Personalized Learning: Hype or Hope?

Personalized learning is a much-used word these days in and out of education circles. It's a term often used, but many people don't know what it is and how it's currently used in schools. The core of personalization is using technology to give students more individual feedback and differentiate instruction by freeing up class discussion time through offloading lecture content to the computer, providing computer-based feedback, or a combination of the two.

What do schools expect from companies developing Personalized Learning?

How do you define it? Can you interchange personalized learning with adaptive learning? What role should technology play in education and how can it serve the needs of schools and students better?

Join a dynamic panel from a wide spectrum to discuss, question and challenge one another.

The evening will include:

• Delicious local fare + beverages

• Tech-focused content sharing and education

Panelist/Moderator Bios:

Qiana Patterson, EdTech Executive + Former Teacher/Admin LAUSD, @q_i_a_n_a

Ted Fujimoto, President of Landmark Consulting Group, Inc., @tedfujimoto

Dr. Shilby Sims, EdD, Principal, Western Avenue Elementary School LAUSD

Russ Altenburg, CEO of Reframe Labs

Dr. AnnMaria De Mars, President, and Founder of Generation Games

Bio's of panelists:

Ted Fujimoto, is the founder and co-chair of the Right to Succeed Foundation, a non-profit focused on transforming public education worldwide and through the creation of at least 6,000 American Dream Schools within the next 10 years. Ted helped to design and create the replication systems and strategy for several of the largest scalable, fastest growing, highest performing public school designs in the country that created over 400 schools, including

New Tech Network and Big Picture Learning. Big Picture Learning, public schools located in some of the toughest urban areas in America, are graduating over 95% of their students of which nearly 100% are being accepted to college. The New Tech Network has created over 200 public schools and is opening 20 to 40 new schools per year.

President Obama recently visited one of these schools: “Manor, that’s what every school should be. That’s what our country should be.” He has served on the California Education Technology Advisory Committee, received the 2002 Center for Digital Government "In the Arena” Award for Education Leadership in transforming vision to reality, and in Converge Magazines "1999 Year in Review,” Ted was named one of "Educations Dreamers, Leaders and Innovators"

Dr. Shilby Sims is a California native and proud of her education from Los Angeles Unified School District from kindergarten to 12th grade in South Central Los Angeles. Currently, as a principal in LAUSD, her school leads the way in innovation and school culture. She emphasizes the importance of technology in high needs community unapologetically raising attention to disparities for students of color and the digital divide.

While earning her doctorate from the University of Southern California, she opened and after-school and summer camp program to curtail the opportunity gap for students of color and increase the rate of high school graduation and college resiliency for her students. With the help of grants and donations, the summer program was offered at an affordable $50.00 per week. Moving into the principal position was an unexpected role, being offered a school in an underserved community with new 1 to 1 tech initiative combined her work as an online professor and her desire to advocate for technology use and purpose. The focus of technology led to WesTech, the annual student technology showcase which brings visitors from private and public sectors to hear African American and Latino students from ETK, Kindergarten to fifth graders presents technology projects at a 21st Century skill level.

Part of the 1to1 student:tech initiative, at the elementary level, Dr. Sims has created ways to inspire students using technology to increasing attendance, decreasing suspensions, developing functional ways for administrators to streamline workload and creating parent workshops supporting edTech at home. Her collaborative work with businesses support students in a better understanding of their place, purpose and promise of success in the tech world. For her work in community service and educational technology awareness, in 2016 she was named Educator of the Year by the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated. Currently outside of her principalship, she is an Ed Tech professional developer, Private Tutor, Motivational Speaker and Educational Consultant.

Russ Altenburg is CEO of Reframe Labs, a nonprofit incubator that supports diverse leaders to design and launch innovative public schools in Los Angeles. Previously, he was a program officer at the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, where he managed a $30M+ portfolio of grants in the areas of personalized learning, innovative school models, and state policy. Prior to joining the foundation, he was an Education Pioneers Fellow at NewSchools Venture Fund. In 2005, he co-founded Global Playground and built schools in Uganda, Cambodia, Thailand, and Honduras. He previously worked at JPMorgan advising corporate clients on currency risk management. Russ holds a BSc in Economics from Duke University and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he was awarded the John Wooden Leadership Fellowship. He was also part of the KIPP Leadership Design Fellowship and the inaugural cohort of the Pahara Next Gen Network.

Dr. AnnMaria De Mars is the President and founder of 7 Generation Games. AnnMaria has more than 30 years experience in education, from eighth-grade math teacher to doctorate-level statistics professor and every level in between.

Named one of Forbes’ 40 Women to Watch Over 40: Women who are reinventing, disrupting and making an impact, AnnMaria is doing just that at the helm of 7 Generation Games.

7 Generation Games is the brainchild of AnnMaria, developed as a tool for bringing underperforming students up to grade level in mathematics. It is a product she first conceived as a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California -Riverside in the 1980s, only the technology did not exist. Three decades later, she is fulfilling that dream.

She has written dozens of articles published in scientific and academic journals, authored multiple chapters in books and is a much-sought after speaker on the numerous subjects, including education technology, software development, SAS, special education, online learning, statistical analysis and minority education.

AnnMaria has a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with specializations in Applied Statistics and Tests & Measurements from the University of California – Riverside, an MBA from the University of Minnesota and a BSBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

She has extensive experience in programming and development. AnnMaria is one of 7 Generation Games’ first two developers. She has created software that spans the scope of everything from big data analytical tools to a virtual library for Native American communities to educational video games.

As the first American in history to win the world judo championships, she can honestly claim to be a coding ninja.