One to One Education

Back in the mid-1990s, everyone was talking about one-to-one marketing. Companies wanted to go beyond recognizing their best customers and utilize technology to build an experience tailored to the individual. Back then, I was asked to design a solution for a group of restaurants that would keep track of customers preferences, food choices, wine selections, and visits. The system allowed staff members at any location to recognize the customer and tailor the experience of the guest based on data collected over time.

A guest experience would be something like this: Welcome back Mr. Johnson, I see you enjoyed our chocolate soufflé on your last visit. Unfortunately, it is no longer on the menu, however, I can have our pastry chef start one for you if you like.

One to one marketing has become the norm for organizations looking to build loyalty with consumers by going beyond delivering a product and crafting an experience. Hotels now setup rooms in advance to individual preferences, credit cards allow holders to customize features and airlines accommodate seating preferences.

How would it be if we should tailor a child’s experience to her specific learning style? What would that look like? What impact would it have on the classroom environment? What kind of assessment would be needed to determine the specific needs of an individual student? How could a teacher address the specific needs of 25 or 30 students at once?

There seem to many barriers to be able to provide this kind of individual experience to each and every child. But the thing is, models exist for this type of educational experience. Special classes of students already are accommodated to provide the best learning environment. Academic Improvement Plans or AIP are already being used to assure students are getting proper accommodations in existing schools and classrooms. And there even schools that have extended this type of thinking to all students.

The New York City Department of Education is conducting a pilot called the School of One that provides “students with personalized, effective, and dynamic classroom instruction so that teachers have more time to focus on the quality of their instruction.” The school changes the traditional model of “one teacher and 25-30 students in a classroom, each student participates in multiple instructional modalities, including a combination of teacher-led instruction, one-on-one tutoring, independent learning, and work with virtual tutors.”

This blended approach to education sounds a little like what many Montessori proponents have been advocating for years. Can we leverage technology to provide a new kind of classroom that provides differing environments for each type of learning style? Ultimately will the classroom look less like a lecture environment where all students are expected to move at the same pace, to an environment where self-motivated students can learn on their own, while students who need more personal attention can get more individual instruction?

I believe that in a world that has innovated the way we access entertainment, provides personal experiences based on individual preferences and a new connected work anywhere workforce; educators need to consider that it is time to start working on a new education paradigm. The rate of change in the world is accelerating and we need to decide if we are going to lag behind, simply keep up or lead the way.