edtech fact or fiction

Separating EdTech Fact from Fiction

Adaptive Math Learning Community

Launch

Tim Hudson, PhDSenior Director of Curriculum Design

DreamBox Learning@DocHudsonMath

May 28, 2014

Introduction• Senior Director of Curriculum Design for

DreamBox Learning• Over 10 years in public education

o High School math teachero K-12 Math Curriculum Coordinatoro Strategic Planning Facilitator

• Degrees in Math, Math Education, and Educational Leadership

• Consult and work with Authentic Education & Grant Wiggins

• Co-authored a chapter with Cathy Fosnot Classrooms Where Children Learn in an NCTM book Math Intervention Models: Reweaving the Tapestry (I get no royalties)

Overview

Learning Principles &

Learning Mathematics

Mental Models of

“Adaptive” & Learning

Perspectives for

Separating EdTech Fact from Fiction

Tech & Learning Survey Definition

“Adaptive learning systems are software-based technologies that

automatically customize curriculum to the knowledge level of the learner. The algorithms actively track and access

student performance to provide feedback to the teacher and student about the student’s progress on an

ongoing basis.”

2013 survey conducted by Tech & Learning (www.techlearning.com) and commissioned by DreamBox Learning

Why Adaptive?Why Differentiated?Why Individualized?Why Personalized?

Plan Curriculum Backwards

1. Identify desired results

2. Determine acceptable evidence

3. Plan learning experiences and instruction

Understanding by Design, Wiggins & McTighe, ©2005

WHAT should this student be learning, doing, and thinking about tomorrow?

Learning Requires Adaptivity

“…pay close attention to the individual progress of each student and devise tasks that are appropriate…” (p. 24)

Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., & Cocking, R.R. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school (2nd ed.). Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Differentiation Defined• Educators’ Purpose…

• All students must master important content.• Make specific and continually evolving plans to

connect each learner with key content.• Expect differences in the nature of scaffolding.

• Therefore we Ask…• What does this student need at this moment in

order to be able to progress with this key content, and what do I need to do to make that happen?”

Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom by C.A. Tomlinson & M.B. Imbeau, ASCD, © 2010, pp. 13-14

Logistical Classroom Reality

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

March 1:Long

Division

If teachers could work 1-1 with ALL…

Decimal Long

Division

Long Division

with Significant Scaffolding

Partial Quotients

Fraction Division

Requires More:• Assessments• Time for Testing• Time for Scoring• Data• Content Knowledge• Resources

Basic Multiplicatio

n

Rethinking DifferentiationTypical mental models of learning often cause educators to differentiate in two wrong ways:

1. around knowledge, skills, and procedures rather than around ideas, understanding, and complex performance

2. in response to student knowledge AFTER being shown a skill instead of in response to student thinking when solving an unfamiliar problem or when forming initial conceptions.

Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice

Opportunity:What can only be

done when we have a diverse

range of learners in a single classroom?

WHAT could this student be learning, doing, and thinking about tomorrow?

Collaborative Projects,

Group Inquiry,

Community Building

Independent Projects, Mentoring, Interactive Software or

Apps

Whole Class or Small Group

Lecture, Online or In

Person

Explanation, Tutoring, Online

Videos from the Teacher

or Other Source

IndividualGroup

Learning Experience

Instruction

Menu of Great Learning Options

Student Observatio

n, Input

Classroom Assessmen

t

Other Assessment

Data

Embedded Formative Assessment Three key elements:1. elicit evidence about learning to close

the gap between current and desired performance,

2. adjust the learning experience to close the performance gap with useful feedback

3. involve students in the assessment and learning process

Adapted from Margaret Heritage, 2008

Personalized Schooling

Personalized Learning

Industrial Schooling

Industrial Learning

Personalized (Relational)

Impersonal (Industrial)

LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults

WHAT is her

birthdate?

Impersonal Industrial Schooling First Asks:

First Grade: Week 1

© DreamBox Learning

WHAT is she interested in?

WHAT does she know?

WHERE could she be

learning?

Personalized

Relational Schooling First Asks:

School Policies & Structures are Designed for Students as

Unique Individuals.

Strategic & Varied Schedule,

Location, Path, Pace

Empowering Learning

Experiences, Critical Thinking,

Creativity, Exploration.

Students “Think & Do” using Their Own Intuitive

Ideas

School Policies & Structures are Designed for

Efficiency, Economy & Scale.Fixed Schedule, Location, Path,

Pace

Traditional Lesson Paradigm of Mass

InstructionTeach, Practice,

TestStudents “Sit &

Get” the Teacher’s Ideas

Personalized (Relational)

Impersonal (Industrial)

LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults

School Policies & Structures are Designed for Students as

Unique Individuals.

Strategic & Varied Schedule,

Location, Path, Pace

Empowering Learning

Experiences, Critical Thinking,

Creativity, Exploration.

Students “Think & Do” using Their Own Intuitive

Ideas

School Policies & Structures are Designed for

Efficiency, Economy & Scale.Fixed Schedule, Location, Path,

Pace

Traditional Lesson Paradigm of Mass

InstructionTeach, Practice,

TestStudents “Sit &

Get” the Teacher’s Ideas

Personalized (Relational)

Impersonal (Industrial)

LearningPedagogy

withStudents

SchoolingStructures

fromAdults

Blended

Blended

Is there

an app for

this?

Is there

an app for

this?

Is there

an app for

this?

Is there

an app for

this?

Plan Schooling Backwards

“Contemporary school reform efforts… typically focus too much on various means: structures, schedules, programs, PD, curriculum, and instructional practices (like cooperative learning)”

[or personalized learning][or blended learning][or flipped classrooms][or iPads®, hardware][or adaptive learning]

p. 234-235, Wiggins & McTighe, © 2007

Plan Schooling Backwards

“Certainly such reforms serve as the fuel for the school improvement engine, but they must not be mistaken as the destination…[which is] improved learning.”

p. 234-235, Wiggins & McTighe, © 2007

AdaptiveLearningPlatform or

Program

AdaptiveLearningPlatform or

Program

From a 5th grade teacher in NY:“I had a lot of good people teaching me math when I was a student – earnest and funny and caring. But the math they taught me wasn’t good math. Every

class was the same for eight years:

‘Get out your homework, go over the homework, here’s the new set

of exercises, here’s how to do them. Now get started. I’ll be around.’

p. 55, Teaching What Matters Most, Strong, Silver, & Perini, ©2001

Experience or Instruction?

Design Limitation“They were so concerned with

making sure we knew how to do every single procedure we never

learned how to think mathematically. I did well in math but I never understood what I was doing. I remember hundreds of procedures but not one single

mathematical idea.”

p. 55, Teaching What Matters Most, Strong, Silver, & Perini, ©2001

Common Teaching Cycle

Whole Class or Small Group

Instruction

Independent Practice

Whole Class

Assessment

Use Data Formatively to Plan

Use Data Summativel

y

Content Delivery

Whole Class or Small Group

Instruction

Independent Practice

Whole Class

Assessment

Use Data Formatively to Plan

Use Data Summativel

y

Let Me Show You How To

DoX

Now You Go Do

X

Can You Independentl

y DoX?

Maybe You Need

to Be Shown X

Again

You KnowX

Instruction

Let Me Show You How To

DoX

Now You Go Do

X

Can You Independentl

y DoX?

Maybe You Need

to Be Shown X

Again

You KnowX

Who is doing the thinking?

Ineffective adaptivity

Impersonal Learning

“Presentation of an explanation, no matter how brilliantly worded,

will not connect ideas unless students have had ample

opportunities to wrestle with examples.”

Best Practices, 3rd Ed., by Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde, ©2005Understanding by Design, Wiggins & McTighe, ©2005

“If I cover it clearly, they will ‘get it.’”

blog.mrmeyer.com

Let Me Show You How To

DoX

Now You Go Do

X

Can You Independentl

y DoX?

Maybe You Need

to Be Shown X

Again

You KnowX

Who is doing the thinking?

aka “Neil Diamond”

School & Home Work

At School:Here’s how

to doX

At Home:Practice

X

Whole Class

Assessment

Maybe you need to be shown X

again

Use Data Summativel

y

Flipped Classroom?

At Home:Watch a video about how to

doX

At School:Practice

X

Whole Class

Assessment

Maybe You Need to

Watch the Video Again

Use Data Summativel

y

Learning Principle

“Understandings cannot be given; they have to be engineered so that learners see for themselves the power of an idea for making sense of things.”

p. 113, Schooling by Design, Wiggins & McTighe, ©2007

Understanding vs. Knowing

Don’t Start by Telling

“Providing students with opportunities to first grapple with specific

information relevant to a topic has been shown to create a ‘time for telling’ that enables them to learn

much more from an organizing lecture.”

How People Learn, p. 58

This student doesn’t know

anything about

fractions.

How could she start

grappling?

Learning Experience: Field Trip Problem

Field Trips and Fund-Raisers: Introducing Fractions, C.T. Fosnot, Heinemann © 2007, used with permission

3

4

4

5

7

8

3

5

Dewey, 1916

Democracy & Education

Chapter 12: Thinking in Education

“…thinking is the method of an educative experience. The

essentials of method are therefore identical with the essentials of

reflection.”

Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, J. Dewey, 1916

Dewey, 1916

“First that the pupil have a genuine situation of experience—that there be a continuous activity in which he is interested for its own sake.”

Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, J. Dewey, 1916

Field trip + Lunch = Interest

Dewey, 1916

“Secondly, that a genuine problem develop within this situation as a stimulus to thought.”

Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, J. Dewey, 1916

Is it fair?

Dewey, 1916

“Third, that he possess the information and make the observations needed to deal with it.”

Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, J. Dewey, 1916

Time for sense-making, modeling, manipulatives, conversation, and

argumentation

Dewey, 1916“Fourth, that suggested solutions occur to him which he shall be responsible for developing in an orderly way.”

Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, J. Dewey, 1916

How do we know when something “occurs” to a student?

5th grader in intervention: “So it looks like a half of a fifth is a tenth.

That’s easy!”

Dewey, 1916“Fifth, that he have opportunity and occasion to test his ideas by application, to make their meaning clear and to discover for himself their validity.”

Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, J. Dewey, 1916

Convince yourself through inquiry, exploration, feedback

Learning is not accomplished by putting thoughts into a mind, but rather by empowering a

mind to generate thoughts.

This student doesn’t know

anything about angles or measuring

angles.

How should she start

grappling?

Angle Measurement – Common Core

4.MD.6Measure angles in whole-number degrees using a protractor. Sketch angles of specified measure.

4.MD.7Recognize angle measure as additive. When an angle is decomposed into non-overlapping parts, the angle measure of the whole is the sum of the angle measures of the parts. Solve addition and subtraction problems to find unknown angles on a diagram in real world and mathematical problems, e.g., by using an equation with a symbol for the unknown angle measure.

Digital Instruction?

When an angle is decomposed into non-

overlapping parts, the angle measure of the whole is the sum of the angle measures

of the parts.

Angle Measurement – Common Core

4.MD.5aAn angle is measured with reference to a circle with its center at the common endpoint of the rays, by considering the fraction of the circular arc between the points where the two rays intersect the circle. An angle that turns through 1/360 of a circle is called a “one-degree angle,” and can be used to measure angles.

4.MD.5bAn angle that turns through n one-degree angles is said to have an angle measure of n degrees.

Angle Measurement – Common Core

4.MD.5aAn angle is measured with reference to a circle with its center at the common endpoint of the rays, by considering the fraction of the circular arc between the points where the two rays intersect the circle. An angle that turns through 1/360 of a circle is called a “one-degree angle,” and can be used to measure angles.

4.MD.5bAn angle that turns through n one-degree angles is said to have an angle measure of n degrees.

Dewey, 19161. Genuine Interesting Situation & Experience

Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, J. Dewey, 1916 Screen image ©DreamBox Learning

Help the spider build a web.

Dewey, 19162. Genuine Problem Stimulates Thought

Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, J. Dewey, 1916 Screen image ©DreamBox Learning

Dewey, 19163. Have Information & Make Observations

Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, J. Dewey, 1916 Screen image ©DreamBox Learning

Dewey, 19164. Solutions Occur to Her, She Develops Them

Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, J. Dewey, 1916 Screen image ©DreamBox Learning

“The child doesn’t have to be told by a teacher whether he’s right or wrong. He can see for himself whether it works. That’s what science and knowledge is about.”

– Seymour Papert

Dewey, 19165. Test Her Own Ideas, Make Meaning, Discover Validity

Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, J. Dewey, 1916 Screen image ©DreamBox Learning

Dewey, 19165. Test Her Own Ideas, Make Meaning, Discover Validity

Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, J. Dewey, 1916 Screen image ©DreamBox Learning

DreamBox Approach to Adaptive

Engage with & Make

Sense of a Situation

or Context

Student’s Own

Ideas & Intuition

Specific, Instant, Custom

Feedback

Engine Adapts & Differentiate

s

Student Independently Transfers

“Offline,” Too

Student Independently Transfers

“Offline,” Too

Engineered for Realizations

Engage with & Make

Sense of a Situation

or Context

Student’s Own

Ideas & Intuition

Specific, Instant, Custom

Feedback

Engine Adapts & Differentiate

s

Student Independently Transfers

“Offline,” Too

Truly Adaptive Learning Technology requires dynamic content be

built from the ground up to invite, analyze and respond to initial

conceptions.

Thank you!

timh@dreambox.com@DocHudsonMath

www.dreambox.com