Commentary / Personalization: It's Anything But Personal

In 2010, mass customized learning (MCL) took the education marketplace by storm with the debut of Bea McGarvey and Chuck Schwahn's self-published book, Inevitable. MCL's national tour began in the authors' home state of Maine, where I also live and work. So it isn't a surprise that everyone around me seems to have jumped on the mass customized learning bandwagon at some point during the past three years.

Superintendents across the state have selected the book for school board and administrator study groups. At the public university where I worked as a teacher educator, my administrator offered to buy a copy for each education faculty member last year. Dozens of local districts—including those in the Maine Cohort for Customized Learning—have used the book to transform their curriculum or schedules. Despite the fact that many districts tumble off the MCL bandwagon a year (or less) after hopping on, Inevitable has managed to displace differentiation, yesterday's education buzzword du jour, with today's—personalized learning.