In a post to its blog, LearnLaunch has released research recognizing the Top 20 education technology opportunities for investment and to improve student outcomes.. LearnLaunch is Boston’s leading startup incubator of edtech companies devoted to pedagogical improvement.
LearnLaunch partner, Jean Hammond, and MIT Sloan graduate and co-founder of Smile and Learn, Blanca Rodriguez, conducted the study, focusing on why education has often been gradual to adapt to technological innovations. The summation of their research led Hammond and Rodriguez to illuminate both the pressing concerns of educators and the opportunities for entrepreneurs, which enabled them to identify the crucial overlap of the two.
In explaining the strategy of their conclusions, Jean Hammond remarked, “We applied a framework of overlaying market vulnerabilities in the education market with specific areas of technology disruption.” The 20 companies attributed in this list represent the most promising areas for edtech ventures such as data analytics, gamification, and machine learning
Hammond and Rodriguez identified, to their dismay, the reality that there is a mounting breach between schools that can adopt new technologies and those that cannot. Even with this disparity in mind, the study noted that the academic realm as a whole has been lagging behind other industries in their sluggish embrace of emerging technologies.
However, a trend toward investing in startups revolving around disruptive technologies has arisen over the past decade—the height of which was seen in the last quarter 2015. One major roadblock to new disruptive startups flourishing is the hesitance of investors funding early-stage companies.
One result of this reluctance to embrace innovation is stagnant returns in student performance—despite the hefty increase institutions have invested in their students. The integration of disruptive technologies is exactly what the educational sector needs to begin to thrive. In analyzing the discrete market forces within the industry, Hammond and Rodriquez identified exactly what types of innovation will be most conducive to success within the current state of education. They divided the most influential forces affecting the market into two categories: market vulnerabilities and tech and science disruptions. The former encapsulates government regulations, transition success, and special populations and narrow markets, while the latter represents virtual reality and other emerging user experiences and interfaces, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and brain science.
In order to successfully navigate and tackle these forces, Hammond and Rodriquez applied a framework that provided actionable data. At the intersection of the market vulnerabilities and tech and science disruptions is where Hammond and Rodriquez believe immense opportunity lies. These are the 20 opportunities identified within their analysis: peer2peer learning, neuroscience, virtual training, students-creators, rethinking schools, mobile, flipped classroom, blended learning, machine learning, open educational resourced, project-based learning, automated speech recognition, gamification, adaptive learning, data analytics, competency-based learning, machine learning, non-cognitive or affective learning, and global education.
Each year online learning initiatives becomes less of a fringe movement and more of an incorporated, and accepted, form of education. More than 6.7 million people took at least one online class in the fall of 2011 and 32 percent of college students now take at least one online course during their matriculation. It is even becoming commonplace for high schools to require all students to take an online class before graduation as a way to prep them for the “real world” of secondary education.
The flexibility and convenience of online learning is well known but what is not as readily talked about is the way distance education promotes diversity of the college population. With less red tape than the traditional college format, online students are able to earn credits while still working full time, maintaining families and dealing with illnesses. Whether students take just one course remotely, or obtain an entire degree, they are able to take on the demands of college life more readily – leading to student population with more variety.
The Babson Survey Research Group recently revealed that while online college student enrollment is on the rise, traditional colleges and universities saw their first drop in enrollment in the ten years the survey has been conducted. This drop is small – less than a tenth of one percent – but its significance is big. A trend toward the educational equality of online curriculum is being realized by students, institutions and employers across the board. The benefits of a college education through quality online initiatives are now becoming more accessible to students that simply cannot commit to the constraints of a traditional campus setting.
A controversial experiment that could lead the way to even more college credit accessibility is MOOCs, or massive open online courses. As the name implies, these classes are offered to the general public at a low cost, or no cost, in the hopes of earning their students college credit. California-based online course provider Coursera recently had five of its offerings evaluated by the American Council on Education for college credit validity. Four of the courses were recommended for college credit by ACE, and one was endorsed for vocational credit, providing student work verification through a strict proctoring process.
These credits are not earned through community colleges or online-institutions; Duke University, the University of California at Irvine and the University of Pennsylvania are on Coursera’s list of places the courses will earn credit for students that pay a nominal fee. Students that obtain these credits through Coursera can approach any higher education institution and seek their inclusion in a degree program, but the final discretion is up to the particular school.
MOCCs are certainly in an infancy stage and do not provide a “sure thing” yet for students that participate. In the Babson survey mentioned earlier, only 2.6 percent of schools offer a MOOC, but an additional 9.4 percent are building a MOCC plan. The potential for further diversity and equality in education through MOCCs is certainly on the horizon. This form of online learning means that students do not have to commit to an entire course of study to obtain credits or even commit to a particular institution upfront.
MOOCs will further eliminate the socio-economic barriers that keep promising students from seeking out college credits. Students are given more flexibility in scheduling at an affordable price. Though the MOOC trend has its dissenters, I believe it will win over even the most skeptical and increase accessibility for all people that seek higher education. After all, at one time the mention of online courses raised a few eyebrows in the educational community and look how far the concept has come. Further development of online initiatives, specifically in the area of MOOCs, represents the next big step for enriching the diversity of the college student population in America.
STEM education remains in the spotlight 25 years after the term first emerged. Coined in the 1990s by the National Science Foundation, the acronym is applied to any curricula, event, policy or education program addressing Science, Technology, Engineering or Math. Most often it references Science and Math, but all four areas have become hot topics in the general education of K-12 students. The emphasis carries through to higher education and beyond, seeking to prepare young adults to assume 21st century worthy jobs. Anticipated areas of need include employees who are interactive as problem solvers, researchers, designers, and engineers.
The shortfall of current industry STEM prepared workers and anticipated workers needed over the next ten years can be compared to the 1950s and 60s shortfall of scientists in the space race era. The United States is losing ground in STEM expertise internally and globally for both workforce development and academia while other countries are ramping up efforts to produce scientists and engineers. Predictions put Asian engineering design and innovation surpassing American outputs in just a few years. STEM job growth is predicted to increase by 10% over the next decade, compared to a 4% increase in non-STEM industries. STEM prepared industry employees currently earn at least a $9.55/hr. higher than other industry counterparts.
Of particular emphasis through 2016 is strengthening, reaching, and serving underrepresented female populations in STEM. Examples of practices include maximizing access to and use of relevant, high quality resources that can raise awareness of and break down access barriers for females interested in STEM courses and careers, and provide collaborative opportunities for teachers to enable sustained development of improved practices. Targeted methodologies include webinars, websites, professional development opportunities, and mini-grants. To date, 39 states have participated in Collaboratives affecting over 8 million girls, and 4.5 million boys.
Despite proactive programs and opportunities for female students to engage in STEM forward learning, results show gender inequity in several course paths. While males and females show similar interest in math and science, males are three times more likely to pursue STEM careers. Females tended to pursue “softer” sciences such as biology; males tended to pursue physics and engineering, typically thought of as more male gender appropriate.
The disparity really begins to emerge at the higher education level. Women earn 57% of all Bachelor degrees but only 50% in science and engineering. Men earn over 80% of the degrees in engineering, computer science and physics, while women earn only 18-19% in the same fields. Women tend to earn their degrees, once again, in the “softer” science areas of psychology, social sciences, and biological sciences. Under-represented populations of women make up 16% of the degree earning population but receive only 3-5% of Bachelor degrees in engineering, computer sciences, and physical sciences.
Female populations, therefore, continue with inequitable representation in the workforce. Women make up 47% of the general workforce in the US, but hold only 2% of the Science and Engineering jobs. Minority women hold less than 10% of the 2% of these jobs. Female science careers cluster in social sciences, and biological and medical areas (about 50%) but average much less than 25% in computer and mathematical sciences, and engineering.
The glass ceiling has not been broken for STEM careers. Although these areas of gender inequity have been studied and discussed for over two decades, and presidents and the Federal policy makers have declared initiatives and policies aiming at leveling the gender field, little actual progress is reflected in real world applications.
Barbara Mader is a retired teacher certified in special education, speech therapy, and as a Wilson Language Instructor. She taught special needs students in three states for over thirty years. She now tutors, blogs, edits, writes in eight categories for Examiner.com, and is developing a line of all natural non-chemical skin care products. As a hopeful novelist seeking an agent for her first romance adventure she wove together her love of gardening, ancient history, a little magic, and fairies. You can follow her online journalism work at http://www.examiner.com/user-bmaderand her somewhat irreverent blog at http://barb-says.blogspot.com.
Recently, at a child’s birthday party, I overheard a conversation between parents discussing their concern about “screen time.”
Phones, computers, iPads and the good old television are all around us. And this can be a source of anxiety for parents, caregivers and teachers. A recent report from the American Academy of Pediatricssuggests the amount of time young children spend viewing television and movies and playing on handheld devices is increasing.
As an early childhood media researcher, an early childhood teacher educator and a parent, I understand these concerns. But, I believe, it is equally important that we consider how children are learning from the time spent in front of the screen.
My research shows that children are creating complex oral stories through the characters they see on screen.
Educational opportunities in “screen time”
A number ofstudies show how viewing television and other media can contribute to children’s learning. Children have been known to improve their math and literacy skills from watching “educational” shows such as Sesame Street.
When children watch educational programs and interact with apps that promote learning, they make gains in literacy, numeracy and vocabulary. A recent articlein Young Children, a publication of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)(a nonprofit organization that works to promote early learning), shows how children can gain several skills through experience with computers and handheld devices.
These devices can facilitate better language and literacy outcomes, such as letter recognition, listening, comprehension and vocabulary. When children play games that link letter sounds to written letters, it can increase their ability to hear and identify individual sounds – skills children need in order to read.
Researchers showthat children learn from both print and digital picture books. Digital storybooks (e-books) that pair spoken word with pictures and print text can enhance vocabulary.
Apps that allow a “read-along” experience, for example, can help children develop a better understandingof concepts about stories and print, especially if they have printed text that children can see. E-books that highlight words as they are read, help young children learn that print is read from left to right in English.
Children learn from superheroes as well
But it is important to realize that it is not just “educational” television and media from which children learn. Children pick up ideas from television (even television not considered “educational”) and use them to enhance literacy.
Children can learn from superheroes, too. Researcher on early childhood learning Anne Haas Dyson found that seven- to nine-year-old children] took the superheroes they watched on cartoons and brought them into their fiction writing and dramatic play.
Her research shows children, like adults, often use media and media characters as tools. With the help of their teacher, children brought their home life and interests into school to make their writing come to life.
Dyson’s research demonstrates that when allowed, children use media – songs, characters from their favorite shows and movies – as a way to enhance their “school learning.”
My own researchdemonstrates how preschool children take unlikely characters in popular television shows and movies and blend them together to create complex oral stories.
Children bring what they learn from superheroes into fiction writing and dramatic play. Stephen Train, CC BY-NC
I spent nearly a year in a preschool to observe how three- to five-year-old preschool children talked and thought about television, movies and handheld devices. These preschool children often talked about characters from a wide range of television shows and movies.
For example, one preschooler, I observed, “borrowed” Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana, a tween rockstar, as the protagonist in her tale. After introducing Hannah Montana, she brought Boots (the monkey from Dora the Explorer, a preschool cartoon) into her story. She spun a story in which Hannah Montana and Boots battled and ultimately defeated a villainous monster from a movie.
Preschoolers took ideas from shows such as Sesame Street, Mickey mouse Clubhouse, cartoons featuring Spiderman, Tinkerbell and Spongebob. Some combined these with shows that older siblings and family members watched such as action movies, professional wrestling and even monster movies.
Rather than repeating what they saw on television, they brought ideas from their own community to make new stories.
The stories children saw and the characters they knew from television also allowed them to relate to other children. Superheroes, characters from Frozen and other popular culture characters can give children from diverse backgrounds a common (and exciting) topic in which to create play scenarios.
And this play involves negotiating and talking with other children about characters and plot, which in turn enhances oral language. Oral language is a crucial aspect of literacy for young children.
How should adults monitor screen-time?
Although research shows the way in which children learn from media, there are also legitimate concerns about what children see on these screens.
Media is created from viewpoints and stances that may not always be acceptable to parents and teachers. Media can show people in inaccurate and stereotypical lights.
So what should adults do with all of the media content coming into their children’s lives?
Research with preschoolers has shown that conversations allow a child to examine who is being shown in media and the way they are being shown. And it is important to note that children’s view of these stereotypes often depends on their home lives and environments. These conversations are important for children.
Adults also need to recognize that screen time is one way for children to learn. It is certainly not the only way. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that children should engage with entertainment media for no more than one or two hours per day.
As they note, it is important for kids to spend time on outdoor play, reading, hobbies and using their imaginations in free play. Children need rich experiences in their lives and interactions with other people. Screens cannot make up for this.
Children need a healthy balance. While we should be careful in flinging open the gates of media, we should be equally concerned about chaining them shut.
Allison S Henward, Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education, University of Hawaii
**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**
Dressed in a black hoodie and sagging jeans, DeAndre (name changed) swaggers down the street, singing loudly the gritty lyrics of a gangsta rap.
This routine typifies DeAndre’s journey to and from school. Many of those watching DeAndre’s behavior during his school commute could assume him to be a thug and a gangster.
Such a narrative, a result of theracialized and gendered narratives that black male adolescents live with in urban areas, is part of DeAndre’s schooling as well as out-of-school experiences.
Black males are presumed to lack intelligence when it comes to academics, particularly mathematics.
For more than ten years, I have been researching the lives and experiences of black STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) high school students all the way up the pipeline to black STEM faculty. I have looked at the achievements of black students in mathematics within their first eight or nine years of schooling.
The truth is DeAndre is a high school junior and a high-achiever in mathematics and science from an urban area. DeAndre is not hardened, but he is fragile.
His STEM identity is especially tenuous.
DeAndre is not alone. There are thousands of young men like DeAndre in urban cities across the country, who are STEM high-achievers and have the potential to succeed as STEM professionals.
However, too often they receive negative messaging about their continued success in STEM. Such messages from teachers or counselors downplay or minimize their mathematics abilities. The low expectations from these talented boys serve to further discourage them from pursuing STEM fields.
In 2011, whites held 71% of STEM jobs, Asians held 15% and blacks only 6%. In 2009 white students obtained 65.5% of the STEM undergraduate degrees. However, STEM undergraduate degrees for blacks have remained flat for the last 9 years.
When it comes to academic success, young black students face many other challenges that are only made worse by the negative messaging.
There are societal messages that equate black maleness with criminality, with teachers often being afraid of their black male students.
Often enough, as my own research shows, unequal access to treatment results in poorer healthoutcomes for black kids.
The early academic years for these students are riddled with long-term (two months or longer) illnesses that negatively impact their schooling and result in attending at least one summer school term.
DeAndre, for example, has a higher rate of school transfer; his current school is his third high school in three years. This lack of continuity for high achieving black male students can lead to additional pressures to prove their intellectual abilities in mathematics to an unwelcoming or skeptical school culture.
Fighting racial stereotypes can also wear them down.DeAndre is weary of racial stereotypes in general and stereotypes about black males in particular.
DeAndre’s coarse behavior during his school commute is actually performed to repel or deflect potential violence via aggressive posturing, as evident in his “swagger.” In reality, he hasn’t been in any “real” fight since second grade and is filled with trepidation every time he walks home from school.
Such few options
Young black students also work toward what is called “performing whiteness.” This in their words means: talking ultra proper English while enunciating every syllable, dressing preppy, not talking about their families, pretending to go on vacations, not telling too many jokes and proving to their white female teachers that they are not to be feared but to be loved and nurtured.
The result is that their intrinsic motivation for learning mathematics and steadfast internal drive get constantly eroded by a host of structural and environmental challenges.
In addition to all these above challenges, they are often at schools that do not offer enough academic opportunities to support their interests. DeAndre’s school does not offer AP classes that would position him more favorably for a STEM college major.
Another problem that black kids face is an absence of role models. The successful black role models that students like DeAndre are exposed to are mostly athletes and rappers. DeAndre does not want to be an athlete or a rapper.
Even so, the likelihood of DeAndre going on to pursue STEM remains frail.
Instead DeAndre has chosen to be a social worker. Through this justice-orientated work, DeAndre wants to address the social and racial inequities in his neighborhood. We don’t know if he will use STEM in the future or not.
If DeAndre has managed to come this far, it is thanks to the support he has received from family members. DeAndre has fond memories of playing dominoes with his grandfather and mathematically complicated card games with his aunts.
His first mathematics teacher was his father. Today, DeAndre is like a human calculator, spitting out complicated number algorithms.
Diversity vital to STEM
As we work to minimize the fragility factors affecting youth like DeAndre, we often overlook what protects DeAndre’s STEM and academic identity. The socialization in mathematics that does happen in many black households remains unappreciated by schools as it does by the predominantly white social structures.
My experience of investigating lives, such as those of DeAndre has convinced me of the need for rigorous research that contributes to a more accurate and nuanced portrayal of black males in STEM.
The vitality of United States will be derived in large part from fostering the STEM identities of young men like DeAndre who reside within our urban communities. Their participation is important for innovation – and for a more equitable society.
Our DeAndres should not see a conflict between pursuing a STEM college trajectories and an unyielding sense of responsibility for the improvement of their home communities.
The Internet is firmly here to stay. Computers and the World Wide Web have come a long way since the net first launched in the late sixties. Computers and all their silicon associates have cemented themselves into the modern world. Cell phones, laptops, iPods, iPads, tablets – the list goes on and on. Technology-literacy has become a mandatory part of success in today’s world.
We are living in the Information Era. This has changed many aspects of the education system and its components. Among many other changes, there is a new concept of what a student is. Industrial-age schools saw students as passive individuals who sat and absorbed whatever a teacher taught them. Students growing up during the Information Era are expected to take ownership of their learning process. They are taught to be problem solvers and to use the resources available to them as efficiently as possible. Students educated within this new concept of schooling seem to be much more confident in their work. They are building their knowledge themselves and work with information to come to their own conclusions and opinions.
Technology is a very broad term. Essentially, it’s the intersection of several areas of science and engineering and refers to how we improve our lives through technical means. In today’s classroom setting, technology usually refers to sophisticated digital electronic devices. Key terms to be familiar with are hardware and software. Hardware is the physical infrastructure making up a certain item of technology. When referring to a personal computer, this includes things like the hard disk drives, the motherboard, and other components that make up the physical machine. Software is a set of instructions for the hardware—the programs, applications, and operating system.
Of particular importance in the realm of teaching is instructional software. These are programs or applications designed to provide instruction to a computer user, making use of various methods. Instructional software has been around since the late 1970s. Instructional software is usually not designed to replace the role of the teacher, but rather to assist teachers in providing students with more individual opportunities to learn. It can be a powerful aid to teaching when used and promoted correctly.
An important concept to be aware of is open-source software. While companies such as Microsoft or Apple do not allow their users to view the code that makes up their applications, large online communities have been created around software with freely available source code. These companies include Linux, Apache, Mozilla, and many others. The software they develop is free to download and can be modified extensively by the user to create any additions they desire, which can then be redistributed for free. Even without extensive experience in programming or modifying source code, you’ll be able to use these online communities to acquire open-source instructional software solutions at no cost to yourself other than your patience and time.
Another concept to be aware of in technology is cloud computing, which uses the capabilities of the Internet to provide services to technology users that are largely independent of their location or usage device. Gone are the days of having to use a personal computer to access the Internet. We can now use mobile phones and tablet computers to access the Internet while we are on the move. But the graphic-processing capabilities of a desktop-based personal computer are usually far more powerful than that of a handheld device. Programs have to be adaptable enough to be used efficiently on these different technology platforms. Cloud computing, which moves the heavy processing to remote servers, will become of increasing importance as the diversity of user devices continues to evolve and increase.
As a teacher, it’s your job to make sure your students are technology-literate. Limiting students’ exposure to all of today’s digital devices in favor of sticking with more traditional media will only hurt them in the end. Students need to be able to learn and compete effectively in a world where technology is only becoming more and more important to higher education, work, and every day life. Take the time that you need to become familiar with all the buttons and wires of the modern age, and you’ll become a resource as invaluable to your students as Wi-Fi.
While technology is a major force across the world, its impact is not felt equally. While it’s wonderful when obtaining new technology for experiment and implementation isn’t a problem for schools and everyone in them, that condition is anything but the norm. Classrooms, teachers, and students across the nation – and across the world – suffer from being on the wrong side of the digital divide.
The digital divide is the disconnection between those with access to technology and those without. This disconnection includes the following aspects:
1. European American students have much more access to computers than African American students: 81% of European American students use computers at home, but only 44% of African American and 49% of Latino students do.
2. Wealthy schools have more and better technology resources than schools that serve poor students.
3. There is a difference in computer literacy in favor of boys over girls.
In the classroom, computers are used differently by middle-class children who have been in touch with computers than by children who have spent more time in rural areas or are from a low-income family. Middle-class children have better knowledge and a deeper understanding of how a computer works, and so they can take advantage of the technology and concentrate on building new knowledge rather than the basics of learning how to use a computer.
Schools have made great efforts toward reducing the digital divide by increasing the number of computers in schools. Currently, 88% of public high school students have access to computers at their school. In the public school setting, the percentage of European American, African American, and Latino students with access to computers is almost equal.
Race and class may influence how students use computers in schools. Studies have shown that European American students use computers primarily for simulations and applications, and less for drill-and-practice use. Simulations and applications are computer-focused research. Drill-and-practice are more basic activities, focusing on practicing a certain mechanical skill. In contrast, African American students reported using computers for simulation and applications only 14% of the time and reported spending 52% of the time on drill-and-practice. This difference is also apparent in institutions that serve poor students, because the time they dedicate to simulation and application use is only 13% of the total, while in wealthier schools this percentage rises to 30%.
Another aspect of the digital divide is in terms of gender. Several studies on the various differences between girls and boys and their response to or interaction with technology show that both boys and girls use technology, but for very different reasons. The girls studied spent more time using social networking tools, favoring activities and software tools that emphasize creativity, collaboration, and cooperation. The boys, on the other hand, spent more time with software and tools that emphasized competition and allowed them to develop abilities that would differentiate them from their peers. These studies demonstrated no differences in how quickly children of either gender adapt to technology, but there may be gender differences in how well the technology is used by students in the classroom setting for various tasks.
What is the composition of your classroom like? Do students and their families have the economic resources necessary to extend technology from the classroom to the home? Are there limitations on what your school can obtain? What does the pre-existing technology literacy look like among your students?
While modern technology is great, blind application of it can be detrimental in more ways than one. Think about where your classroom falls around the digital divide, and plan out how you’ll bridge the gap accordingly.
Words like “technology,” “digital devices,” and “modern media” sound flashy and attractive. Of course teachers want to have those buzzwords in the classroom! But when it comes from moving to virtual reality to concrete curriculum, what does introducing technology in the classroom actually look like? What do all those buzzwords really mean?
Technology-focused education is based on a constructivist approach to learning. As described earlier, the teacher in a technologically advanced classroom is seen as a facilitator rather than a pure instructor. A teacher’s function is to help students use the technological resources appropriately to find the information rather than presenting it to them. Students need to learn how to find the information they need and take ownership of their own learning. Working in small groups is also a crucial factor in acquiring these skills. Small-group instruction versus massive class instruction provides opportunity to develop a group dynamic, to make group decisions, and to share knowledge. Classes working under these principles promote cooperative rather than competitive group dynamics.
The degree of ease with which you’ll incorporate technology into your teaching methods will depend on how much technology you’ve been exposed to during the course of your life. You may have grown up in a home where a computer was used every day, or attended a school where learning was predominantly based on technology. Teachers who are less familiar with technology and have used traditional methods of teaching can also incorporate technology into their classes without having to change their entire teaching system. Teachers in schools commonly communicate via e-mail and text messages, incorporate the Internet into lessons, and encourage the use of productivity tools such as Microsoft Excel and Word.
This method of teaching also changes the way educators assess knowledge. The fact that students play an active part in knowledge acquisition implies a better understanding of the content provided. Formative assessment in this model of teaching becomes more important than ever, and teacher feedback is a crucial part of the process in order for students to achieve the content learning goals of the lesson.
If you’re interested in learning more about the ways that you can capitalize on today’s modern inventions to bolster your teaching, take some time to look through our other articles on specific resources available out there in realm of hardware and software.
Math concepts are difficult for students. parents and educators. Even teachers who are trained and skilled in math struggle to give a classroom of students the one-on-one attention needed for mastery. Parents are then expected to pick up that slack at home, often with little time to do it and no training in the way math concepts are taught today. The combination of difficulty (or perceived difficulty) and lack of time needed for custom math learning in the classroom and at home leads to many students getting lost in the shuffle from one concept to the next.
The statistics are telling. In the most recent round of testing performed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement, American students were outscored in math by 13 other countries, including Canada, Japan and Korea. The test showed little improvement in American student success in math from the time the first tests were implemented in 1995. Math, it seems, is still outsmarting teachers, parents and students, despite all the efforts to strengthen the math skills of the American public.
Educational technology is evolving so quickly, though, that there has to be a way to narrow these deficiencies. Recently I had a chance to try the personalized math help platform LearnBop, launched initially for teachers and now available for parents to use at home. The new LearnBop Family platform is a math-centered learning management system covers K-12 math topics, including algebra I and II and geometry. Students are given learning paths that they can tap on their own and at their own pace, providing a path for customized learning that complements what teachers are already doing in the classroom.
LearnBop Family is not a question and answer platform. The material is adaptive, meaning it reacts to the actions of the students, and adjusts lesson plans. LearnBop Family helps every student with each individual problem they attempt, and then it tutors students step-by-step when a problem is incorrectly solved.
An independent study found that students who used the LearnBop platform alongside classroom instruction for an hour each week saw math growth of 40 to 66 percent higher than the average for their grade. LearnBop students also showed 7 to 9 percentage points more growth on post-assessments compared with peers not using the platform. The study also found that LearnBop was effective across gender and ethnicities, too.
That final stat is important because years of educational research tell us that students who come from advantaged backgrounds perform better academically. The reasons for that are obvious enough — parents from middle and higher socioeconomic backgrounds tend to have more time to help kids learn and often have attained higher educational goals. LearnBop family levels that playing field by giving the same one-on-one, attentive treatment to students from all backgrounds, providing equality in resources for the students using it.
The thing I really loved about the LearnBop concept is that the content and delivery style was developed by teachers. I’ve often thought that some learning management systems lack that realistic, human touch that goes a long way with students. If learning material is really meant to mimic a teacher, then it just makes sense that an actual teacher should be involved in the content creation process.
LearnBop Family is reasonably priced, at $15 per month or $150 per year, and with each new subscription, another one is donated to student who needs the resource but does not have the means to pay for it. I like that LearnBop recognizes that though its price point is low (individual tutoring costs $15 or more per half hour), there are still students who come from backgrounds that cannot afford it, which I think speaks volumes to the heart of the company.
Math learning is difficult. One-on-one teaching is impossible in today’s classrooms. Parents want to help their kids but are often ill-equipped when it comes to math concepts. LearnBop Family faces both challenges head on with its learning management system with proven results. If you want to learn more or get your own kids started, head to the LearnBop Family website.
If your classroom has students with special needs, modern technology can be a massive blessing. Digital devices and screen capability have helped countless students overcome communication hurdles and obstacles to class participation. While technologies from across the field have been coopted to help students with special needs and disabilities succeed in school, specially designed technology, or “assistive technology,” has proved particularly useful.
Assistive technology in K–12 classrooms is designed to improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability. While the word technology automatically conjures up images of cutting-edge electronics, some assistive technology is possible with just simple accommodations. Whether high tech or simple in design, assistive technology has the ability to transform the learning experiences for the children who benefit.
With so much talk about mobile devices at K–12 desks and teaching technology for the majority of students, it can be easy to overlook the strides also being made for students with disabilities in assistive technology. Here’s a look at strides being made in some common assistive technology areas:
Alternative Input Devices
These tools are designed to allow students with disabilities to use computers and related technology easily. Some alternative input devices include touch screens, modified keyboards and joysticks that direct a cursor through use of body parts like chins, hands, or feet. Some up-and-coming technology in this area is sip-and-puff systems, developed by companies like Microsoft, to perform computer functions through the simple process of inhaling and exhaling. On-screen keyboards are another area of input technology that is providing K–12 learners with disabilities better use of computers and mobile devices for learning.
Text-to-Speech Options
This technology is making mainstream waves through its use in popular cell phones like the Android-platform Razr M. While it is a convenience tool for people without disabilities, text-to-speech provides a learning advantage for students who have mobility or dexterity problems, or those who are blind. It allows students to speak their thoughts without typing and even navigate the Internet. Text-to-speech options can also “talk back” to students and let them know about potential mistakes or errors in their work.
Sensory Enhancers
Depending on the disability, children may need to learn differently than their peers. Instead of ABCs and numbers first, a child with language hindrances may benefit from bright pictures or colors to learn new concepts. Sensory enhancers may include voice analyzers, augmentative communication tools, or speech synthesizers. With the rapid growth of technology in the classroom, these basic tools of assistive technology are seeing great strides.
Screen Readers
This technology is slightly different from text-to-speech because it simply informs students of what is on a screen. A student who is blind or struggling to see what is on the screen can benefit from the audio interface screen readers provide. Students who struggle to do what so many other Americans accomplish so easily—glean information from a computer screen in a matter of seconds—can learn more easily through technology meant to inform them.
Assistive technology in simple and complex platforms has the ability to lift the entire educational experience and provide a better life foundation for K–12 students with disabilities.
If you have students an Individual Education Plan or any kind of learning disability, consider contacting your district’s special education coordinator to see what kinds of assistive technologies are available to you.
