Differentiated instruction has been around for about a century. It’s not that no one thought it was a good idea until recently. It’s that it just wasn’t feasible within the industrial model of education. You know the one I’m talking about—30 students, one teacher. Unless you’re prepared to churn through teachers at a steady rate, it’s not going to work without a little technological help. One of the problems with the current thinking about differentiated instruction is that we’re focused on what the teacher ought to be doing. We want her to be able to divide herself thirty different ways—it just doesn’t work like that. It’s about kids having access to the resources they need, when they need them. That’s where our good buddy technology can help.
There is a way to differentiate your instruction thirty different ways and not go absolutely insane. No seriously, there is. You have to build external systems. Given the right tools and training, teachers can create a library supplemental lessons and digital media to support their instruction with relative ease. Students can cue up the reference material that they need when they need it. And no, this isn’t going to replace the teacher and it’s not going to work 100% of the the time. What it does do, however, is it removes the teacher as the first place a kid runs to as soon as he encounter the slightest bit of difficulty. It builds a framework where students are encouraged to help themselves before they go and try to get someone to help them. Instead of asking the teacher to drive thirty trains at the same time, you’re asking her to play the role of the train dispatcher and watch over the system as a whole—swooping in when needed.
So how do we go about pulling this off? With the proper equipment (which doesn’t need to be expensive), a little bit of training, and a flexible attitude, it’s relatively easy—it’s certainly a lot easier than trying to juggle thirty balls at once. High definition digital video cameras (e.g. the Flip MinoHD and the Kodak Zi8) can be had for under $200. The newest iteration of Apple’s iPod nano can not only store a wealth of digital media, it has a voice recorder and video camera built-in. Screencasting software (e.g. Jing, Quicktime X for Mac) allows you to record what’s happening on your screen along with your voice for free. Publishing to the web with Posterous is as easy as writing email (Seriously, you just send a email to post@posterous.com and they handle the rest).
This is only a temporary solution, of course. Step one—we ween kids off of running to the teacher every time they need help. Step two—we empower kids to take the reins and start creating on their own. There is no reason that once a student has mastered a given concept she can’t make add to the library. Doing route tasks can be automated and outsourced—just as Dan Pink. If we’re going to keep this superpower ship afloat, we’re going to have to do what we do best—get excited and make things.
