The question many educators have about 'Personalized Adaptive Learning' (PAL) is about the nature of this 'learning'. Do children sitting on digital devices, processing materials for learning and for assessments, learn about the concept, or are they acquiring bits of information without the ability to assimilate/accommodate these into their cognitive schema?
Carl Hendrick, in his thought-provoking post (https://lnkd.in/gQi-H7BP), says, "If there is a central conundrum in instructional design, it is this: firstly, how to disassemble a domain of knowledge into teachable parts without destroying what made it a domain in the first place. And then secondly, how to reassemble those parts into a flexible understanding without mistaking performance on individual components for comprehension of the whole.
For example, a student can learn the dates of every major battle in the First World War, define "alliance" and "imperialism," and correctly identify the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand as the triggering event, yet still have no real understanding of why the war happened. Or more commonly, the student who can accurately define a set of vocabulary words and still be unable to use them appropriately in speech or writing."
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This means that PAL experiments/projects must seek deeper and longer-term assessments to see if their success has been in enabling conceptual understanding. PAL and much of AI-enabled learning otherwise would be a more efficient way of rote memory-based learning (acquiring data/facts without a deeper understanding of their significance, and consequent ability to apply these in their lives). Thereby enhancing the legacy limitation of our education system.
In his article, Carl also discusses how it is the teacher who can bring in these connections to help conceptual understanding.Imagining that PAL can be device-based seems to suffer from a lack of shared understanding of what learning actually means.
If you are concerned about the rapid implementation of EdTech in Indian education, without adequate consideration of purpose, process, intended and unintended socio-cultural, political, economic and pedagogic outcomes of these programs, then do consider joining the Critical EdTech India (CETI) network - CETI is a group of progressive educators/activities keenly interested in the EdTech space in India, to critical view programs and imagine meaningful ways of integrating digital technologies in school education. Invite link - https://t.me/+pdFCsvmZeBY3ZTBl