Short Order Teachers?

In the book Web 2.0 New Tools, New Schools by Gwen Solomon and Lynne Schrum, there is a section in chapter 2 called "the customization generation." It talks about how students are used to changing technology devices to meet their own needs and using the web at home to research, learn, and play as they wish. Students are used to customization outside of school. They can customize their Twitter account, their music, their tv viewing, customize a McDonald's order, customize paint colors for their rooms, customize T-shirts, and on and on. I believe technology has made customization simpler. There are so many more choices everywhere you look. For instance, growing up, I remember wearing the same outfits to school as others--because their were fewer choices, we shopped in the same stores, and chose from the same outfits. Now, people can order clothes online, go to shopping malls with many stores, Wal-Mart or Target, Goodwill, and garage sales. Rarely do I see children wearing the same outfits.

So, has technology made customized education possible? Can teachers be the short order cooks of student learning? Here is an article from Education Week called "E-Learning Seeks a Custom Fit" http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2010/02/03/02e-customization.h03.html and another from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about a principal who advocates customizing education for each student http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10105/1050449-54.stm. Both articles point out that one shoe does not fit all. Our current way of "mass teaching" is not effective for each student. The articles point out that with e-learning, with the technology of today, customized education has a promising future.

This year I have had the opportunity to work with a literacy program on the computer. This is for Kindergarten through 4th grade. When it works (we've had server/virus issues), the kids innitially love it, are engaged, and all doing something different--chosen by the computer based upon an innitial testing. This program is standards based, aligned with the Iowa Core Curriculum and all of that. You can run a multitude of reports--from individual student reports to class, grade, or even building reports. It is an extremely customizable program in many different aspects.

Although this is just the first year we have been using the program, I don't think it will ever (not in the near-to-mid future, anyway) take the place of the way reading and literacy is currently taught in the elementary school. I think it is an excellent intervention and reinforcement tool to use once or twice a week. After half an hour on the program, students start to get antsy. I don't think the program would keep them engaged enough to teach them all of the literacy skills they need at this young age.

So, an IEP for each student? Can teachers be short order cooks? My guess is not alone, but maybe with the help of technology and a few more years of perfecting e-learning. And definitely more of a possibility with secondary students. What do you think?