Instead of having one lesson plan per classroom, thanks to digital technologies it is now possible to have a different lesson plan for each individual student.
Archive for the ‘differentiated instruction’ Category
A better way to think about education
How did you learn that?
Zonebee is the information literacy equivalent of a math teacher who says, “Be sure to show all your work.” It’s a web-based tool that lets you preserve a record of how you research a subject, and along the way helps you challenge and refine your assumptions.
With such a tool, you could teach an entire generation of kids how to explore, research and learn.
Even better, you could help them understand how differently people think, and thus gain an appreciation of diverse viewpoints.
Even better still, you could help them understand the danger of not thinking clearly.
I’ve had two fascinating conversations with Giovanni Battistini, the “chief” over at Zonebee, a spinoff of the University of Arizona. It took me deep into the second one before I began to see just how valuable their tool could be.
Zonebee, currently available as a free download for Internet Explorer, incorporates a number of best practices with regards to learning and research. But you don’t need to worry about these; you use them just by using Zonebee.
For example, when you start a Search, you have the option to get “Buzz” about the search terms you entered. Doing so brings up a tag cloud of your term and related terms. You then can choose to deliberately include or exclude any of them. In essence, you are deciding – then explaining – precisely what you mean.
This and other steps serves to reveal and challenge your assumptions. Imagine that you are learning about “gardens.” Do you mean “starting a garden,” “landscape gardens,” “vegetable gardens,” or “famous gardens”? Perhaps you wish to include “organic” in your search?
All along the way, you can choose to record your search process, an option that sets Zonebee apart from search engines. Doing so preserves a record of your learning process. Imagine if a high school teacher assigned her class a piece of research and asked each student to preserve a Zonebee record of their research process. This opens up all sorts of opportunities for teaching kids how to learn.
Battistini says the organization will soon start to offer customized services to vertical niches such as the legal professional. He sees other high potential niche users such as financial analysts, journalists and educators.
I can tell you from experience, it is very hard to understand the potential of this tool through a verbal description. You are far better off downloading the free Zonebee toolbar than depending on this or any other article to give you a full picture of the tool’s potential.
When you try it, keep in mind these three potentially killer apps that a Zonebee-like tool could become:
1.) An educational tool to teach both kids and adults information literacy. This is a must-have skill for the months and years ahead, and my wild-eyed guess is that most people are sorely lacking in this regard
2.) A tool to analyze how each of us thinks about information, which I bet will reveal startling insights about the nature of our organizations and interactions.
3.) A tool to challenge your thinking, revealing faulty assumptions and new opportunities.
Zonebee takes on what Battistini describes as the knowledge gap. The amount of human knowledge is growing far faster than the human ability to absorb knowledge. In such a world, there’s no room for fuzzy thinking or just plain forgetfulness. You need to be able to find the right answers, again and again.
Zonebee has much work yet to do – an Apple version is still months away – but this is an innovation worth trying and watching.
Does a test prep company reveal the future of education?
“Every single one of you has something you’re good at,” President Obama told America’s school children earlier this week. “Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.”
He might have gone on to say that your strengths and weaknesses vary widely. Some of you learn by talking, others by doing, or by reading. Some of you learn very fast, and get bored easily; others need repetition and reinforcement to master a piece of content. He might have said that traditional classroom education can’t begin to accommodate your differences, especially as budget pressures are pushing class sizes higher and higher.
But Obama was pumping up the kids, not pitching other politicians, and his speech mainly served to remind me that we owe children a better education than they have been getting. Fortunately, I have seen the future of education, and it is embodied by a rapidly growing SAT and ACT test preparation company called PrepMe.
PrepMe combines truly personalized online content with actual human tutors who check in with students online. This hybrid approach delivers the best of both worlds: it allows people to do what they do best – motivate other people, for example – and computers to also focus on their strengths, such as customizing the content each student receives.
PrepMe is an example of what authors Clayton Christensen, Michael Horn and Curtis Johnson call disruptive technology applied to the education industry. In their book, Disrupting Class, they write that disruptive technologies are not as good as the technologies already on the market, but they are less expensive and easier to use. They disrupt the trajectory of established products and services in a market. Personal computers were a disruptive technology, not nearly as powerful as mainframe computers, but far cheaper and easier to use.
The PrepMe service is not as capable as a full time classroom teacher; no computer is today as smart as a person. But PrepMe excels at finding each student’s weaknesses and immediately customizing lesson plans to turn such weaknesses into strengths. It is far cheaper and simpler for Prepme to do this than to ask a classroom teacher to take on such a task. In fact, it would be virtually impossible for a classroom teacher to do this.
A high school venture that keeps growing
PrepMe has a fascinating history that embodies the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation. Basically, the two founders started the company in high school and it has been growing ever since.
Karan Goel and Avichal Garg – now CEO and CTO of the firm – each aced their college entrance exams. Avichal says he never prepared, but then took notice when his younger sister struggled with a test prep service that seemed to make no sense.
“Karan pitched the idea to me,” says Avichal. “We wanted to generate some income and the only thing we could claim to be good at was taking tests. I had programming knowledge, and it occurred to us that there were all these cool things you could do.”
It’s important to understand that the two founders were smart kids who were utterly bored by classroom instruction. Avichal admits to skipping two-thirds of his classes because it was faster to just read the book and show up for the tests. The pair also realized that other kids had the opposite problem in class; the typical pace was too fast for them. So the idea of personalized instruction was with them from the very beginning.
Along with a third partner who has now left the firm, Avichal says, “We set out to codify the sorts of things intelligent people do. We started doing private tutoring, earning $50 an hour, or sometimes even more.”
In 2001, they took the cash they’d earned and bought third party software to put their curriculum online. By this time, Avichal was enrolled at Stanford and Karan at University of Chicago. They discovered that eLearning software wasn’t very good. “It was targeted at the corporate training market,” says Avichal, “And the people paying for it weren’t the same people who were using it. But customers started finding us and paying for our online services.
“In theory, school was our life. In reality, we were spending 30-40 hours a week on this. The summer of 2001, we didn’t take internships and worked on the business instead.”
Since you probably have other things to learn today, I’m going to speed things up a bit. Working in two different states over the past eight years, the pair built the company. They jettisoned the third party software because it did not allow them to personalize instruction, and wrote their own version that delivers remarkable personalization. They started getting press – a lot of it – and the press generated more income, which they used to hire staff for the first time and further improve their offerings. After a few years of having full time jobs elsewhere, they were able to 100% focus on Prepme.
Today, they have just over 20 full time employees, plus about 50 tutors, most of whom are students at Stanford or Chicago. (All the tutors aced their entrance exams, too.)
The customers get bigger, but the focus remains one student at a time
PrepMe still serves individual students – you can sign up today online – but today they are also serving entire schools and school districts. Interestingly, they are not selling their services merely as preparation for college entrance exams, but also as a mechanism for supporting teachers and ensuring that students with weak areas can actually learn the content they need to learn.
Avichal explains, “For example, a charter school might buy a license for every kid to use our services. There is a trend in education that states are moving towards national standards, and in some states the SAT or ACT is the standard. It just doesn’t make sense for a state to develop its own proficiency test.”
The State of Maine, for example, is a PrepMe client.
The firm recently brought in Eva Prokop as VP of Business development. She has worked for The Princeton Review and deeply understands how the needs of students, teachers and school districts are evolving.
Reinforcing a previous article on NowPossible (“Top schools lag poorer schools?”), Eva says that the school systems that face challenges are the most likely to adopt PrepMe today. Such systems might have a wide disparity between their best and worst students, or they may be failing to meet state or national standards. In contrast, affluent school districts with good outcomes – they’re getting kids into good colleges – are slower to embrace and adopt a personalized approach to education.
“We’re delivering true personalization,” says Eva. “There is a real difference between customization and personalization. Other vendors can customize a lot with respect to the way that their software works in a given school district, but once the students start using the software, they are all getting the same treatment. With us, we focus on each student’s weaknesses; that’s where the leverage is. By the second day of using PrepMe, students in the same classroom are working on different content.”
Wait a minute – isn’t it bad to let kids in the same classroom work on different areas? Won’t that lead to chaos? No, because the course content itself doesn’t change. The teacher doesn’t stop teaching. It’s just that in their personal work time, students get to practice what they most need to practice, and learn what they most need to learn.
The good, the bad, and the ugly
Why are services like PrepMe the future of education? Simply stated, classroom instruction is vastly overused as an educational tactic. It works wonderfully for some purposes, such as holding lively discussions that force students to form and defend an intelligent point of view. But it works horribly for accommodating differences in learning styles and pace of learning. These flaws will become more obvious as budget issues force school districts to put more kids in each classroom.
Decades ago at a large university, I took a self-paced statistics course. Students learned each module on their own, then visited a classroom managed by teaching assistants to take a module test. When you passed one section, you went on to the next. When you had questions, the TAs answered them on the spot. It was wonderful! I finished the course one month early.
For many students, and many courses, this sort of approach makes much more sense than classroom instruction, especially when you throw in the capability to deliver differentiated instruction via digital technology.
This approach also makes sense as a support system for classroom instruction. Services such as PrepMe can provide teachers with ongoing reports about the progress of each student. Without the work of grading additional tests, a teacher can discover precisely what each student knows, and where he or she needs help.
Eva says that, “When we have the opportunity to explain that we are trying to give students a skill, not just preparing them for a test, it really resonates with teachers and administrators.”
School systems are slow to change; our educational system hasn’t changed much in the past forty years. But in Disrupting Change, the authors use actual data to plot the pace of adoption of disruptive technologies in education. If I’m reading their data properly, sometime between 2018 and 2020, true student-centric differentiated instruction will be just as common as traditional, monolithic classroom instruction. In the meantime, innovators such as Prepme will be delivering welcome relief to students and teachers.
Help is on the way.
Throw out your math textbooks, says high school
I’m delighted to report that my town, Westport, CT, threw out their algebra books and built their own online math lessons.
According to The New York Times, Westport’s school system felt that existing textbooks zoom through too much material too fast, which results in superficial understanding of just about nothing. By creating their own lessons, the high school was able to go into greater depth on a shorter list of more important concepts.
It cost the system about $70,000 to develop the new math curriculum, with half going to teachers and half going to HeyMath!, which hosts the 24×7 lessons. But the town expects to save $25,000 a year on textbooks.
Some students report they prefer the interactive lessons – which often include images – to the two inch thick textbook collection of words and numbers.
Even if you don’t live in Westport, you can still sign up for a 14 day free trial of HeyMath! lessons.
Online education teaching may be better than classroom
A recent report on online education for the U.S. Education Department suggests that some students may be better with online rather than classroom teaching. Here are some excerpts from the report:
Students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction. Learning outcomes for students who engaged in online learning exceeded those of students receiving face-to-face instruction; interpretations of this result, however, should take into consideration the fact that online and face-to-face conditions generally differed on multiple dimensions, including the amount of time that learners spent on task. The advantages observed for online learning conditions therefore may be the product of aspects of those treatment conditions other than the instructional delivery medium per se.
Instruction combining online and face-to-face elements had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely online instruction An important issue to keep in mind in reviewing these findings is that many studies did not attempt to equate (a) all the curriculum materials, (b) aspects of pedagogy and (c) learning time in the treatment and control conditions. Indeed, some authors asserted that it would be impossible to have done so. Hence, the observed advantage for online learning in general, and blended learning conditions in particular, is not necessarily rooted in the media used per se and may reflect differences in content, pedagogy and learning time.
Most of the variations in the way in which different studies implemented online learning did not affect student learning outcomes significantly. Analysts examined 13 online learning practices as potential sources of variation in the effectiveness of online learning compared with face-to-face instruction. Of those variables, (a) the use of a blended rather than a purely online approach and (b) the expansion of time on task for online learners were the only statistically significant influences on effectiveness. The other 11 online learning practice variables that were analyzed did not affect student learning significantly. However, the relatively small number of studies contrasting learning outcomes for online and face-to-face instruction that included information about any specific aspect of implementation impeded efforts to identify online instructional practices that affect learning outcomes.
The effectiveness of online learning approaches appears quite broad across different content and learner types. Online learning appeared to be an effective option for both undergraduates and for graduate students and professionals in a wide range of academic and professional studies.
The narrative review of experimental and quasi-experimental studies contrasting different online learning practices found that the majority of available studies suggest the following:
- Elements such as video or online quizzes do not appear to influence the amount that students learn in online classes. The research does not support the use of some frequently recommended online learning practices. Inclusion of more media in an online application does not appear to enhance learning. The practice of providing online quizzes does not seem to be more effective than other tactics such as assigning homework.
- Online learning can be enhanced by giving learners control of their interactions with media and prompting learner reflection. Studies indicate that manipulations that trigger learner activity or learner reflection and self-monitoring of understanding are effective when students pursue online learning as individuals.
- Providing guidance for learning for groups of students appears less successful than does using such mechanisms with individual learners. When groups of students are learning together online, support mechanisms such as guiding questions generally influence the way students interact, but not the amount they learn.
The full report, “Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies,” can be downloaded here.
Carnegie Learning moves differentiated instruction forward
In another step forward for differentiated instruction, Carnegie Learning reports that Hazelwood School District, near St. Louis, Missouri, has purchased Carnegie Learning Bridge to Algebra textbooks and software for 900 ninth grade students in the District’s three high schools.
The program is designed to prepare high school students who lack the prerequisites necessary for Algebra I, and can also be implemented with advanced middle school students.
“Our goal is to graduate each of our students prepared to compete professionally or in continuing education,” said Cathy French, Math Coordinator for Hazelwood School District. “We evaluated several math programs and found that Carnegie Learning provided the engaging, real-world application of concepts that we believe will motivate our students to get excited about math and be successful in higher-level math courses required for graduation.”
Based upon an artificial intelligence model, the Cognitive Tutor Software incorporates ongoing formative and summative assessments that individualize and differentiate instruction based upon students’ prior knowledge and needs.
In other words, it identifies weaknesses in each individual student’s mastery of mathematical concepts. Then, the software customizes prompts to focus on areas where the student is struggling, and sends the student to new problems that address those specific concepts.
Carnegie Learning curricula and research have received international recognition from several industry organizations this year. In May 2009, Carnegie Learning® Adaptive Math Software won a CODiE Award from the Software & Information Industry Association as Best Mathematics Instructional Solution. Also in May 2009 Carnegie Learning, Inc. received a Best in Tech Award for the 2008–2009 school year from Scholastic Administrator Magazine.
Top schools lag poorer schools?
It’s counter-intuitive, but when it comes to personalizing education, the best-funded schools may be falling behind their more challenged counterparts.
So says Ann Henson, Vice President of Curriculum and Instruction for CompassLearning. Prior to joining CompassLearning, Ms. Henson was a high school math and computer science teacher and worked at a district level on curriculum development. We really like the organization’ mission statement, which reads: CompassLearning is dedicated to facilitating student success by collaborating with educators to deliver personalized learning experiences.
“The primary drivers that get us new clients,” says Henson, “Are high dropout rates and low test scores. We also get a lot of demand in districts where there are a shortage of qualified teachers, or in rural districts that are missing teachers in certain subject areas.”
The toughest place to introduce personalized education (differentiated instruction that is meaningfully enabled by technology) is at the secondary school level, reports Henson. “Secondary is the most resistant to this. They teach subjects, not kids. The primary places that secondary schools are willing to move to individualized approach is in alternative schools and places where there are challenges already.”
I have anecdotal experiences that reinforce this. Over the past 18 months I discussed personalization with both the superintendent of Westport, Connecticut schools and the principal of Westport’s Staples High School. Westport is a very well-funded school system and the town is populated by adults who fiercely defend the town’s educational system. But both educators see personalization as something far short of technology-enabled differentiated instruction. For example, they cite frequent recognition of students with awards as evidence of personalization, but this has nothing to do with changing lesson plans based on a student’s needs.
So perhaps well-funded school systems are still more inclined to pay for teachers instead of technology? But even a great teacher has trouble handing the diverse needs of 28 kids in a single classroom. Change is coming, despite the obstacles.
“Differentiated instruction is central to what we do.” says Henson. “In our best implementations, after working with the customer to identify needs, it is usually obvious that what is needed is to personalize instruction. The world has more information than you can teach in twelve years using traditional methods. Now you have to look at how you can optimize and accelerate education. The only way you can do this is through technology.”
“But schools aren’t always able do what we recommend,” admits Henson. “Lots of systems use us for a specific targeted group, such as math students, or an upper quartile group that needs enrichment. This is more due to budget restrictions than anything else.”
To help spur usage and adoption, CompassLearning recently moved to unlimited users licenses. This means that schools don’t have to pay extra for more licenses or more usage. If more classes sign on, the cost doesn’t go up. If parents monitor their kids’ progress, again, the cost does not go up.
Still, hardware remains a limiting factor. A school may have 100 computers and 600 kids. The software can also be used at home, but students in poor areas often do not have access to a computer at home.
Despite such hurdles, the concept of differentiated instruction makes overwhelming sense. Technology, used properly, makes it possible to recognize where individual students are having trouble and to focus teaching and practice on those specific problem areas.
Henson explains, “Over the last few years, as we develop content, we take each teaching objective, and see what kind of mistakes kids make. Let’s say we’re building a geometry course, we track what kind of mistakes kids make when learning equations. Then reteaching is based on common errors.”
She doesn’t mean when a student makes a mistake you reteach him all the areas where students typically make mistakes. She means you reteach the specific areas in which that student made mistakes. To do this, her team develops content for each of those common mistakes.
Henson is optimistic about the future. “Over the last six to twelve months, funding has loosened up for us.
I’ve been in this 22 years. I see people in public education thinking we really need to start over and do this differently. The data is waking people up. In education as a whole, we are still doing what we did in 1950. Fortunately, there are more pioneers than there used to be.”
CompassLearning Odyssey offers schools and districts a complete, online K-12 curriculum and assessment solution. Each course is filled with personalized, engaging, and age-appropriate curriculum based on the most current and confirmed research about how students think and learn. Unlimited-user licensing means that every student at a school will have access to the Odyssey curriculum both at school and at home. Schools are not forced to share licenses or limit use of the program to specialized populations. The company also offers coaching, mentoring, and modeling services and a variety of customer support options to ensure teacher success.