Beacon Network Schools Blog: Make it Personal, Why the Individual Approach to Learning is So Effective This has become the age of personalization, and it’s easy to see why: after the rush of newness wears off, what keeps a product or concept interesting is the ability to tweak it to meet our individual needs or preferences. We all love the satisfaction of something that fits us just right—from custom-made shoes, clothing, or accessories, to customization apps on our smart devices. Industries across the board are starting to see the advantages of offering personalized experiences—and education is no exception. Pace Yourself It’s easy to feel left behind or too far ahead when everyone is limited to the same speed. Without the ability to move forward when the material is fresh, a student can lose the momentum they’d previously gained and stagnate in the interim. Alternatively, being forced onward when they need to review the lesson further may cause them to miss vital pieces of information that help later lessons make sense. The solution? Individually-paced learning.With the ability to revisit lessons, students feel more comfortable with their mastery over a topic and don’t become discouraged by the unrelenting pace. Without the stress of forcing learning patterns into an external deadline, the lesson becomes the focus, and mastery rises as a result. Take the Right Approach Everyone is different, and everyone has a learning style that works best for them. Some learn best with visuals, some benefit from audio reinforcement, and some learn best by sheer repetition and lots of practice. Whatever the optimal approach, providing students with the flexibility to find it improves performance and accelerates learning. Some students may learn a subject better in small, easy-to-digest segments, while others may prefer a deep dive into a topic and spend more time on it per session.Now that many school systems utilize mobile devices such as Ipads and Chromebooks iPads that are assigned to each student, a customized approach is more accessible than ever. Curricula can easily save each student’s progress and allow them to advance to the next step as they are ready, with minimal disruption to the rest of the class.Teachers can track progress and help students as needed. Students don’t even need to take the device home with them because they can easily access the content from smartphones or on their personal device.College PrepNo matter what post secondary level lie college, university, or tech school your child hopes to attend, they likely are incredibly driven to succeed. The more prepared they are for guiding their learning, the better their chance at succeeding..It only makes sense, then, to enable accelerated learning in all schools and allow students to earn extra credit or revisit particularly difficult lessons as needed. With technology-enabled individualized learning, this is easier than ever before.Here at Beacon Network Schools, we put this philosophy into practice every day. With a firm focus on each student as an individual, our goal is to prepare each student for their role in life—from college to career and beyond.