We've been successful in co-developing with a number of companies, where
we can let our student's needs drive the development of new software.
So, I think the most important thing that we look
for in our software programs is that there's actionable data from
the program. The second one would be, is it adaptive?
Are the students able to go as fast as
they can, or does it backup, if they need it?
The third thing would be, is it efficient with the student's time?
Are they running into wasting time looking at
animations that are not at all educational in value.
We also look how engaging is a software program?
Is the student, is the student engaged the whole time.
And additionally we look at research, there's some programs
out there have been proven, nationwide, to work extremely well.
Finally we've gotten to the point, now in
our world, where we want a cloud based option.
Students can work at home.
students can log into any device on our school and hit their account.
>> Rocketship Education which is one of
the premier Blended Learning organizations in this country,
has a particular process that they use
to evaluate the software choices that they make.
The first thing that they're
really interested in, is whether the software is adaptive.
It has to be adaptive.
Meaning that it speeds up or slows down
based on the actual performance of the students.
Such that it's not just some pre-canned sequence
of content, but it's really adapting to their needs.
>> The second area they look at is
whether the software is aligned to the common core.
And this is a US specific requirement and as you may know, in America we're shifting
to generally a new curriculum that's asking students to go a
little deeper and apply their knowledge rather than just doing factual recall.
And all of the vendors are in the process
of trying to make their software common core aligned.
Now this is where you need to push a little bit.
because it's easy to say, oh, we're aligned to the common core.
And that might mean that we've just drawn a map from
the current stuff we have and shown you how it fits.
What's really interesting is the vendors who are
using common core as a chance to really change
their software, and do go after some of these deeper skills.
So just be aware and think about it, but for Rocketship, this is essential.
Because if it's not aligned to what your state or country asks to be assessed,
it's a lot harder to make the software a core part of your teaching program.
>> And that's an important part, which is wherever you are, you probably have.
Standards or curriculum that you want to see taught, so you
can make this criteria a key part of your evaluation process.
The third thing that they really focus on
in Rocketship, is whether the content is assignable.
What that means, is that teachers can go
into the software and actually pick out specific
modules and assign it to students based on
their evaluation of where students need more work.
So the Khan Academy, for example, used to just be a big array of videos.
What they've been doing is adding these features that teachers can actually
pick and choose what modules they want students to dive deep in on,
based on what they're seeing out of student performance.
>> Now one area to be careful, is this is an
area where a lot of teachers say they want this assignable feature.
And I think it's easy for us to imagine that we're going to be going home every
night and looking at all the data and
making the next set of recommendations for every student.
But the reality of our lives as teachers every
day in classrooms doesn't always make this a practical reality.
So in my book, I'd rather have the software have a really good internal
adaptability that it can do some of that work for you.
Rather than banking on the hopes that I could always go
in and create a customized playlist for every student every day.
And on the topic of teachers being able to assign content.
Another feature that Rocketship thinks is really important
for it's model, is the ability to sink what
is happening in the online environment with, with what's
happening elsewhere in the classroom and the offline environment.
Now this goes back to one of our basic definitions behind Blended Learning.
Which is that the content online has to
sink with other acitviites that are occurring in class.
And, on this point Rocketship feels like it's really important
to integrate whatever software they buy, with their existing systems.
And we also made this point early on.
If the data's coming in many different formats, and they don't talk well to each
other, it can be overwhelming for a school to use any new piece of software.
So being deliberate with what systems you have in place, and making sure what
you're purchasing integrates well with that.
Is essential, and different companies make it easier or
harder for the software to play nice with each other.
>> So one more point, which is that Rocketship really looks to
make sure that the content that they select is actually engaging for students.
Now this may seem obvious, but there's a lot
of content out there that's not all that engaging and
what Rocketship has found is that if students aren't
into that, then they're not going to do their work.
Now, we also can't mistake engagement
for, and making it fun for actual real learning.
And sometimes, those things aren't in concert with each other.
But if it's not actually motivating, you're
probably not going to get to learning either.
>> I ask the kids, what do you like, and what you don't like.
In, in my class, and I, I've told you this story before.
You know? I had, I had testers of online programs.
And I would kind of stagger them, every other kid.
And I had.
You know, be like, okay, time, time to go to your testing.
Which, we're piloting this program. Go ahead, log in.
And so the, the first, third, fifth,
sixth, seventh and ninth kid would log into
program A and the second, fourth, sixth, eighth,
and tenth kids would log into program B.
Except all the A kids were sitting there watching the B kids do the program.
And to me, that's like a clear winner, only
kids speak, obviously, that one program's better than the other.
Now, kids don't always
know what's right for them.
They don't always want to eat their vegetables, so,
you know, I didn't just give up right
there, but it's a pretty clear indicator from
jump which programs are going to work for kids.
The last thing I want to do in a Blended classroom, is
force kids to use a tool that they're not excited about.
Because generally speaking, particularly if you're using
web-based software, you've got a lot of
options, and there's no reason why kids can't find something that works for them.
>> What I liked
about the minis, iPad minis is that you get to play a gi, game
called Gigi, and kids play it, and it's like, it's really fun.
And they don't even know that
we're learning about, that we're learning things.
>> My favorite site to go in is called Brain Pop.
It's a link that some of the PLP playlists go to.
And it has like, educational videos,
educational games, and there's a lot of information, but it makes learning fun.