Personalized Education

     I am a math teacher (have I mentioned that, yet?)  As such, I often find it difficult to find ways to personalize education for my students.  After all, math is a fairly impersonal subject.  I hardly ever hear the question "How do you feel about multiplying two by three, do you think that six is a good result, or should we brainstorm about the various possibilities?"  There are only a few ways to explain why two times three equals six.  If you choose a way that is not one of those few ways, then you are probably doing something that will cause problems for your students in the future. Math is very structured and step three cannot be completed until after step two.
     That is not to say that there is no way to make it somewhat personal.  One way to begin a discussion of a new concept is by providing the class with a problem that they can try to solve even though they do not have the exact mathematical skills to solve it. Then, after the class bounces ideas off of each other and comes up with their best attempt to answer the question, the teacher can provide the math skills that would make the job easier or more precise.  From a personalization standpoint, a teacher could choose problems from an area that might be interesting to the students.  Perhaps a problem related to sports would be interesting to some while a question about movie ticket sales would be interesting to others.  If a teacher could provide a choice of questions, all based on the same general concept, but related to different areas of interest, then more students might find that they are engaged in the class.
     Here is a problem, however.  At the level of mathematics that I tend to teach, which is algebra 2 and precalculus, it is very difficult to develop these problems on my own.  The best problems can be found on-line, and whenever a problem is found on-line, the answer can also be found on-line.  It seems to me, in my experience, that it is more likely for students to look for the answer on-line rather than to try to solve it on their own.  So I must battle that tendency.  I can certainly ask the students to work on the problem in class without the benefit of a computer, but that is not possible in a blended or on-line setting.
     So I have to be very careful about how I go about my attempt to take my classes into the 21st century.  Isaac Newton had it so much easier with his students.  He was one of only two or three people alive who knew the answer to his questions.  That really reduced the chances of his students cheating.