Skip to main content

How Education Will Be Smarter, Less Intrusive, And Able To Respond To How You Feel



Impatience characterizes the technology sector’s approach to education. Disruption is taking place in all other sectors of society — so, why not education? I know too well, whether at Pearson or in the classroom, the challenges and frustration of developing and using digital tools that improve outcomes for students.
But I’m optimistic. We are on the verge of a tide of smarter innovation that, if allowed to spread, will turbocharge the learning experience for students. Here are four areas worth watching:
1. Using technology to learn from learners
Every great digital product constantly evolves by learning from its users, adding capabilities, and improving its performance. If it’s true for your Facebook feed, then why not education?
The potential is there, as the OECD’s recent report on Students, Computers and Learning (OECD) incidentally showed how clickstream and tracking navigation in digital readers can be used to see how students process online text and arrive at the answer in different ways.
In practice, companies like Renaissance Learning can point to the small margins of usage (4.7 minutes) of its reading program, separating the top performing and lagging students.
Akin to how Amazon “knows what you want before you buy it,” edtech companies are also starting to build algorithms that can make learning more personal. For instance, based on behaviors of successful students, we can begin to predict whether a learner is on track or at risk.
This allows teachers to intervene and provide assistance when a student most needs help before they fall behind. It also allows education content creators to tweak learning material – such as the length of a video or article – based on how a student interacts with it and progresses in subsequent activities.
Learning products should continually evolve to benefit learners and learning. Developers should make sure the best ideas from learning science, education practice, teacher feedback, and learning analytics inform those changes. The constant iteration, investment and learning baked into Teach to One provides a great example of what young companies should be emulating.
When I look at the growing Education Innovation Clusters or the useful tips on better ed-tech pilots provided by Digital Promise, I’m excited to see the idea of continuous improvement and learning being baked into the development and effective use of digital learning products.
2. Using technology to adapt to how students feel
Adaptive learning technologies today address what a student knows and can do. Programs such as Knewton alter what lessons are offered based on how individual students do in solving problems and where they may have gaps in knowledge.
However, a large body of research shows that how a student feels – frustrated, bored or confused – influences how much learning takes place. Can technology adapt to this to increase learning? DARPA thinks so–and is willing to invest in great ideas to get at what they call Full Spectrum Learning.
We are already seeing some examples of this in lab settings. Researchers have tracked student emotions while using Crystal Island–a game-based learning environment– and used that research to predict how students will react in other learning situations  The London Knowledge Lab is exploring the creation of a tool which will allow the feedback to be adjusted based on a student’s emotional state. These efforts align with a larger body of research into how tools, such as intelligent tutors, which are aware and can adapt to student’s emotions (or “affect”) can better serve students and contribute to improved student outcomes.
3. Building invisible assessments that are less intrusive 
Teach. Stop. Test. Teach. Stop. Test.
 It’s disruptive for teachers; it’s annoying for parents; and it’s not fair on students. We are finally seeing examples of a move away from this approach to assessment.
Teachers can now use the enormous amounts of data gathered in rich environments, such as games and virtual reality, to understand student progress and where to go next, in a way that’s personalized for each student.
Take SimCityEdu: Pollution Challenge – developed by GlassLab Games – where students learn how city-planning is impacted by environmental issues. As they play the game, the system is capturing their actions – such as the sequence of what they do or requests for help – and interprets patterns in data to assess how well the player understands important concepts. This helps teachers better evaluate how a student solves problems, rather than just the final product of their work.
In time, learning games like this should decrease reliance on stop-and-test exams and provide more real-time and actionable information to teachers.
4.  Keeping pace with technology in the classroom
 As we shift from print to digital educational tools, the volume of tools available to teachers has increased dramatically. Some tools – often apps – are rooted in research, pedagogy, and continuous improvement. Others are no more than junk food in a student’s educational diet. How is a teacher or parent to tell the difference?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Best Web Design Company in Pondicherry

#Technology    has two faces. We all feel it, but sometimes can’t find words to describe it.  #Ebooks    are the best example to show the 0-1 nature of emotions the  #technology  evokes. #itwhere    provide a  #Best     #solutions    to  #Growyourbusiness    feel free to drop a  #Mail    info@itwheretech.co.in www.itwheretech.co.in 

How ad-free subscriptions could solve Facebook

At the core of Facebook’s “well-being” problem is that its business is directly coupled with total time spent on its apps. The more hours you pass on the social network, the more ads you see and click, the more money it earns. That puts its plan to make using Facebook healthier at odds with its finances, restricting how far it’s willing to go to protect us from the harms of over use. The advertising-supported model comes with some big benefits, though. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly said that “We will always keep Facebook a free service for everyone.” Ads lets Facebook remain free for those who don’t want to pay, and more importantly, for those around the world who couldn’t afford to. Ads pay for Facebook to keep the lights on, research and develop new technologies, and profit handsomely in a way that attracts top talent and further investment. More affluent users with more buying power in markets like the US, UK, and Canada command higher ad prices, effectively

Phoenix OS is (another) Android-as-a-desktop

Google Android may have been developed as a smartphone operating system (and later ported to tablets, TVs, watches, and other platforms), but over the past few years we’ve seen a number of attempts to turn it into a desktop operating system. One of the most successful has been  Remix OS , which gives Android a taskbar, start menu, and an excellent window management system. The Remix OS team has also generated a lot of buzz over the past year, and this week the operating system gained a lot of new alpha testers thanks to a  downloadable version of Remix OS  that you can run on many recent desktop or notebook computers. But Remix OS isn’t the only game in town.  Phoenix OS  is another Android-as-desktop operating system, and while it’s still pretty rough around the edges, there are a few features that could make it a better option for some testers. Some background I first discovered Phoenix OS from  a post in the Remix OS Google Group , although I’ve also found mentions of th

HOW TO CREATE UEFI BOOTABLE USB DRIVE TO INSTALL WINDOWS 8/8.1

Before comes  Windows 8 and Windows 8.1  you made the bootable iso  for  Windows 7. Boot from USB and start to setup the Windows 7.  Windows 8/8.1  don’t include the traditional BIOS . They use UEFI firmware  so you must follow another way to create a bootable USB . If you interest to read what is UEFI  you can find a small description  here  and more details here . UEFI  is more secure and faster than traditional  BIOS  but here comes the problem when you try to boot from an iso file to install  Windows 8/8.1 . I have spent lot of hours until found the right way to boot from a USB to install  Windows 8/8.1 . As an IT when  Windows 8 realeased I download the iso,  create the bootable usb to start the installation but never boot.I change USB , download again the iso , create multiple times the bootable usb but every time the same results. After lot of search I understand that must create a  UEFI bootable USB  to start the installation of   Windows 8/8.1 . Follow I will exp

Windows 10 for phones will be released on this Friday

Microsoft's head of the Windows Insider program, Gabe Aul, has announced today on Windows Weekly that they will release a  new build of Windows 10 for phones  on Friday at 10 AM PT. Windows 10 release date A few weeks back, the company announced a new list of supported devices for the next release but for the version that will be released on Friday, the Lumia Icon and Lumia 930 will not be supported. Gabe said during the announcement that it came down to the new UI being too small on these devices and as such, will not be included in this release. List of supported devices Lumia 1020 Lumia 1320 Lumia 1520 Lumia 520 Lumia 525 Lumia 526 Lumia 530 Lumia 530 Dual Sim Lumia 535 Lumia 620 Lumia 625 Lumia 630 Lumia 630 Dual Sim Lumia 635 Lumia 636 Lumia 638 Lumia 720 Lumia 730 Lumia 730 Dual SIM Lumia 735 Lumia 810 Lumia 820 Lumia 822 Lumia 830 Lumia 920 Lumia 925 Lumia 928 Lumia ICON Microsoft Lumia 430 Microsoft Lumia 435 Microsoft Lumia 435 Dual SIM Microsoft Lumia 435 Dual SIM D