Technology Drives Pilot Program
For those accustomed to reading our blog, it should come as no surprise how we feel about online curriculum. From engaging students to allowing flexibility, online curriculum provides an excellent opportunity to reach students in an individualized manner that meets their certain needs. Picture a golfing instructor who taught a proper swing to a class by showing how he or she approaches the maneuver. Helpful, right? The sort of insight that the individual could give would certainly help people attempting to learn the game. Now picture a one-on-one tutorial that allows golfing students to learn the mechanics of their swing by an instructor dedicated to one student’s particular need. That is the dynamic online curriculum like ours provides.
Taking this understanding and expanding it to the real world, Education Week spotlights a school in New York City which is serving as a useful example of how technology — and, in fact, online curriculum — is engaging students and improving grades where many thought it couldn’t happen. From the story:
“The pilot program at Dr. Sun Yat Sen Middle School in Chinatown provided math lessons that were customized every day to meet the individual needs, and progress, of the 80 incoming 7th graders who volunteered to attend the five-week session this past summer. The School of One combined face-to-face instruction, software-based activities, and online lessons designed to move each new 7th grader through a defined set of math benchmarks at his or her own pace.”
The School of One is a summer school pilot program that uses technology, more particularly individualized classroom instruction, that combines teacher-led instruction with software and online tutors that are customized to each student’s needs. This is not some fantasy dream out of a sci-fi movie; this is a real initiative in New York City that is focused on students who have typically struggled in a traditional classroom setting and is being received with wide applause. In fact, TIME Magazine ranked it as one of the 50 best inventions of 2009. This is a very interesting and novel approach to education, one we’ll keep our eye out for in the future.
Tell us how you are integrating education and technology in your classroom to engage students. We’d love to hear your stories!