2016-09-12



In the field of educational technology, we talk a great deal about innovation, change, and technological advances. But that doesn’t mean that the past is dismissed during the development of tomorrow’s educational tools: legitimate, comprehensive, truly effective adaptive learning programs are built on and informed by past student learning experiences. This technology stands upon a foundation of real learning journeys, and uses those patterns, data, and outcomes to purposefully and systematically guide the learners of today and tomorrow along a path of efficiency and success. Tools like ALEKS® are programmed to pull from the past and present to inform teaching in any classroom or district.

Past learning experiences have shaped a foundation for proven, informed technology

ALEKS provides a clear and targeted learning pathway for each student from which the teacher gains remarkable data insights benefiting the individual, small groups, or the entire classroom. They obtain this information from the learners of yesterday: these students left data, reflective of their mathematical understanding and learning patterns, that technology uses to shape the way students learn today. Other adaptive programs are newcomers to the math space with capabilities built around fixed content sets with no existing efficacy.  ALEKS’ Artificial Intelligence engine has been steadily refined over 20 years. Millions of students have experienced success with ALEKS and every one of them has contributed to refining the ALEKS Artificial Intelligence engine. It’s a system built on the collective learning of (literally!) millions of students over the course of two decades. By employing such technology in your classroom, you’re sending your students off on an individual, personalized journey along a path that’s been paved and refined by the successful learners who came before them.

Today’s learners are empowered by yesterday’s achievers, then guided by instructor and technology to achieve uncharted heights

Today, across the country, math students are benefiting from those past learning experiences, and teachers are capitalizing on what that student data is telling them. With such informed, comprehensive, innovative, and powerful technology, today’s math students are empowered to reach new territory in comprehension, engagement, and achievement. ALEKS predicts with > 90% accuracy exactly the content each student is ready to learn and be successful.  It enables students to focus on topics they’re most ready to learn next, and provides teachers with real-time insights to student performance. ALEKS uses past learning to make the most out of comprehension, engagement, and achievement in the present moment.

Tomorrow’s learning communities are a three-way channel of meaningful interactivity

Technologies that make use of past learning experiences to inform present learning also open the doors to countless educational opportunities in the future. One of those opportunities, perhaps the most crucial, is the potential for a three-way channel of purposeful communication between student, technology, and teacher. Technology, in the form of reporting and digestible data dashboards, can serve as a mechanism by which teachers enter into student-teacher conversations with invaluable insight into student performance and understanding. Armed with tangible, meaningful data about each student’s place in their individual learning journey, teachers can swoop in when their students need guidance and efficiently address their needs. It’s yet another way that educational technology can empower both students and teachers: it’s about boosting the productivity and purpose of student teacher relationships. Technology doesn’t eliminate student-teacher interactivity – it simply provides the data and tools to make that relationship more meaningful than ever before.

This vision of tomorrow can be your district’s today. The foundation for technology is here, and the innovative adaptive elements of this tech make informed, meaningful student-teacher interactivity scalable. To learn more about how technology can improve student-teacher interactivity, hear from President of McGraw-Hill School Group, Chris Willig:

To discover the program that marries the past, present, and future of mathematical learning experiences, check out  ALEKS®, the web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system that’s driving exceptional student outcomes across the country.



The post Technology Built on a Legacy of Learning Drives Tomorrow’s Student Outcomes appeared first on The McGraw-Hill Education Blog. Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education Global Holdings, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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