pointcounterpoint
Can Learning Be Too Personalized?
YES
Today, virtually all
information we
consume is cus-
tomized for us. In
his influential book
and TED talk, Eli
Pariser describes
the phenomenon of the “filter bubble,”
where algorithms in search engines and
social networks make judgments about
our needs, desires, and beliefs to deliver
an individualized internet experience.
Education can fall into a very similar
trap. Today, the usual suspects in “big
education,” as well as disruptive inter-
lopers like Khan Academy, are lining up
to provide sophisticated technological
tools to assess our students and deliver
highly individualized solutions for
their learning needs. On the surface,
this notion is difficult to argue against.
Of course teachers ought to take the
individualized needs of students into
account. Of course education is best
served by tapping into every student’s
unique interests and perspectives.
But this total focus on the individual can
create another sort of filter bubble—one
that emphasizes the things that make
us different rather than what we have
working together and sharing a com-
mon experience. We seem to have lost
touch with a basic truth: We may all be
unique individuals, but fundamentally
humans are social creatures. It is the way
we live, work, and learn.
NO
I do not believe
that learning can
ever become too
personalized.
While education
from a state, na-
tional, or interna-
tional perspective is concerned with
national and global trends—such as
building a viable workforce that can
compete globally in science, technol-
ogy, engineering, and mathematics
careers—education from the local,
district, or school level should be far
less focused on aggregated trends.
So we must decide: Should we meet
the needs of our communities or our
country, or should we meet the needs
of each child?
Of course, there are some things that
we have to learn that society deems im-
portant. For instance, we wouldn’t give
a student a driver’s license unless she’d
been through some sort of driver educa-
tion program, despite her disinterest in
learning the rules of the road.
And we’d be unethical educators if
we didn’t give kids opportunities to
face real and simulated challenges,
including those that forced them to
collaborate with their peers. Person-
alized education may mean that we
cater to student strengths, and it may
mean we customize curricula based
on a student’s interests. But it doesn’t
mean that we have to disrespect the
wisdom that you always know what
you need to know.
John Dewey’s vision of learning
through experiences in the real world
still resonates today as a reminder that
we can be doing more to make learn-
ing more authentic and meaningful
to students. To achieve personalized
learning, in fact, we should be doing
several things:
