Education Reform: Can Technology Fix Education?

Education Reform: By Michael J. Miller

Education Reform: Of all the areas of the economy that technology can shake, education seems the most ready because many students aren’t getting the attention they deserve. At a panel at Fortune Brainstorm Tech last week, there were a lot of different opinions on what’s wrong with education and what should be done.

 

http://forwardthinking.pcmag.com/none/300626-can-technology-fix-education

Tom McDonald’s Comments:

The answer is no. Please allow me to explain.

Look at the introduction of the tablet (technology) into education and then look at the advanced individual learning outcomes as a result of only introducing only the new technology (leaving the one to many teaching system in place) :
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…”Cram says he hasn’t seen any dramatic improvements in learning since incorporating the iPad, but he anticipates that there will be soon”…(after a years implementation)
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The solution is not technology.

The issue is that the traditional one to many ineffective and inefficient teaching system needs to be replaced with a effective and efficient, brain based, learning research proven, classroom proven, learner centric, learning methodology.

Traditional classroom teachers are subject matter experts, not learning experts.

(1) We must educate teachers on how students learn in the most effective and most efficient way. We know how to do this this.

(2) Then we must educate teachers on how to integrate these best practices, learning methodologies, into each and every classroom to measurably advance individual learning outcomes.

(3) Then we must measure individual learning progress, consistent with individual and organization strategic objectives.

Here’s the bugaboo:

The learning ideal is one teacher to one student (ask any teacher and they will agree with this) – Truly personalized, learner centric, teacher facilitated, ongoing learning and teacher facilitated, ongoing learning reinforcement, in a teacher facilitated, ongoing, blended learning environment.

Great, but it’s not affordable, nor is it scalable.

Enter the appropriate learning technology:

Brain based, research based, classroom proven, teacher facilitated, learning technology, that individually delivers truly personalized learning, over time and truly personalized reinforcement, over time, in a blended learning environment, over time solves the truly personalized learning problem

When you deliver teacher facilitated, truly personalized learning, to an individual student over a tablet, laptop, smart phone, you will be ensured that individual will learn that critical information to individual fluency, in the most effective and most efficient manner possible and as a result will consistently, individually and measurably advance individual learning outcomes

Truly personalized learning technology, that integrates, brain based, research proven and classroom proven learning methodologies, is available and has been available since 2000.

It can deliver specific topics (Math/ELA) to specific students ( at risk – Special Ed/ELL)
and it can be customized to accommodate any subject that students may want to master, creating a truly personalized adaptive learning system for all students (at risk/traditional/gifted)

We know what to do to advance individual learning outcomes and with the Kahn Academy we are moving in the right direction, but we have yet to completely integrate into education all of the proven learning methodologies that are known to advance individual learning outcomes.

Tom