Students in K-12 education are experiencing a wide range of individualized opportunities within their day: Facebook pages, iPhone applications and Twitter accounts are allowing students to engage in new and different ways. However, the K-12 educational environment is far from individualized.

A typical class may have 25 students in the room, all with individualized needs. However, the system in which schools operate tends to  move students through in a factory approach. Regardless of whether or not the student is proficient in the unit or chapter studied, the class will move on. The class has to move on because the teacher knows there is only so much time in a day, month, marking period and year. The teacher knows they have to cover “x” amount per day because of the standardized tests in the near future.

The problem with the above model is that individual learning styles are typically not accounted for. Auditory, kinesthetic and visual learners will have to quickly adapt if they are to catch up. With 25 different learners in a room, that equals 25 distinct students with 25 individual learning styles. Generally, teachers are not equipped with the skills to identify and teach individual students. Barriers such as the following make it difficult to address each student:

1. Time and resources
2. Teacher training
3. Ability to identify learning styles of students
4. Communication of learning styles to all student stakeholders
5. Education of parents and students

What if a model was developed that addressed the above barriers and re-established (maybe established for the first time) a school environment that was student centered? This model would teach veteran teachers about methods that were relevant to today's student. Anyone who has been through a teacher education program jokes about the old audio/visual class in which the professor (who hadn't been a classroom teacher for 30 years) showed how to use a film strip machine — and we had to demonstrate it! These classes, by the way, were still taught long after film strip machines weren't made anymore, making them irrelevant. Students want relevance, and I believe teachers do as well. A veteran teacher of 25 years recently said to me, "I want to get better. I want to try new ways of reaching kids, but I don't know how." Now that's an attitude I can work with — someone willing and ready.

But it also starts at our teacher education programs. To really shift a paradigm in teaching, a shift needs to happen on college campuses. I'm all for scholarship and academic integrity within the collegiate ranks. However, it's the job of a college to prepare students who are ready for the industries in which they have chosen. The preparation should be relevant to the student, the profession and the technology. Teacher colleges could greatly assist in breaking down the above barriers by focusing on three things:

1. Integrating online learning within the traditional brick and mortar classroom.
2. Training teachers to become facilitators versus a traditional stand-in-front figure.
3. Encourage teachers and students to become contributors in the curriculum process by providing a place to provide user-generated content.

A real shift in theory and practice could happen if there was an alignment between teacher colleges and K-12 institutions where prospective teachers could regularly use the theories and methods taught in the college classroom and have those directly applied in an aligned K-12 classroom. This has been tried in sporadic areas, but a purposeful approach to this might be the shift that is needed. There is going to be a movement one of these days. The question is, are you going to be moving as well?