Author Archives: Michael Lance Whisenant, PhD

Can Machine Learning Personalize Education Without Isolating the Learner?

“Personalized learning” seems to be having an identity crisis of sorts. One group defines it one way, while another group of educators, schools, and technology developers uses the term to describe something different. That lack of agreement appears to be one of the main problems surrounding personalized learning. We do not have a communal definitionContinue reading “Can Machine Learning Personalize Education Without Isolating the Learner?”

How Can Learning Analytics Better Support Community College Students?

What learning analytics would be most useful in a community college, and how could those data help students make more informed decisions throughout their educational journey? At the institution where I worked, we served as an open-enrollment college that accepted students with a wide range of academic backgrounds and life experiences. Placement measures such asContinue reading “How Can Learning Analytics Better Support Community College Students?”

What Skills Will Tomorrow’s Workers Need Most?

If you were responsible for preparing tomorrow’s workers for a retraining program, which skills would you prioritize? The possible answers are extensive: emotional intelligence, creativity, cultural flexibility, technological adaptability, storytelling, design thinking, data analysis, financial literacy, mindfulness, entrepreneurship, and many others. My own five choices come from a mixture of what is needed to becomeContinue reading “What Skills Will Tomorrow’s Workers Need Most?”

Why Is Gamification Harder to Implement in K–12 Education?

If gamification has become common in corporate training, why does it still seem difficult to implement consistently in K–12 education? Rebecca Torchia of EdTech Magazine makes an important distinction between gamification and game-based learning. Gamification involves adding game-like elements to an activity that is not inherently a game, while game-based learning places the educational contentContinue reading “Why Is Gamification Harder to Implement in K–12 Education?”