adaptive

RECENT POSTS

Alleyoop Releases New STEM Program

August 16, 2012 | 7:00 AM | By

Alleyoop online tutorial

By Jennie Rose

Alleyoop, the online college prep tutoring site created by Pearson, has added a group of new STEM-focused partners to its offerings. In addition to its current math programs, Alleyoop has added NASA eClips, National Geographic, Scientific Minds, Patrick JMT, Virtual Nerd, Adaptive Curriculum and Brightstorm.

Alleyoop uses the “gamification” model for its curriculum, which is targeted at middle- and high-school students. The site features real-time tutors, instructional videos, and a system described as “personalized, iterative, and adaptive,” according to an Atlantic article.

With these new additions, students who use Alleyoop will have access to NASA eClips, a video library showing STEM-related careers and applications for science and engineering concepts;  videos from National Geographic that are aligned to STEM topics, such as animal behavior and chemistry; National Science Foundation’s Science360 app, a source for science news, as well as a series of video interviews of scientists and engineers on the field.

Other partners in Alleyoop’s online curriculum offerings include Brightstorm, video lessons created by teachers covering biology, chemistry and physics; Adaptive Curriculum, featuring interactive scenarios that give students context for science lessons across the board; Patrick JMT, video activities including geometry, trigonometry to statistics and probability; Scientific Minds, quizzes Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Digital Tools, adaptive, Alleyoop, math, STEM

Are Online Math Programs Better Than Literacy?

October 26, 2011 | 9:52 AM | By

TB

Students at Rocketship Mateo Elementary working in the Learning Lab.

When it comes to math and literacy software, the choices are vast and varied. But over the past months, I’ve heard a recurring complaint from different school administrators: The quality of literacy software is not as high as that of math.

Why is this the case?

I spoke to Aylan Samouha, chief schools officer at Rocketship Education, a network of charter elementary schools in San Jose that allots 25 percent of students’ time at school in the computer lab, where they use math and literacy software for basic skills mastery. Time in classroom with their teacher is spent on what they call “higher-order thinking” and collaborative projects.

“There are aspects of math, particularly at the elementary school level, that lend themselves to online learning more easily.”

For math, Rocketship uses Dreambox Learning, ST Math, TenMarks and Equatia. For literacy, Compass Learning is used for vocabulary and Rosetta Stone for English language learners. Students also have independent reading time, for which they’re given “comprehension quizzes.” For both math and literacy, students who need more individualized help work in small groups of four or five with math and literacy specialists.

Samouha, who’s in charge of what software the school uses, says that the math software is “much further along than literacy.”

“It’s not like people aren’t trying to crack the code,” he says. “But the truth is that there are aspects of math, particularly at the elementary school level, that lend themselves to online learning more easily.”

In general, he points out, with any form of learning — online or otherwise — basic skills are easier to teach, grasp, and to measure than higher-order thinking and concepts. And although math does Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Digital Tools, Teaching Strategies, adaptive, Compass Learning, Dreambox, literacy, math

Hybrid Learning Comes to Life at Rocketship

May 3, 2011 | 12:19 PM | By

Sintia Marquez in Rocketship’s Learning Lab, where she uses adapative technology that moves at her level.

When it comes to a student’s education, expectation is everything. What parents and educators expect from each student, and what she expects from herself, has a tremendous effect on how a student fares in school.

For Sintia Marquez, a fifth-grader at Rocketship Mateo Sheedy Elementary, expectations are high, both on the part of her parents and her teachers.

Though she’s naturally a high achiever – well above grade level in both literacy and math – that foundation of support and encouragement from her parents and teachers is helping her forge ahead, even in a public charter school where more than 90% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch and 70% for whom English is a second language.

Sintia’s mother was allowed to progress only to middle school in Mexico. She’s a housekeeper now, and her father finds work as a contractor and a restaurant worker. “Sintia can’t say that I have a career that she can be proud of,” said Livier Maria Marquez in the one-bedroom guesthouse she shares with her husband and two daughters. “One of my hopes is for her to go to college. She really wants to go to Stanford or Santa Clara.”

“Remediation occurres in this sort of seamless, automated way.”

If the present is any indication of the future, Sintia is well on her way there. In June, she’ll graduate from Rocketship, one of three branded charter schools in the area that has plans to expand across the state and across the country. The school offers open enrollment and receives funding from local, state, and federal taxes, as well as from venture capital.

Since she transferred from a nearby public school in fourth grade, Sintia has been able to progress at her own advanced level with the help of the charter school’s hybrid learning system. With this system, teachers teach high-level concepts in class, and students practice those theories in a computer lab.

It’s all part of a highly engineered, tightly structured block schedule that moves students through classrooms and computer labs, with time for recess, lunch, and outdoor activities throughout the day. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Teaching Strategies, adaptive, blended learning, hybrid learning, Rocketship