New technology is poised to disrupt America’s schools, and then the world’s
IN A small school on the South Side of Chicago, 40 children between the ages of five and six sit quietly learning in a classroom. In front of each of them is a computer running software called Reading Eggs. Some are reading a short story, others building sentences with words they are learning. The least advanced are capturing all the upper- and lower-case Bs that fly past in the sky. As they complete each task they move through a cartoon map that shows how far they have progressed in reading and writing. Along the way they collect eggs which they can use to buy objects in the game, such as items to furnish their avatar’s apartment. Now and then a child will be taken aside for scheduled reading periods with one of the two monitoring teachers.
The director of North Kenwood-Oakland school says this sort of teaching, blending software with human intervention, helps her pupils learn faster. It also allows teachers at this school—which, like other charter schools, is publicly funded but has some freedom to teach as it likes—to spend more time teaching and less time marking written work and leading pupils through dull drills of words and numbers. On top of that the school gains an accurate, continuous record of each child’s performance through the data its various programs collect and analyse.
The idea that technology can revolutionise education is not new. In the 20th century almost every new invention was supposed to have big implications for schools. Companies promoting typewriters, moving pictures, film projectors, educational television, computers and CD-ROMS have all promised to improve student performance. A great deal of money went into computers for education in the dot.com boom of the late 1990s, to little avail, though big claims were advanced for the difference they would make.
These claims were not entirely false: some bright, motivated children did use new technologies to learn things they would have missed otherwise. In many classrooms, too, computers have been used to improve efficiency and keep pupils engaged. But they did not transform learning in the way their boosters predicted. It is wise, therefore, to be sceptical about the claims made for the current wave of innovation. Yet there are also reasons to believe that a profound shift is occurring.
Over the course of the 20th century mass education produced populations more literate, numerate and productive than any the world had seen before. But it did so, usually, in an impersonal manner, with regimented rows of children chanting their times-tables as Teacher tapped the blackboard with a cane. Schooling could never be tailored to each child, unless you employed lots of teachers.
Teaching programs that monitor children’s progress can change that, performing a role more like that of the private tutors and governesses employed long ago in wealthier households. Data derived from each child’s responses can be used to tailor what he sees or hears next on the computer screen. The same data also allow continual assessment of his abilities and shortcomings, letting schools, teachers and parents understand both the pupil himself and the way human beings learn.
Such learning—called “adaptive” in the trade—is not the only advantage technology offers to today’s teachers and pupils. Online resources, from wikis to podcasts to training videos, are allowing both children and adults to pursue education on their own, either instead of learning in schools or colleges or as a supplement. It is, in the words of Bill Gates, who follows developments in this area closely and whose foundation funds some of them, “a special time in education”.
The Latest Bing News on:
Education technology
- State-of-the-art technology redefining the education ecosystemon May 15, 2022 at 10:38 am
Technology has pervaded the education industry, bringing with it a slew of perks such as online classrooms, personalised learning applications, gamification, and the use of multimedia resources to ...
- Apeejay Education And Amazon Web Services Announce New Accelerator Program Aligned With India’s National Education Policyon May 13, 2022 at 12:45 am
The pioneering National Education Policy Accelerator Program will support academic institutions and Indian EdTechs to create and adopt digital solutions to advance India’s education sector.
- YCIS Re-examines the Intersection of Humanity and Technologyon May 13, 2022 at 12:36 am
YCYW has always been committed to aligning with science and technology, and is renowned for its progressive use of education technology to break down silos and foster effective learning. In keeping ...
- Vanguard Institute of Technology Names Dr. Mari Marques As New Dean of College of Educationon May 12, 2022 at 2:04 pm
Vanguard Institute of Technology has announced Dr. Mari Marques, as its new dean of the College of Education. Mari Marques will begin in his new role starting today. Vanguard Institute of ...
- Bridging Technology and Education: UNESCO and Huawei Deliver Campus UNESCO for Young People in 20 countrieson May 11, 2022 at 9:24 pm
UNESCO and Huawei have to date run ten Campus UNESCO sessions, focusing on technology and education and reaching students from 39 schools in ...
- K-12 Education Technology Spend Market to See Huge Growth by 2027 : Knewton, Cengage Learning, Blackboardon May 10, 2022 at 4:06 pm
This press release was orginally distributed by SBWireNew Jersey, USA -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/10/2022 -- The latest study released on the Global K-12 Education ...
- Future Of Education: Role Of Blockchain Technology And Metaverseon May 9, 2022 at 2:52 am
Blockchain technology act as an effective educational resource in the process of learning which allows educators to publish content openly as well as tracking any re-use, without putting limitations o ...
- Twitter sale shows us why education technology companies should be accountable to schoolson May 7, 2022 at 4:59 pm
If this sounds unrealistic, it is no more radical than the future that privately controlled technology companies have imagined for themselves – where they stand as unregulated infrastructures for all ...
- 17 Education & Technology Group (NASDAQ:YQ) Will Have To Spend Its Cash Wiselyon May 6, 2022 at 3:42 am
Nonetheless, only a fool would ignore the risk that a loss making company burns through its cash too quickly. Given this risk, we thought we'd take a look at whether 17 Education & Technology Group ...
- Technology-driven education is the key to narrowing gender disparity: Harshil Gala, CEO, eSense Learningon May 5, 2022 at 6:30 pm
It has become infallibly clear that education in the post-Corona world will never be completely offline again. While every change comes with both positive and negative impacts, technology penetration ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Education technology
The Latest Bing News on:
Teaching programs that monitor children’s progress
- School children raised trout for Colorado’s rivers. The state had to kill a lot of the “poor buggers.”on May 15, 2022 at 4:06 am
But an innovative solution is helping Trout in the Classroom cut down the number of fish involved in the fatal testing process.
- With So Many Ed Tech Choices, Here's What Schools Should Be Investing Inon May 12, 2022 at 5:00 pm
With so many programs, devices, and technologies to choose from, educators and K-12 decision-makers should prioritize these two things when making ed tech decisions: Interaction to increase motivation ...
- After 7 years, WA tribal history curriculum still not fully implementedon May 12, 2022 at 4:59 am
The Legislature failed to allocate funding for the curriculum, placing the financial burden on Washington tribes and school districts.
- Online Quran & Arabic Classes For Kids & Beginners With Native Arab Tutorson May 12, 2022 at 2:28 am
Best online Arabic course for your children with specialized programs and curricula that perfectly meet your child's needs to master the Arabic language and delve deeper into its magnificence.
- Science absent in poor countries' education dataon May 11, 2022 at 9:30 am
"What you really need is a longer term [data monitoring] program … so that [policymakers] can better inform their education policies." The report highlights significant progress in attendance ...
- Here’s Who Qualifies For Automatic Student Loan Forgiveness Under New Biden Programson May 11, 2022 at 8:52 am
By targeting existing student loan relief programs for expansion and improvement, the Education Department ... is not adequately tracking borrowers’ progress towards student loan forgiveness.
- Second Opinion: We're losing the fight against superbugs, but there's still hopeon May 8, 2022 at 3:15 am
Hospitals and government need to take more action to control antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are becoming an ever greater threat to patients.
- Here’s how a Lehigh Valley school district program has been helping special education students find and keep jobson May 7, 2022 at 10:31 am
Freedom High School senior Julian Planten was preparing with his teachers for a job interview at T.J. Maxx; a year later, Planten has settled into his role as a backroom associate with the company, ...
- Parents’ Long Wait Nearly Over? COVID Shot for Young Kids on Pace for Next Monthon May 6, 2022 at 4:15 am
This is our weekly briefing on how the pandemic is shaping schools and education policy, vetted, as always, by AEI Visiting Fellow John Bailey. Click here to see the full archive. Get this weekly ...
- Program teaches students how to disagree civillyon May 2, 2022 at 11:56 am
The motto for Great Valley High School and its 1,400 students in the Pennsylvania borough of Malvern, about 25 miles west of Philadelphia, is "Creating a new age of learning." ...