The Friday Institute Launches New Series of Papers with Lessons and Recommendations for Educational Leaders

Today, the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation in the College of Education at NC State University launched the first in a series of papers that present lessons learned and practical recommendations for educational leaders. These short, useful papers include focused direction on topics such as metacognition and social emotional learning. The first paper, Prioritizing Personalized Learning: District Recommendations, is available now and shares five steps for a path to personalization.

The development of these papers was an outgrowth of the Personalized Learning Summit hosted in partnership with the Friday Institute, Digital Promise and the Oak Foundation. The summit took a unique approach by leading with the student and teacher voice in order to infuse the work with a focus on outcomes, not process.

Students and teachers were asked to participate in a design challenge around the following questions:

• What do students want to know about their own learning?
• What do they wish their teachers knew?
• What do teachers want to know about their students and their learning?

The model used for the design challenge was adapted from the Stanford d.school and Spencer models for design thinking. Students developed questions, interviewed each other, developed a prototype and received input from others. They then created their final products. Interestingly, students and teachers arrived at similar problem statements — all focused on relationships and wanting a better understanding of each other.

“We are so excited to share what we learned during the Personalized Learning Summit,” said Dr. Mary Ann Wolf, director of digital learning programs, the Friday Institute. “The unique approach and design challenge allowed the students and teachers to communicate and tackle issues in a new way. Everyone learned a great deal, and we are already hearing about how this method is being used with other groups.”

There will be a total of four papers released monthly starting with the first paper, Prioritizing Personalized Learning: District Recommendations. For more information about the series, visit Getting Smart, and to view a short video about the design challenge visit, https://www.youtube.com/embed/sdhTqA6_A9Aw.