6. Personalization versus Learning and Teaching

6. Personalization versus Learning and Teaching. Technologies and commercial interests are pushing the idea of "personalized learning" - using technology to customize the process of learning to the needs and performance of individuals. Adaptive technologies, AI and robotics enable this with the support of a teacher. This approach focuses on consumption of educational material (content, assessment, algorithms) and the power of technology (itself a privilege) instead of interaction with meaningful provocations and interaction with others. The "beautiful game of education" is, according to Gert Biesta (a philosopher of education), is about exploring, understanding, sharing and learning. - not passing a variety of assessments (formative or otherwise) and not doing so alone. Indeed, the danger of "personalized" learning is that it promotes knowledge and understanding as a commodity which can be mastered and places self-interest above social and community-based learning. It is also seeks to minimize teaching and encourage the facilitation of learning. The term "learnification" has been used to capture this work - learning becomes a process which can be commodified, not a process which leads to enlightenment.