- This is a five year cohort designed for district teams to transform and implement a district-wide system of personalized learning. This cohort includes in-person convenings four times per year, virtual learning and opportunities to collaborate with other district teams. OPLN is currently accepting districts for Transform, which is set to begin in fall of 2023.

Read what Personalized Learning Specialist, Heather Townley, wrote about Ohio's Professional Learning Pathways.

Please visit personalizeoh.org or contact Tracy Merica for more information.

Personalized Learning is a learner-driven approach to teaching and learning that supports learners in achieving their goals in the ways that work best for them. In order to ensure that each learner is able to overcome obstacles to learning and be prepared for future success, it calls on educators to:

1. Really know and empower their learners;
2. Facilitate and co-design learning experiences with their learners;
3. Align supports to accelerate learning and meet individual learners’ distinct learning needs, interests, aspirations or cultural backgrounds; and
4. Provide ways for learners to demonstrate what they know and know how to do.

The Ohio Personalized Learning Framework consists of five components and is currently still a DRAFT.

1.1 Learners are engaged, excited and empowered to learn. They possess a strong sense of self-efficacy to approach complex and challenging learning tasks with a sense of confidence and view failure as a learning opportunity.

1.2 Learners expereince agency in their learning by being invested in the process of learning. They know what they are learning, why they are learning it, where they are in their learning and where they go next, which results in expert learners who are truly prepared for their future.

1.3 Learners collaborate with their learning facilitators to develop learner profiles that provide a narrative of the learner's assets, barriers to learning, needed learning supports and an aspiration of their future career goals.

1.4 Learners engage in relevant and challenging standards-aligned academic experiences grounded in evidence-based teaching practices that reflect their interests, experiences, culture and developmental characteristics(including prior learning, abilities, strengths, needs, talents, skills and language proficiency).

1.5 Learners are encouraged to use their voice to share perspectives, make decisions, set goals and take ownership of their learning, and they are also given choice on how to drive and show evidence of their learning.

Having your students create a learner profile is a great way to start personalizing learning for your learners. A learner profile is a document, project, or even a conversation that helps an educator learn more about their learners.

Learner profiles may include information such as:

• Skills, strengths, and interests
• Aspirations and passions
• Likes and dislikes
• Life experiences
• How the student likes to learn
• Struggles or potential barriers to learning
• Anything else the student or teacher deems important

This article from Knowledge Works explains what a learner profile is and why they are important. Understanding our learners can help educators to better design instruction.

2.1 Learners experience environments that are inclusive, human-centered and promote a strong sense of belonging. The learning environment is a safe and nurturing space for encouraging decision making, risk taking, collaboration and growth mindset, with high regard for learner perspectives, experiences, cultures and academic backgrounds.

2.2 Learners have balanced opportunities to work independently and collaboratively to maximize their learning experience in a way that is best suited to their learning needs.

2.3 Learners are provided with opportunites to learn anywhere(school, workplace or community) and anytime with access to appropriate tools and resources.

2.4 Learners have voice and choice in the co-design of learning spaces that are flexible and accessible.

2.5 Learners and learning facilitators co-construct classroom agreements so there is equal investments in the way learning interactions are structured. Restorative practices are utilized to hold one another responsible and to self-reflect on their adherence to the agreement which promotes learner agency, personal responsibility and full empowerment in the learning process.

3.1 Learners demonstrate ownership of learning as they innovate, problem-solve, design, communicate, create, construct and think at higher levels while engaging in collaborative or individual authentic learning interactions.

3.2 Learners engage in relevant learning experiences that build skills toward post-secondary pathways and are provided opportunities to demonstrate career-ready competencies in real-world settings.

3.3 Learners can see a clear purpose for learning. They are engaged in authentic projects and problems that are connected to real-world challenges/scenarios while engaging with field experts and business partners as authentic learning partners.

3.4 Learners are immersed in culturally-relevant instruction with connected learning experiences aligned to their cultural identities and community contexts.

3.5 Learners communicate, collaborate and advocate for their solutions to real-world probelms in their local and global community. Learners embrace these learning exhibitions as opportunities to see critique and feedback to continue deepening their learning.

4.1 Learners experience varied assessments as a valued process that informs the next steps of learning and have agency in deciding how to show evidence of their learning journey towards the desired goal.

4.2 Learners seek and engage in substantive specifice and timely feedback from the learning community (peers, learning facilitator, business and industry partners), so that they can understand their current progress, recognize that mistakes are opportunities to learn and develop a plan for moving forward.

4.3 Learners have opportunities to critique and revise their work in an effort to demonstrate mastery of targeted and transferable knowledge or skills (SEL and OH Means Jobs Readiness Seal).

4.4 Learners actively self assess as an embedded part of the learning process. By understanding assessment criteria (such as rubrics) and actively monitoring and curating their own record of learning, learners reflect and communicate on their progress and achievement.

4.5 Learners are immersed in a data-informed culture in which ongoing high-quality learner data and evidence of learning are analyzed in tandem with both learner and learning facilitator to drive reflection and action.

5.1 Learners are guaranteed a viable progression of knowledge, skills and dispositions on a learning pathway that is aligned to Ohio's state standards.

5.2 Learners have equitable access to high-quality instructional materials (including complex, grade-level text), strategies, resources, pacing and experiential learning opportunities that are aligned to their learning progression.

5.3 Learners and their learing facilitators use data to co-design accessible and challenging pathways to support various learning needs.

5.4 Learners have access to many learning paths for success, given appropriate tiers of instructional support and are capable of succeeding on one or more pathways.

5.5 Learners are provided with opportunities to progress at a pace that is appropriate to their needs in order to reach proficiency.

If you have interest in learning more, please reach out as we can schedule opportunities within districts, online, or in-person at our agency.

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If you have a chance, and have not yet read our quarterly ESC Newsletter, the ESC CONNECTION, please feel free to peruse at your leisure. Lots of great things happening at the Madison-Champaign ESC.