Inevitable: Mass Customized Learning: Learning in the Age of Empowerment

Meeting the individual learning needs of every learner, every hour, of every day although espoused by educators, has only been a dream.....an impossible dream for educators facing student-teacher ratios of 25 to 1. But, alas, it is now a reality....a reality that is hiding in plain sight. Inevitable: Mass Customizing Learning (MCL) describes a detailed vision of how schools can change from the present outdated Industrial Age, assembly line structure to a mass customized learning structure with the capacity to meet the individual learning needs of every learner.....that's every learner, not some, not most, but every learner. iTunes, Amazon.com, Verizon, Wikipedia, and Google (to name a few) are doing it right now. They prove to us daily that mass customization is effective and efficient and...well...doable. Let's marry those powerful, customizing technologies with the power mission of educators to personalize learning. Everyone wins. The learner wins. And when the learner wins, so do educators, parents, society, and the economy. Inevitable provides a solid rationale for the structural change, identifies the proven technologies of today that make the vision doable, details the potential MCL has to motivate learners to high achievement, describes teacher roles that are highly professional, and outlines and concretely describes what school systems must do to make MCL a reality. The authors of Inevitable use a "weight bearing wall" metaphor to identify the Industrial Age walls (practices) that prevent us from meeting individual learner needs. Leaders are then shown how new customizing technology walls can replace those Industrial Age walls . . . and the roof will not fall in! Yes, leaders can operate a MCL system and still remain in control! The transformational change of MCL becomes clear, logical, and believable. Mass Customizing Learning is necessary and ..... well.... Inevitable . . . and this book describes how to do it.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Charles J. Schwahn has made his professional life a study of leadership and effective organizations. For the past 30 years he has worked with school systems and businesses throughout North America providing consultation on the topics of leadership, change, and future-focused strategic design. His career has placed him in nearly all the critical roles of the education profession, and his last "real" job was as superintendent of the Eagle County School District in Vail, Colorado. Chuck received his doctorate from the University of Massachusetts, where Ken Blanchard of The One-Minute Manager fame was his doctoral chair. Chuck is co-author of Total Leaders: Applying the Best Future-Focused Change Strategies to Education, Total Leaders 2.0: Leading in the Age of Empowerment, and Learning Communities 2.0. Chuck and his wife Genny spend their summers in the Black Hills of South Dakota and winters in the Phoenix area. He can be reached at chuckschwahn@yahoo.com. Beatrice McGarvey has consulted with educators throughout the United States and Canada in the areas of teaching and learning, leadership and organizational development. Her knowledge and experience is a result of the thirty-year career she enjoyed in Maine schools - as a classroom teacher, as a middle school counselor and administrator, and as a district and state leader, including serving as Executive Director of Education for the Portland Public Schools in Portland, Maine and as President of Maine ASCD. Bea received her B.S. and M.Ed. degrees from the University of Southern Maine and is proud to be a Partner in Total Leaders Associates, a Senior Associate at Marzano Research Lab, and a faculty trainer for International ASCD. She is co-author of The Future is Now: Shifts and Trends That are Redefining Organizations, Careers, and Life and Total Leaders: A Leadership Curriculum used by the Pennsylvania Leadership Development Consortium. Her large and growing family of four grandchildren and nineteen nieces and nephews prove Bea's theory that all children are born with an inherent will and motivation to learn. Her mission has been to create learning environments which do not extinguish this natural drive. Bea and her husband Richard spend eight months enjoying the beautiful coast of their native Maine and four months appreciating the desert and mountains of Arizona. She can be reached at mcgarvey@maine.rr.com.