Thoughts from the Education Elements PL Summit

Education Elements, our blended learning consultants, recently hosted their 2nd annual Personalized Learning Summit in San Francisco. Amidst the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and lots of sea lions, this conference provided an opportunity to hear about best practices in the field from presenters and to network with leaders from other schools and districts.

Here are a few takeaways:

1. Walk Your Talk- During the PL Summit, I had the opportunity to tour the headquarters of Pinterest. Though admittedly I am not the target demographic of the app, I am secretly (okay, not-so-secretly) an avid Pinner. Needless to say, the visit to Pinterest was definitely a highlight of the conference! While at first it was cool to feel like I was on the set of Silicon Valley, it quickly became apparent that this company is driven by a clear purpose and all of the organizational decisions they make are in accordance with that purpose. This is best demonstrated by Pinterest's core values: We put Pinners first, We knit, We're authentic, We go.

There is much to learn from how Pinterest practices these core values. By putting Pinners first, Pinterest has committed to perfecting the user experience. If students are our users, what are schools doing to perfect student experiences? All decisions teachers and school leaders make need to be for the good of students. The core value, We knit, refers to the collaborative workplace at Pinterest. All meeting rooms had glass walls and different teams consistently met together. To really best serve our students, teachers should be just as open and collaborative in their practice. We're authentic captures the reflective environment of colleagues in Pinterest headquarters, where high-level goals are set and actions towards those goals are honestly assessed. Teachers shouldn't be afraid to set ambitious goals and risk falling short; instead, they should be empowered to set those goals and supported if they don't quite get there. And finally, We go describes the need for Pinterest to always be ready to change and try things. Schools should feel that same sense of urgency to try best practices. There needs to be a spirit of planning and iteration, and not waiting for the next school year to try something.

2. Learning Like Our Students- This takeaway seems to be the culmination of a lot of my learning from conferences this year. As we seek to personalize learning for our students, especially in blended environments to ensure that learning can happen anytime, anywhere, shouldn't we practice the same type of learning as teachers? Teachers love learning, but traditionally, that learning is meted out in small doses at regular times over the course of the school year. When that chance for professional learning finally comes around, it often misses the mark in terms of content and delivery. These reasons are why I've been so enamored by microcredentialing for professional development. Microcredentialing is the idea that teachers should have the flexibility of place, pace, path, and/or time in their professional development. A microcredential could be awarded to a teacher that demonstrates (competency-based) their learning or expertise of a concrete teaching practice. Many districts incentivize this by awarding CEUs, college credit, or money for completion of microcredentials. While there is still a lot to explore with this, such as how can we incentivize in this district, the idea that teachers should be empowered to learn anytime, anywhere is something that sticks with me.

3. We're Not Alone!- In one particular session, and in conversations with leaders from other districts, I found it remarkable how similar personalized learning shifts have been across the country, from California, to Wyoming, to Myrtle Beach. Both the successes and struggles that we have in Hartford are similar to those in other districts in their first years of implementation. What was great to see were videos from districts a few years advanced from where we are, and the impact their changes have had. While it may seem like we have a long way to go to become a student-centered district, it is important to know that we are moving in the right direction and we have co-travelers on this journey!