Assessment:  This provides a measurement of what our students currently understand and their gaps in knowledge or misunderstandings.  If done properly, assessments can provide a wealth of information about our students.  To be able to differentiate, you must understand the needs of your students to be able to make adjustments to instruction.  Technology is a great tool to address this in a student centered approach and here are some examples:

·         Poll Everywhere

·         Quizlet

·         Quizziz

·         Nearpod

·         Flipgrid

·         Recap App

 

Content:  This is the area where many teachers would consider differentiating their student learning based on achievement or special needs.  Technology is nearly a perfect medium for this type of differentiation as it allows us to present information in different ways to make content accessible to learners of all achievement levels.  Examples of how this is done for student-centered classrooms:

·         Newsela

·         CK12 Flexbooks

·         MyOn

·         The Kid Should See This

 

Process:  This is a traditional area that can be greatly enhanced with student-centered technology as there are significant opportunities to update current pedagogy.  Technology makes the process for learning much easier and this also allows gamification to make learning fun again!  Here are some technology tools to help us do this:

·         Breakout EDU

·         Duolingo

·         CommonLit

·         Read & Write For Google Chrome

·         EdPuzzle

 

Product:  This is the category where students can demonstration their mastery through a project or product that allows students freedom in how they will show what they’ve learned.  Technology provides so many different ways to demonstrate knowledge through product, and this really transforms the classroom.  Some technology tools for student-centered differentiation of product:

·         BookCreator

·         Instagram and Snapchat

·         SeeSaw

·         Canva

The difference with personalization is that provides an emphasis on "student agency", and thus they have much higher involvement in decision making. Here are some examples of how it has been applied by different teachers across the United States:

Teacher Kendra Rosales, Edison High School in Huntington Beach Union High School District, CA demonstrates innovative personalization in her math class using a screencast to onboard students to the personalized learning process. In each math unit, her students choose how they want to move their learning forward within a lesson using modalities they are most comfortable with. All students begin by using a learner profile with “I can” statements to code their prior knowledge on a topic as beginner, progressing, or mastery. Students then provide evidence of learning for each code. This gives students a voice in their learning process as co-planners, and Kendra noted, “This opened the world for my students!”

Students at Rio Vista Middle School, Rio School District, CA are given choice in their learning environment. The educators created Blended Learning Hubs where students have a level of autonomy over the subject they learn, the modality, and the pace of their learning. Students are also expected to set the culture for how they will responsibly use technology at their school. Each student created a pledge that is displayed for ongoing accountability. Student agency empowers students to feel a part of and have some control over their learning experience.

Teacher Luz Velasquez, Baldwin Park School District, CA gave her sixth grade students the challenge to create a team website that would showcase the hard work they had done during the year. The website would be viewed at open house by not only their parents, but also by parents from other classrooms. Students had to review their work and decide on their best work to showcase. The authentic audience provided an opportunity for students to increase engagement and form a deeper connection to the learning process.

The Alief Independent School District, TX leadership team models how connectivity and collaboration can empower learners. The Alief leadership team used a Twitter Chat to enable teachers to collaborate and share best practices. For many teachers, this was their first experience using Twitter to collaborate with colleagues.

Teachers like Tara Hoopes shared, “Students want to be empowered and have a flexible learning environment.” While other teachers like Efigenia Zambrano realized, “The current system was designed for another age, and we are innovators changing education paradigms.” Teacher Brandy Jones summed things up by saying, “A huge shift is happening. Traditional approaches aren’t enough to create future leaders in problem solving and collaboration.” Alief School District is shifting traditional teaching and learning practices to dynamic 21st century learning experiences for students and teachers.

At Canal Winchester Middle School, OH, students’ familiarity with technology is woven into the learning experience. Welcome to the #Math SELFIE, where S.E.L.F.I.E is a way to guide students through the steps of solving math problems: S-Show your work; E-Estimate the answer, L-Look for careless errors; F-Find multiple solutions; I-Include math vocabulary; E-Explain your thinking #math “selfie”. This practice models how to have fun and be creative with technology concepts.

Here are some ideas:

Online learning: