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Thoughts on AI, the World, and Education

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Topic 1:  A.I., the World, and Education

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Topic 1:  A.I., the World, and Education

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Thoughts on AI, the World, and Education

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Artificial Intelligence is seen by many as a great transformative tech. Will AI systems one day drive us around? Do our laundry? Mow our lawn? Raise our kids? Fight wars? Write these articles? Create political advertisements? These questions make people shift from thinking purely about the functional capabilities to the ethics behind creating such powerful and potentially life-consequential technologies. As such, it makes sense to spend time considering what we want these systems to do and make sure we address ethical questions now so that we build these systems with the common good of humanity in mind.
Will AI replace human workers?
The most immediate concern for many is that AI-enabled systems will replace workers across a wide range of industries. AI brings mixed emotions and opinions when referenced in the context of jobs. However, it's becoming increasingly clear that AI is not a job killer, but rather, a job category killer. As has happened with every wave of technology, from the automatic weaving looms of the early industrial revolution to the computers of today we see that jobs are not destroyed, but rather employment shifts from one place to another and entirely new categories of employment are created. We can and should expect the same in the AI-enabled economy. Research and experience is showing that it's inevitable that AI will replace entire categories of work, especially in transportation, retail, government, professional services employment, and customer service. On the other hand, companies will be freed up to put their human resources to much better, higher value tasks instead of taking orders, fielding simple customer service requests or complaints, or data entry related tasks.

Indeed, the move to this new age of digital transformation is creating concerns about labor displacement, with or without the power of AI. All AI is doing is hastening digital transformation across particular business processes. As companies are looking to adapt and implement AI strategies we think it's important to have open and honest conversations with your employees. In particular, experience and research is showing that companies that adopt augmented intelligence approaches, where AI is augmenting and helping humans to do their jobs better, rather than fully replacing the human, not only shows faster and more consistent ROI for organizations, but also is welcomed much more warmly by employees. People feel more comfortable working with machines instead of being replaced by machines.
The rise of fake media and disinformation: Will AI make this worse?
AI systems are getting really good at creating fake images, videos, conversations, and all manner of content. We already have trouble believing everything we hear, see, and read. What happens when you can no longer tell if an image is real or AI-generated or if you're talking to a bot or a real person? It's been widely reported that bots had a role to play in the 2016 US Presidential elections spreading political propaganda. These automated social media accounts helped create and spread misinformation on the internet attempting to manipulate voters and fueling the fire of partisan disagreement. Unlike humans, bots never tire working 24/7 and can generate a very large amount of content in a very short period of time. Once shared and re-tweeted with others this news starts to go viral, true or not, and is virtually unstoppable. These bots are effective at spreading false or heavily altered facts, amplifying messages, and putting thoughts and ideas into people's heads. Criminals and state actors can use fake imagery or audio to cause personal or business harm or to interfere with government operations. Now all it takes is a few malicious actors spreading false claims to traumatically alter public opinion and quickly shift the public's view.

Governments and corporations alike will have to think about how they will reign in the potential damage done by AI-enabled content creation. In fact, we encourage companies and governments to consider fake content to be as malicious as cybersecurity threats and respond appropriately. Propaganda, disinformation, malicious interference, blackmail, and other forms of "information crime" can be just as harmful as physical and electronic attacks on systems. The world is very much unprepared for AI being unleashed on unprotected citizens. Corporations who freely traffic in user-generated content are just as liable as governments to curb abuse.
Do we want evil people to have easy access to AI technology?
While AI can do a lot of good we must be mindful about AI in the hands of malicious users. As technology continues to become more powerful, AI can cause severe damage if used maliciously. What happens when individuals, criminal organizations, and rogue countries apply AI to malicious ends? Many companies are already asking themselves these questions and starting to take action to safeguard against malicious AI attacks. New technologies can exploit the vulnerability of systems that are dependent on AI and machine learning technologies. As these AI systems get smarter they can change the nature of threats, making them harder to detect, more random in appearance, more adaptive to systems and environments, and more efficient at identifying and targeting vulnerabilities in systems. This should be terrifying. We need to immediately start thinking about how we are constructing and managing our digital infrastructure as well as how we design and distribute AI systems. Detecting these malicious attacks will only get harder over time.

In addition, machine learning service providers, especially on-demand cloud-based services should be mindful of who their customers are. If malicious users are using their platforms to perform distributed AI-enabled attacks or other criminal acts, then like financial institutions, governments will start cracking down on these providers and impose new forms of "Know Your Customer (KYC)" regulations. If these platform providers don't want to be on the wrong end of the regulatory cycle, they need to get ahead of the curve and start their own efforts to make sure they know who their customers are and what they are doing on their platforms.
Is pervasive surveillance already here? Is AI our new Big Brother?
AI enables companies and governments to keep constant tabs on what humans are doing in an automated and intelligent fashion. Will a future with AI mean an end to privacy? Will "Big Brother" really always be watching? As facial recognition technologies continue to advance it's getting easier to detect individuals from a large crowd of people at stadiums, parks, and public spaces without their permission. In 2018 Microsoft urged Congress to study it and oversee the use of facial recognition technology. Bradford Smith, the company's president said "We live in a nation of laws, and the government needs to play an important role in regulating facial recognition technology". What's striking about this statement is that tech giants rarely advocate regulation of their innovations, so for Microsoft to be urging the US Congress to regulate facial recognition they must already see how this technology can be misused.

In an AI-enabled future we assume that everyone and everything will have knowledge about everyone else. This means that the assumption will be that everyone already knows who we are, what we want, where we are, and what we're doing. This pervasive knowledge will become part of the assumption of where we are, just like we are now expecting to be able to get Internet, electricity, and information whenever and wherever we need it without excuse. No longer will we be able to just "un-plug" for a while. We may quickly move to a world where just a few companies and government have an uncomfortable amount of knowledge and level of control over the lives of everyone.
Will intelligent machines have rights?
As machines become more intelligent and we ask more and more of our machines, how should they be treated and viewed in society? Once machines can actually simulate emotion and act similar to human beings, how should they be governed? Should we consider machines as humans, animals, or inanimate objects? To this point, to what level do we ascribe liability and responsibility to the devices themselves over the people that are supposedly in control of them? In March 2018 an autonomous vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian. People were outraged that a machine killed a human being.

But why were people outraged by this accident? Thousands of people are killed every day in motor vehicle accidents caused by humans at the wheel. What difference should it make that it was a machine driving the vehicle? The reason for this outrage is because society hasn't, and may never accept, when a machine kills a human. However, the likelihood of eliminating all traffic-related fatalities is almost certainly zero percent. As such, if we want autonomous vehicles on the road this scenario will happen again, and again. Despite perhaps dramatic evidence that machine-driven vehicles have overall far lower fatality rates than human-driven vehicles, the issue of liability and control is primarily one of ethics. So we need to be asking these questions, figuring out what we can accept and what's ethical, and put laws and regulations in place now to safeguard against future tragedies.
Creating transparency in AI decision-making
There are many approaches used in machine learning, however, no machine algorithm has re-invigorated the AI market quite like deep learning. Deep learning, however, is a "black box". We aren't really sure how deep learning works and this can be a big problem when we rely on this technology to make critical decisions such as loan applications, who gets paroled, and who gets hired. AI systems that are unexplainable should not be acceptable, especially in high risk situations. Explainable AI needs to be part of the equation if we want to have AI systems we can trust.

Deep learning relies heavily on training data. So it should be no surprise then that when biased training data is used to teach these systems the results are biased AI systems. People wrongly assume that the training data is always "clean", from a large pool, and represents society as a whole but results have proved this is not the case. Google's image recognition system wrongly classified images of minorities, the Apple Card which is administered by Goldman Sachs has come under recent scrutiny for gender bias, and software used to sentence criminals was found to be biased against minorities. If we are going to use machine learning algorithms to make any sort of worthwhile decision we must demand that it be able to explain itself. Would you really allow a human driver to hit your car and when you question why they did that they have no answer? Of course you wouldn't. We shouldn't accept this from machines either!
Taking steps to resolve these issues
If we don't ask ourselves these questions now and build ethical AI, implications down the road can be far more grim than people realize. Do we really trust companies to do the right thing? Do we trust governments to do the right thing? We'd like to think that with public input and ethical questions and concerns brought up now, that we can create a future that isn't so grim. There will always be bad actors who try to influence, infiltrate, and manipulate. Enterprises, organizations, and citizens should keep asking questions, keep working towards building ethical AI, and keep trying to fight automated bots and malicious attacks because AI is coming whether or not we're ready.

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Artificial Intelligence is seen by many as a great transformative tech. Will AI systems one day drive us around? Do our laundry? Mow our lawn? Raise our kids? Fight wars? Write these articles? Create political advertisements? These questions make people shift from thinking purely about the functional capabilities to the ethics behind creating such powerful and potentially life-consequential technologies.

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Topic 2:  Hybrid and Digital Learning Spaces

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Topic 2:  Hybrid and Digital Learning Spaces

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Interesting Article on Student Collaboration

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Interesting Article on Student Collaboration

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This article gives the what, why, and some collaboration tools that students can use in the classroom. Very useful and interesting.

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In an age dominated by smartphones, social media, and technology, it's high time we introduce educational apps to learners of all ages. While many teachers might have restricted the use of smartphones in their classrooms, now the classrooms are on students' phones!

It would be an understatement to say that today's average student is familiar with technology, whether they're chatting on social media, sharing short videos, playing video games, or sharing reports, the majority of school-age children see technology as the norm.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to explosive growth in student collaboration tools and educational learning apps focused on making student learning fun, interactive, and enjoyable! In the US, expenditure in the education sector is just over 6% of GDP, or close to $1.2 trillion.

A large chunk of education expenditure goes toward educators/administrators and physical facilities. HolonIQ estimates that less than 3% of education spending is allotted to technology, so certainly there is a great scope for investment in education technology.

The debate on a technology-dependent society is never-ending, but right now educators with certainty will say they need to find ways to connect with their students and incorporate the latest technology into their schooling. If you're an educator who wants to engage your students' minds and create a collaborative learning environment, read on to find out how you can use student collaboration tools to enhance the learning experience.

What is Student Collaboration?

Collaborative learning can happen amongst students or amongst the larger global community of learners. Peer learning, or student collaboration, is a type of learning that involves students working in small groups to examine concepts or find solutions to problems.

As the saying goes two or three heads are better than one, research has determined that through peer-to-peer learning, students teach each other by clarifying concepts in an easily understandable language, discussing mistakes, addressing misconceptions, and innovating fresh ideas.

Benefits of Student Collaboration:

Student learning experiences that are dynamic, social, engaging, and student-led result in deeper learning. The benefits of student collaborative learning include:

Better student preparation for social and employment situations

Improved development of higher-order thinking, communication, and leadership skills

Greater student-faculty cooperation and synergy

Increased student self-esteem and perseverance

Wider understanding from a variety of diverse viewpoints

The student collaboration tools that I refer to are web-based tools that empower teachers and students to perform a variety of tasks, such as interactive discussions, collaborative activities, researching online learning resources, assessing knowledge, and many more. Below are my suggestions for the best online student collaborative tools that are easy to use for any educator, enjoy!

List of Student Collaboration Tools for the Online Classroom

Great student collaboration tools enable students to be creative, work together on projects, learn from each other, and receive feedback from teachers. Below we have painstakingly reviewed some student collaboration tools for a variety of interesting uses.

1. Bit.ai - Document Collaboration Tool

The first student collaboration tool on our list is Bit.ai - the best document collaboration platform. Bit.ai has been built for teams and individuals to create content, collaborate on projects, and organize all their lessons in one place. Educators can create a wide variety of documents such as lesson plans, dynamic notes, wikis, knowledge bases, projects, assignments, and presentations while integrating across numerous other apps.

An educator can create different virtual classrooms through ' workspaces ' and add students to different classes. Users can create live interactive documents by adding visual web links, images, presentations, music, videos, equations, designs, social media posts, surveys, file attachments, and more. Educational resources can be easily shared, and interlinked with other live documents, and students can work on assignments together in real-time. Students can chat and learn collaboratively with the context within a document.

Teachers can evaluate assignments, and provide comments, and feedback individually to students. Using document tracking capabilities, teachers can also get feedback on how students interacted with the learning material, how much time they spent on it, and which areas interested them the most. Bit.ai integrates with 100+ apps enabling everyone to go beyond just text or images and unleash their creativity.
Read more: How Bit.ai Can Help Students Better Manage Their Schoolwork?
2. Kahoot - Game-based Student Learning & Collaboration Tool

Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform, used to play quiz-based learning, facilitate discussions, and create surveys in educational institutions. Its learning games are called "Kahoots" and can be played directly via a web browser or the Kahoot app. A teacher can introduce new concepts and have students take user-generated multiple-choice quizzes. Educators who don't want to make a quiz can search through millions of public Kahoots to play or remix.

A great feature is the ability to import or create slides and combine them with various question types in one seamless interactive lesson. Educators can host games live via videoconferencing or send self-paced games to students to facilitate distance learning - this makes it a fantastic student collaboration tool. Educators can assess class learning progress and formative assessments can be conducted by using analytics from game reports.

3. Flipgrid - Video-based Student Collaboration Tool

An amazing resource from Microsoft is Flipgrid, a video learning platform that is 100% free for educators and learners. Educators create ' grids ' which are meeting places for learners, they can then add a topic for discussion. Learners respond with short videos that could include uploaded photos and videos, trimmed clips, whiteboards, video styles, text, emoji, inking, etc. to express their points of view.

Educators can also allow learners to record replies to classmates' responses. This makes for inclusive and interactive learning with all members responding with their own short-Insta Stories style videos. Videos responses are short from 15 sec to 5 mins and can be set as per the topic created.

As an educator, you would have access to their ready resources, and age- and subject-specific topics from other educators around the world. One of the main things going for Flipgrid is its ease of use, from kindergartens to college grads, all can easily get started. The tool is versatile and enables learners to articulate ideas with well-planned responses without feeling "on the spot" in the classroom. Flipgrid is an engaging way for educators to foster discussion and collaboration in a space that has the familiarity of social media minus the ads.
Read more: Collaborative Teaching: What is it & How to Do it the Right Way?
4. Quizlet - Quiz-based Student Learning Tool

A widely popular and well-loved student collaboration tool is next - Quizlet. Quizlet is an interactive quiz tool, that helps students memorize facts in a fun way. It utilizes user-generated sets of terms and descriptions and enables learning through quizzes - flashcards for individual learning or competitive games for classroom learning.

With access to millions of question sets, learners can practice on any topic, though the most popular are languages. Using Quizlet's available study sets, different study modes, and in-class games, educators can instantly create an engaged classroom. Educators can also create their own custom flashcard sets for Quizlet Live competitions to be held in a virtual classroom.

Quizlet is best for subjects that require rote learning. One of its features called Quizlet Live is a great way to introduce new content as it requires students to collaborate with their teams to research, and pool their knowledge to select the right answer, as they play the game.
Read more: 9 Awesome Assignment Writing Tips to Get Better Marks!
5. Parlay - Student Discussion & Collaboration Tool

Parlay is a great student collaboration tool for round table discussions to get students to a higher-order level in thinking. It's a complete discussion platform that allows learners to interact with their educators and each other, both virtually and in person. An educator can lead the discussion by starting a RoundTable topic, learners then write a response, incorporate peer feedback, and participate in in-depth discussions.

The content within the RoundTable topic can be multimedia or text-based and can be edited or supplemented with educators' own material. Learners can also have a "live" discussion, where they sit in a Socratic circle with their devices and respond in a discussion

Parlay provides a good structure for productive class discussion and dialogue. It allows educators to design the RoundTable as per their requirements so you can use it to emphasize key concepts, or as a summative assessment to evaluate learning. Parlay includes an assessment tool that uses analytics on both the quantity and quality of student participation and provides suggested feedback to learners.

6. Padlet - Student Collaborative Bulletin Board

Padlet is the next wonderful student collaboration tool that is aesthetically pleasing and easy to use. It allows learners to collect information from the internet and pin it onto virtual bulletin boards. Like a wall full of Post-it notes you can add text, links, images, videos - basically anything - can be added to a board and organized.

Learners can also upload documents they've own resources, like class notes or completed assignments. Padlet encourages collaboration and is an effective way for students to learn on their own at their own pace. It is a great research tool with each student bringing their resources and perspectives on a topic.

Padlet is a quick and easy way to enable learners to interact with each other. Boards are a great way to break a class into smaller study groups, facilitate a class project, or enable further private learning. Educators can use it as a form of formative assessment to track students' understanding of a concept. It is well suited for subjects that have creativity or research components.

7. Drawp Unlimited - Collaborative Brainstorming Tool

Next on the list of best student collaboration tools we have, is Drawp Unlimited which is a student creative collaboration app to create drawings and assignments. Teachers can create assignments to work on and students can work independently or with a peer to create original drawings.

Drawp has many creation tools such as paintbrushes, photos, audio, sticky notes, text, clip art, etc. Learners can share their pictures with the educator and other classmates, who can comment to provide feedback. Educators can also utilize the resource marketplace to collaborate on lesson plans and other resources. Teachers can use Drawp to promote group brainstorming and teamwork.

Drawp is better suited to younger students who will enjoy the collaborative and free-form drawing aspect. Teachers can upload a worksheet or use a premade graphic organizer or even create reports on a variety of topics. It can be used to brainstorm digitally and even make collaborative presentations by using pictures to create a slide show.

8. Edmodo - Student Social Media Collaboration Tool

Edmodo is a social media-like student collaboration tool that can be used in an educational environment. Teachers can create a classroom where students and teachers can post and add comments. Teachers can post a discussion question, and students can respond with their comments, or a teacher can start a poll or discussion question, and even assignments can be posted. Edmodo contains a searchable repository of lessons that teachers can use.

Teachers can assign projects or assessments, and students can submit their work within the platform. You can also give a quiz which could be either a formative or summative assessment. These grades can then be shared with parents too who also have access to the platform. Students enjoy Edmodo because of its social media feel, rest assured it is an educational tool.

9. Google Classroom - Classroom Organization Tool

No student collaboration tool list could be complete without Google Classroom. This is primarily because firstly it's free and secondly most learners are familiar with their existing email, sheets, and presentation tools - all of which can be easily integrated.

Teachers can create a Google Classroom for any course and invite all the students, the integrated Google Drive can contain all important links, lessons, presentations, images, videos, and more. Students can easily collaborate in real time using Google's free apps, such as Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides. Teachers can set up assignments and note submissions, they can also add in comments while students are working.

Google Classroom makes group projects easier to manage - both for teachers and students - because it allows students to work from any device at their convenience. Google Classroom also integrates with numerous other apps for additional functionality and variety in the learning process.

10. Classcraft - Gamified Learning Platform

Classcraft has got to be my favorite learning app as you can gamify your class! Classcraft is generally a classroom management platform that engages students through gamified lessons. It's carved out a niche for itself as an engagement management system (EMS).

Students can create characters for themselves and they either power up or lose health points based on how they're doing in class. As students are in teams, if a student does poorly, the whole team suffers, so students truly come together and collaborate to learn.

An educator can create quests that weave lesson objectives into an exciting adventure story where students can move at their own pace and participate in challenges to earn rewards for their virtual avatars. Classcraft is an incredible student collaboration tool to reinforce positive behavior while students build knowledge and strengthen communication.
Before you go! Our team at bit.ai has created a few awesome education templates to make your processes more efficient. Make sure to check them out before you go, y ou might need them!
Final Thoughts
Further reads: Learning Objectives: What, Why & How to Write? How To Create Effective Lesson plans For Students? How to Create an Amazing Study Guide? 12 Best Student Tools for Better Learning! Best Homeschooling Apps and Tools to Educate Kids! How To Make Class Notes Worth Reading? Workplace Collaboration Tools for Productive Teams! How To Create A Recommended Reading Document?
Student-led collaborative learning in this modern era needs to be facilitated in the right way. Many benefits can be achieved using student collaboration in the desired way. Online student collaboration tools facilitate interaction and self-discovery while they work with others beyond the classroom material.

Student collaboration is important in learning social skills and exploring areas of interest. This shift in digital learning is here to stay so the earlier you try out some tools, the easier it would be to adapt to the new digital learning. We would love to hear about your experience with any of the student collaboration tools above or your favorite tool, go ahead, and comment on your thoughts below.

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Student Collaboration: What, Why and Tools! - Bit Blog

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Student collaboration, is a type of learning that involves students working in small groups to examine concepts or find solutions to problems. Read more!

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Learning

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Learning

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We all of our thoughts on online article. What are your thoughts on this topic?

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Discover Everything You Need To Know (Good And Bad) About Online Education

One of the most oft-used terms after the pandemic is the term "new normal." The new normal in education is the increased use of online learning tools. The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered new ways of learning. All around the world, educational institutions are looking toward online learning platforms to continue with the process of educating students. The new normal now is a transformed concept of education with online learning at the core of this transformation. Today, digital learning has emerged as a necessary resource for students and schools all over the world. For many educational institutes, this is an entirely new way of education that they have had to adopt. Online learning is now applicable not just to learn academics but it also extends to learning extracurricular activities for students as well. In recent months, the demand for online learning has risen significantly, and it will continue doing so in the future.

As with most teaching methods, online learning also has its own set of positives and negatives. Decoding and understanding these positives and negatives will help institutes in creating strategies for more efficiently delivering the lessons, ensuring an uninterrupted learning journey for students.

What Are The Advantages Of Online Learning?

1. Efficiency

Online learning offers teachers an efficient way to deliver lessons to students. Online learning has a number of tools such as videos, PDFs, podcasts, and teachers can use all these tools as part of their lesson plans. By extending the lesson plan beyond traditional textbooks to include online resources, teachers are able to become more efficient educators.

2. Accessibility Of Time And Place

Another advantage of online education is that it allows students to attend classes from any location of their choice. It also allows schools to reach out to a more extensive network of students, instead of being restricted by geographical boundaries. Additionally, online lectures can be recorded, archived, and shared for future reference. This allows students to access the learning material at a time of their comfort.

Thus, online learning offers students the accessibility of time and place in education.

3. Affordability

Another advantage of online learning is reduced financial costs. Online education is far more affordable as compared to physical learning. This is because online learning eliminates the cost points of student transportation, student meals, and most importantly, real estate. Additionally, all the course or study materials are available online, thus creating a paperless learning environment which is more affordable, while also being beneficial to the environment.

4. Improved Student Attendance

Since online classes can be taken from home or location of choice, there are fewer chances of students missing out on lessons.

5. Suits A Variety Of Learning Styles

Every student has a different learning journey and a different learning style. Some students are visual learners, while some students prefer to learn through audio. Similarly, some students thrive in the classroom, and other students are solo learners who get distracted by large groups.

The online learning system, with its range of options and resources, can be personalized in many ways. It is the best way to create a perfect learning environment suited to the needs of each student.

What Are The Disadvantages Of Online Learning?

1. Inability To Focus On Screens

For many students, one of the biggest challenges of online learning is the struggle with focusing on the screen for long periods of time. With online learning, there is also a greater chance for students to be easily distracted by social media or other sites. Therefore, it is imperative for the teachers to keep their online classes crisp, engaging, and interactive to help students stay focused on the lesson.

2. Technology Issues

Another key challenge of online classes is internet connectivity. While internet penetration has grown in leaps and bounds over the past few years, in smaller cities and towns, a consistent connection with decent speed is a problem. Without a consistent internet connection for students or teachers, there can be a lack of continuity in learning for the child. This is detrimental to the education process.

3. Sense Of Isolation

Students can learn a lot from being in the company of their peers. However, in an online class, there are minimal physical interactions between students and teachers. This often results in a sense of isolation for the students. In this situation, it is imperative that the school allow for other forms of communication between the students, peers, and teachers. This can include online messages, emails and video conferencing that will allow for face-to-face interaction and reduce the sense of isolation.

4. Teacher Training

Online learning requires teachers to have a basic understanding of using digital forms of learning. However, this is not the case always. Very often, teachers have a very basic understanding of technology. Sometimes, they don't even have the necessary resources and tools to conducts online classes.

To combat this, it is important for schools to invest in training teachers with the latest technology updates so that they can conduct their online classes seamlessly.

5. Manage Screen Time

Many parents are concerned about the health hazards of having their children spend so many hours staring at a screen. This increase in screen time is one of the biggest concerns and disadvantages of online learning. Sometimes students also develop bad posture and other physical problems due to staying hunched in front of a screen.

A good solution to this would be to give the students plenty of breaks from the screen to refresh their mind and their body.

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Advantages And Disadvantages Of Online Learning

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Online learning is here to stay! In this insightful article, learn about both the advantages and disadvantages of online learning.

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Thoughts on Coding in The Classroom.

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Coding in the Math Classroom: An Article

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Coding in the Math Classroom: An Article

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By: Diane Hobenshield Tepylo & Lisa Floyd

Diane taught mathematics and programming at a small secondary school in Eastern Ontario for many years. She is now is a doctoral student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. In her research and teaching, Diane explores how spatial reasoning and computational thinking can help mathematical learning. diane.tepylo@mail.utoronto.ca Lisa taught Computational Thinking in Math and Science Courses at Western University's Faculty of Education in the recent Winter Term. She also teaches high school computer science and math with the Thames Valley District School Board in London, Ontario. She is a passionate advocate for getting young kids to code. She is currently a grad student pursing her Masters of Professional Education in the field of mathematics and likes to research new ways to enhance understanding of math concepts for young people. As a mother of three young sons, she appreciates toys that make learning fun yet challenging. Follow her on Twitter @lisaannefloyd
Recently there has been substantial interest in teaching coding throughout the K-12 curriculum as there are numerous educational benefits (cf. Kafai and Burke 2014; Resnick et al. 2009). Coding develops computational thinking - skills such as problem solving, pattern recognition, problem decomposition and abstraction to create models, algorithm design, and the analysis and visualization of data (Wing 2006). There are increasing efforts to promote coding as a means for teaching mathematics ( Gadanidis 2015; Misfeldt and Ejsing-Dunn 2015), specifically in elementary students ( Papert 1980, 1993, 1994).

As secondary mathematics and programming teachers, we have learned that there is great potential to use programming to teach mathematics concepts. When we began teaching programming, we taught the content in a sequential manner. We presented lessons introducing specific commands, expressions, and constructs, followed by a series of exercises to practice those structures. Occasionally we assigned a problem that we thought would require students to consolidate the taught structures. Some students succeeded with this approach, but many needed substantial help to solve the problem. We had demonstrated the tools, but had not helped the students understand the mathematics behind their use.

Driven to help our students be more successful, we independently experimented in our individual classrooms, expanding our teaching repertoires. Listening to how our students understood the programing commands and structures, we adjusted our teaching to help our students become better at programming. By doing so, we found that our students were learning mathematics.

Here, we share several examples of mathematical learning through programming: improving student understanding of division and place value.
Division, Remainders And Rounding In Context
Many students struggle with making sense of remainders in context ( Carpenter et al. 1983; E.A. Silver 1997; E. A. Silver et al. 1993). For example with the question, "an army bus holds 36 soldiers. If 1128 soldiers are being bused to their training site, how many buses are needed?" (Carpenter et al. 1983). A significant number of students spit out the result 31.333 or 31 1/3 for the bus problem without considering what the fractional portion means. Can there be 1/3 of a bus? Alternatively, many students follow the learned rule, 'if the fraction is less than half, round down.' This rule results in an answer of 31 buses. Students do not consider how the remaining 12 solders (1/3 of 36) will be transported. Li and Silver (2000) argue that once students have learned about fractions and decimals, students follow algorithms with no consideration about what the fractional portion of the answer means in the context of the problem.

In computer science courses, different programming commands act as tools that help focus attention on meaningful use of remainders. In many programming languages, there are three types of division: regular, integer and modulus - in Python these are written '/' for regular division, '//' to determine the integer portion of a division and '%' for modulus division, which returns the remainder. As we introduce these programming statements, we facilitate discussions with our students about the different uses of these commands, making references to mathematics and real-life problems.

We did not always include this discussion. When we began teaching computer science, we just taught the commands and expected the students to use them appropriately. Some students could, but many students struggled to identify when they would use the different types of division. Hypothesizing that these students needed to better understand division with remainders, we both independently decided that we had to teach the mathematical aspects of division and remainders to meet our programming goals. The resulting mathematical discussion is often animated. We see "eureka" instances as students first understand and then generate examples of contexts requiring each type of division based on how the remainder will be used.

For example, the teacher might raise the problem of having the computer decide whether a number is odd or even. The students usually will say that even numbers are divisible by two. We then reframe this as, "What does 'divisible by two' mean?" We focus their attention on remainders and the options we have in the programming language. With this discussion, the students come to realize that "divisible by two" means there is a remainder of zero when the number is divided by two; thus they can use modulus division, %. After this discussion, the class might then outline the logic of the program in pseudo-code before the students work to make the computer solve this problem. Figures 1 and 2 show typical student solutions in Scratch and Python respectively.
Place Value
The modulus division command is used in another important number sense concept - place value - in the context of binary numbers.

We begin teaching binary by using chairs to physically count students (unplugged). The first student sits in the first chair, representing the "ones" position. When a second student arrives at a chair, the class discusses how to regroup and the importance of the place value of each chair.

We then extend this unplugged activity to simulate converting a decimal number to binary. The students decide what is the greatest place value that the chairs can represent. For example with decimal 5, one student sits in the '4' chair, representing four students. The class then decides how to represent the remaining one student (five students minus the four represented). There are not enough students for the '2' chair, so that chair remains empty. The one remaining students sits in the '1' chair.' This process is repeated with different decimal numbers until the students understand regrouping and binary place value. Only when the students understand, do we then start discussing how to program the computer to do this conversion using modulus division (see figure 3). Research suggests that comparing different place value systems builds a stronger understanding of place value ( Zazkis and Truman 2015).

A more challenging question requiring remainders is the "Donut-hole" question from CS Circles ( CEMC Universtiy of Waterloo 2010). In this problem, the programmer has to write a program that determines the most price-effective way to purchase mini-donuts for a party (the donut-holes come in three sized boxes). The class first discusses several cases of this problem using specific numbers, discussing how the integer result and the remainder result are used to determine the number of each box size that is needed. The class then works to build an abstraction of these concrete cases, sometimes acting out the decisions. Once the students have an understanding of what is happening in the problem, small groups write up the logic of the problem (pseudo-code) before the students code the solution individually or in pairs.

After helping the students understand the three different division commands through discussion and collaboratively using these tools in meaningful context, we provide other challenges to help students consolidate their understanding of remainders in context. We create challenges to help students to extend their understanding of integer and modulus division such as writing programs to:

Determine the best buy on fertilizer for submitted yards and field dimensions

Convert decimal numbers to binary format

Create their own system of money where denominations are not based on multiples of ten, and create a program that converts between units (figure 4)

Create a program for base 5 or base 16 (hexadecimal)

The three types of division address some issues with remainders, but not the issue of inappropriate rounding that is routinely observed for questions like the bus problem. When students obtain a fractional answer, they have learned to round down when the fractional portion is less than half and round up when it is above half. In the bus question, 36 1/3 is rounded down to 36, leaving 12 soldiers without a bus. We often see this type of mindless rule following in the first weeks of our programming courses. For example, Diane has had a student passionately argue that $7.37 needs to be rounded to $7.00, because 37 cents is less than half of a dollar.

Again, different commands within a programming language provide a framework for sense-making about rounding. Many programming languages have three commands for rounding: one to round down to the next integer (math.floor in Python), one to round up, (math.ceil in Python) and one for traditional rounding to a specific decimal place-round (ndigits). For the students, the fact that programming languages provide three different rounding commands confers legitimacy to our argument that there is more than one way to round. Each different command becomes a tool for thinking about different rounding strategies and what makes sense in the context of a problem.
Teacher Moves that Lead to Math Learning in Programming
The three division commands and the three rounding commands do not exist in isolation from each other. They are all related to making sense of division problems and some result in the answer. For example integer division (4//3) and math.floor (4/3) produce the same result, 1. We help students see these connections by having them solve a challenge without using a specific command and by having the students program a solution to the same problem in more than one language. Some programming languages, especially introductory languages, do not include every programming command found in more sophisticated languages. For example, Scratch does not have integer division but students soon realize that rounding with the floor command produces the same result. We find these activities help our students make connections between division and rounding commands.
Rich Engaging Problems in a Variety of Contexts
Using the three types of division commands to discuss the meanings of remainders in context is just one example of mathematical learning in programming classes. This mathematical learning does not automatically happen through programming. We have found that rich problems are important as is making the mathematics explicit.

Choosing a variety of rich, engaging problem contexts is important to build mathematics through programming. By selecting contexts that engage students, students attend to lessons and persevere in solving problems such as converting Vrobits. Even when working with more abstract problems, we try to give students some choice in the problems. We find these contexts and choice keep our students interested and persistent when the concepts become difficult (Middleton & Jansen, 2011).
Making the Mathematics Explicit
We also plan problems that require students to create a need for the mathematics. We provide contexts like games that require variables, and data types, and problems such as the bus remainder and 'Donut-Hole' problems where we know the students will struggle, and then as they get frustrated, provide programming tools to help them solve their problem. These tools become more meaningful when students need and seek out the tool. We discuss the mathematics behind specific programming commands within the problem context. In the context of division, we often teach the different division commands when the students are struggling with a problem that cannot be solved without them.

When helping students to solve rich problems, we explicitly focus the students' attention on the mathematic concepts within in the programming commands. With the three different types of division commands, we discuss where each command might be used and have the students generate situations where each command is appropriate. We use the code as "objects to think with" (Papert 1980, 1993; Hoyles & Noss 2015; Moore-Russo et al. 2015). With practice, the students turn the commands into instruments for thinking about other problems.

In addition to the explicit way we use specific coding commands, we also use the explicitness of programming to help development mathematical understanding. We help students develop this explicitness through class discussions, developing and refining the pseudo-code in small groups and whole group settings. Pseudo-code, because it is in English, makes the mathematics explicit, without having to worry about learning new symbols. The students then, individually or in pairs, convert this pseudo-code plan into code and run their proposed solution. The computer immediately gives feedback as to whether the mathematical abstraction is correct. After all, "the best and worst thing about computers is that the computer will do exactly what you tell it to do" ( Guttag 2013, p 4).
Moving forward - What we have learned
This pseudo-code, code, test cycle also helps students move through levels of abstractness (Ke, 2014). Progression from concrete, to representations to abstract symbols is thought to help students learn ( Bruner 1966). In our classes, we start discussing specific concrete mathematical problems, and then represent the problem solution in pseudo-code, before writing the solution in code. In running the code, the code again becomes concrete. The proposed solution in code is then further refined - with the students' thinking represented verbally and in writing.
References
From our classroom experiences, our students seemed to better understand mathematics concepts such as number sense after learning different programming commands. By using rich problems, where students require specific programming commands that are mathematical in nature; and by explicitly discussing the mathematics inherent to the programming commands, our students improve their understanding of the mathematics and programming concepts. Our experiences suggests there is great potential for mathematics learning in coding: teachers must plan for the mathematics to be visible to students for mathematical learning to occur.

Bruner, J. S., Oliver, R. R., & Greenfield, P. M. (1966). Studies in cognitive growth. New York: Wiley.

Carpenter, T. P., Lindquist, M., Matthews, W., & Silver, E. A. (1983). Results of the Third NAEP Mathematics Assessment: Secondary School. Mathematics Teacher, 76(9), 652-659.

CEMC Universtiy of Waterloo (2010). 6D: Design, Debugging and Donuts. http://cscircles.cemc.uwaterloo.ca/6d-design/.

Gadanidis, G. (2015). Coding as a trojan horse for mathematics reform. Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching (2015) 34(2), 155-173, 34(2), 155-173.

Guttag, J. V. (2013). Introduction to Computation and Programming Using Python. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Kafai, Y., & Burke, Q. (2014). Connected code: Why chldren need to learn pragrammming. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.

Li, Y., & Silver, E. A. (2000). Can younger students succeed where older students fail? An examination of third graders' solutions of a division-with-remainder (DWR) problem. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 19(2), 233-246.

Misfeldt, M., & Ejsing-Dunn, S. (2015). Learning mathematics through programming: An instrumental approach to potentials and pitfalls. Paper presented at the CERME 9, Prague, CZ,

Papert, S. (1980, 1993). Mindstorms: Children, computers, and powerful ideas. Second Edition. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Papert, S. (1994). The children's machine: Rethinking school in the age of the computer. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Resnick, M., Maloney, J., Monroy-Hernández, A., Rusk, N., Eastmond, E., Brennan, K., et al. (2009). Scratch: Programming for all. Communications of the ACM, 52(11), 60-67.

Silver, E. A. (1997). Algebra for all: Increasing students' access to algebraic ideas, not just algebra courses. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 2(4), 204-207.

Silver, E. A., Shapiro, L. J., & A., D. (1993). Sense making and the solution of division problems involving remainders: An examination of middle school students' solution processes and their interpretations of solutions. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 24(2), 117-135.

Zazkis, R., & Truman, J. (2015). From trigonometry to number theory... and back: Extending LCM to rational numbers. Digital Expereinces in Mathematics Education, 1, 79-86.

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By: Diane Hobenshield Tepylo & Lisa Floyd Diane taught mathematics and programming at a small secondary school in Eastern Ontario for many years. She is now is a doctoral student at the ­Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.

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Topic 4:  Augmented and Virtual Reality-Uses in Education

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Topic 4:  Augmented and Virtual Reality-Uses in Education

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My thoughts on using Augmented and Virtual Reality in the Classroom.

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Article on Using Augmented Reality in the Classroom

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Article on Using Augmented Reality in the Classroom

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This is useful for me in that I will be teaching upper level math and it will allow students to help solve problems that they may not be able to do.  I am a proponent of students using aids to help so they can feel comfortable with subject and be ready for their tests.

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As you may be aware from some of my recent Tweets, I had the pleasure of presenting at the EdTechTeacher iPad Summit - Boston over the past few days. Overall, it was one of the best professional development experiences I have had the pleasure of taking part in. There were so many great sessions that I hope to blog about soon, but I think I'll start with the session that gave me inspiration to implement the idea in my own classroom immediately upon returning home.

Session Descriptor:

This presentation will explore the role that Augmented Reality apps play in making the 21st century digital classroom a wicked awesome place to teach and learn. The research behind the Augmented Reality phenomena will be presented to show that it is a sound educational practice. The construction of all these powerful devices that can facilitate this kind of learning is also fascinating, with using modern electronic components similar to what can be found at Octopart.com powerful smartphones exist to make this a reality. Most importantly elementary, middle, and high school teachers as well as college professors will leave this session with several tools in their tool belt. Participants will understand which Augmented Reality apps are appropriate choices for their individual learning environment. The instructor will share how Augmented Reality can be embedded into the curriculum as well sharing a bevy of instructional activities that will make your head spin thinking of the possibilities of using this cutting edge technology in your classrooms. The presenter collaborates with various Augmented Reality lovers from all over the world and will share global examples of AR best practice with the audience. Get ready to have your mind blown!!

Although I had heard about the Augmented Reality/AR-Buzz going on in education right now, I really didn't have any interest in attending such a session before arriving at the conference. Having met Courtney at the ADE Institute 2013 in Austin this past summer, I wanted to at least pop by and show some support. I've never understood the educational benefit of using AR in the classroom, but as I watched her lead a great session showing how this new technology could be used in primary all the way to secondary, I quickly made a connection that would inspire my next classroom goal.

Augmented Reality Trigger Walls

During the session, Courtney showed a video of a student explaining the "Trigger Wall" in their classroom. By simply scanning any photo on the wall with any device, you would be redirected to a YouTube video of that particular student. I'm sure that there are other types of trigger walls in her classroom, but I quickly began planning how I would use AR Triggers on my walls to help students address learning goals that they had struggled with earlier in the year.

How Does It Work?

Courtney suggested using Layar to accomplish such a task. You can create a free account online, begin a new campaign, and quickly begin uploading images (known as "Pages") that will be used as your "Triggers". Note that this service was designed for businesses to advertise, so in order to keep it free, you will see an advertisement banner at the bottom of your Augmented Reality Triggers when they are scanned.

Link Content to Your Augmented Reality Triggers

When you add buttons to your triggers, students can scan any image on your wall and they will see the Buttons with active hyperlinks floating over the images on their iPad. Students can then quickly tap where they want to go, whether it be a summary of that learning goal, some practice questions, videos, or even links to online practice such as Khan Academy.

Check Out a Working Example:

Use Layar to Scan the Image Below:

I hope that this post will inspire you to use Augmented Reality in your classroom for something similar to my Learning Goal Wall or for something completely unique. Please do share any other ideas you may have in the comment section!

Thanks for reading and a huge thanks to Courtney for inspiring me to use Augmented Reality in my Math Classroom!

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How Augmented Reality (AR) Can Be Great for Math Class: Learning Goals

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As you may be aware from some of my recent Tweets, I had the pleasure of presenting at the EdTechTeacher iPad Summit - Boston over the past few days. Overall, it was one of the best professional development experiences I have had the pleasure of taking part in.

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Using AR in for practice in the math classroom: Article

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Using AR in for practice in the math classroom: Article

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I like the idea of using AR in the classroom for practice. It makes the students more engaged than having me lecture a whole classroom period. I feel like it makes it come alive for the students.

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What the heck is "augmented reality?" That was my first thought when first seeing the phrase in a related post. No, I take that back; to tell the truth, like most people I asked, I thought it was merely another way to say "virtual reality." But It most certainly isn't...

This according to the Wikipedia: Augmented reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. By contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one."

Let's put it another way: augmented reality is to The Minority Report with Tom Cruise as virtual reality is to Inception with Leonardo Dicaprio. Remember in The Minority Report when Tom Cruise stood facing a huge transparent computer screen manipulating images and data with gloved hands? That manipulation, a combination of real objects (gloved hands) and digital reality (data and images), makes for a perfect example of augmented reality (a teacher holding the control tablet from the RobotsLAB BOX in his hand can impose data on the real world the way Tom Cruise did--and he wouldn't have to wear gloves!) On the other hand, Leonardo DiCaprio's avatar immersed in a simulated dreamworld, is a perfect example of virtual reality.

Such a lesson with Sphero, the robotic ball, includes an augemented reality layer of a grid system which covers the real-world image coming from the tablet's camera. Using the Augemented reality, the teacher can control the robot's rolling path, and calculate the slope and the Y-intercept with the augement reality layer.

An example of augmented reality layer in an Algebra lesson using RobotsLAB BOX's lessons

Augmented reality is a great way to engage students in creative endeavors. In a related blog post, Brad Waid, co-founder of AR Detroit, described the enthusiastic response he received from young kids when using a AR app. After watching creatures they had created on paper suddenly spring to life on the tablet screen, the children graben pencils and went to work writing the stories behind the pictures.

Robots are another great way to engage kids in creative endeavors. Besides manipulating reality as our RobotsLAB BOX does as mentioned above, robots like NAO can take stories off the screen and perform them right in front of the kids. Maybe we should term that "robot reality!"

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Augmented Reality practice in math classroom?

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What the heck is "augmented reality?" That was my first thought when first seeing the phrase in a related post. No, I take that back; to tell the truth, like most people I asked, I thought it was merely another way to say "virtual reality." But It most certainly isn't...

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I think I hit the jackpot with this link. This will be very useful for me this school year coming up when I teach my high school students. I am looking forward to playing with some of these apps this summer.

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College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Applied Technologies for Learning in the Arts & Sciences

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Absolutely fell in love with this app this year. My students had so much fun with it. I enjoyed using the classroom duals to see which of my students understood the concepts. We used it heavily during review for the Georgia Milestones for 7th Grade.

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I think this app will be very useful this year. I like the anonymity of it, but it will allow me to see who understands a concept and who doesn't. I will be looking to add this to my app's that I love this year.

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Who Uses GoSoapBox?

Large University Lectures

Professors of large lectures (100+ students) use GoSoapBox's Social Q&A, Polling, and the Confusion Barometer to understand what students are thinking and keep them engaged during class.

Smaller College Courses

Instructors of smaller college courses use GoSoapBox's Quizzes and Discussions to conduct formative assessment and get students contributing. It's a lot easier than using an LMS!

K-12 Classrooms

Middle school and high school teachers use GoSoapBox's versatile feature set and anonymity to help students save face and enjoy technology classrooms.

What Are People Saying?

GoSoapBox falls in a small category of education apps that actually seem viable for an average classroom.

Sarah Kessler for Mashable

GoSoapBox encourages participation and interaction, which keeps students engaged in class ... it's another tool that makes it easier to go paperless.

Matt Hurst for Edutopia

GoSoapBox allows students to become more engaged in the classroom in different ways ... My students love GoSoapBox.

Pilar Munday for Educause

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GoSoapBox: Hear What Your Students are Thinking

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GoSoapBox is a web-based clicker tool used by educators around the world to keep students engaged and gain real-time insight into student comprehension.

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Article: Teaching Strategies and the Change During the Pandemic

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Article: Teaching Strategies and the Change During the Pandemic

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This article describes the importance of technology used during the pandemic and how it has shaped how we teach now.

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Two years of intermittent remote and hybrid learning led schools to expand their use of some of the best-known technology tools in K-12, opening the door for instructional changes both small and large.

That's according to a review of more than two dozen surveys administered to a nationally representative sample of teachers, principals, and district leaders by the EdWeek Research Center between March 2020 and January 2022. The biggest growth areas include:

Using software programs to address literacy gaps among elementary school students.

Expanding the use of learning management systems, which even the most tech-phobic teachers now turn to for at least basic classroom management tasks.

Supplementing core curriculum with online math instructional tools.

Interviews with the leaders behind some of the most popular ed-tech tools in each of those categories illuminate the surprising changes in technology usage.

"Go back two years, and we were expecting a bump," Khan Academy founder Sal Khan said in an interview. "But it ended up being as large as our most aggressive assumption."

The trend lines are still shifting, especially as schools solidify their return to full-time, in-person learning. But with more than $190 billion of federal relief funds coursing through the nation's public education system and districts everywhere looking to reverse the extensive "unfinished learning" experienced by millions of students during the COVID-19 pandemic, some products and instructional changes are likely to stick.

Schools turn to software to address literacy gaps in the early grades

As early as summer 2020, educators were already turning to familiar technology tools to help students whose reading instruction was interrupted while the nation's school buildings were shuttered due to COVID-19. Forty-five percent of those surveyed by the EdWeek Research Center at the time said that digital resources they already had in place were "very effective" for teaching English/language arts remotely, and 63 percent of educators involved in early literacy instruction said they were using digital reading programs more frequently.

That interest pulled ed-tech giant Renaissance Learning in two different directions, said Eric Swanson, vice president of product management, placement, and instruction. The company saw steep drops in usage of its popular Accelerated Reader program, which provides teachers with quizzes and personalized recommendations for thousands of books, but historically relied on students having access to print materials in physical libraries. But usage of myON, the company's extensive digital library service, soared.
"Student engagement with myON literally doubled from fall of 2019 to fall of 2020," Swanson said. "It was both new customers coming on board, and students who already had access using it even more."

In response to the divergent trends, Renaissance Learning took several steps. First, the company intensified existing efforts to link Accelerated Reader and myON so that the former's quizzes and recommendations could be used with the latter's digital texts. Similar integrations followed with newly acquired products such as Schoolzilla, which provides data dashboards, and Nearpod, which allows teachers to push out digital resources to students' devices. Renaissance developers also added new features to Accelerated Reader that allowed teachers and administrators to track when quizzes were taken at home versus in school.

Over time, Swanson said, schools began returning to Accelerated Reader, while the amount of time students spent on myON dipped back down.

The landscape shifted again, however, when Congress approved massive allocations to the federal ESSER fund, which provided money for schools as part of massive COVID-19 relief packages. The legislation stipulated learning-loss recovery as a priority for districts receiving the money. As a result, 61 percent of survey respondents told the EdWeek Research Center in April 2021 that they planned to use the federal funds to address ELA learning loss among elementary students. Accelerated Reader was poised to be part of many districts' COVID-19 learning recovery plans.

Now, Swanson said, ed-tech companies are facing a cull. Schools are evaluating which tools in their technology ecosystems are easiest to use, have the clearest evidence of effectiveness, and are most flexible in a variety of settings, from core instruction in traditional classrooms to at-home practice to online tutoring.

"Things are going to regress a little bit as we go back to school and districts review the resources they've bought and eliminate some of the tools that were purchased during the pandemic," he said.

More teachers are using the basic functions of learning management systems

Just two months after COVID-19 shut down the nation's physical schools, 68 percent of survey respondents were telling the EdWeek Research Center that they were now using online learning management systems to collect and return student work. By the summer of 2020, three-fifths of principals and district leaders said they had provided teachers training on how to do such basic tasks.

Among the biggest beneficiaries of that shift was Google, which saw usage of its Classroom LMS offering take off.

"As the pandemic set in, our user base quadrupled from 40 million to 150 million in a few weeks," said Akshat Sharma, the lead product manager for Classroom. "The realization started sinking in that we had an opportunity and a responsibility to solve the needs of millions of teachers."

One of the biggest shifts during those early months of all-remote learning, Sharma said, was that Classroom went from a supplementary tool to a central hub. The company also noticed a big surge in first-time users. And huge numbers of people began accessing the platform via mobile phones instead of computers.

In response, Google engineers began working overtime to develop a cleaner integration with the company's videoconferencing platform (Meet) and other commonly used third-party software tools. They also began adding new features to make it easier for administrators to roll out school- or district-wide Classroom implementations. And they developed an "offline" mode so that students struggling to find a reliable WiFi signal on their mobile devices could still access their assignments.

The results?

By the start of the 2021-22 school year, 48 percent of survey respondents told the EdWeek Research Center they started using Google Classroom during the pandemic and planned to continue on, the highest such figure among all the products asked about by name. Just 10 percent of respondents anticipated stopping their use of Classroom.

Sharma said Google will be prepared if those educators continue to use the platform as a central hub, or if they revert back to using it as a supplemental resource.

"To be honest, I don't think we get to decide that," he said. "It's really up to teachers."

Math emerges as a focus of tech-based tutoring and supplemental support

Sal Khan isn't surprised that many districts have turned to the nonprofit Khan Academy as part of their COVID-19 learning recovery plan.

During the first weeks of the pandemic, he said, the nonprofit group saw global usage surge from 30 million to more than 80 million "learning minutes" per day.

"Whether they're inside or outside of the classroom, students can get as much practice and feedback as they need at their level," said the founder of the popular nonprofit, which now counts 137 million users across 190 countries.

The numbers fell back to earth as the country returned to full-time, in-person learning. But it's clear that long-term changes are afoot. Last summer, 66 percent of principals and district administrators told the EdWeek Research Center they anticipated increasing their use of blended learning-a combination of face-to-face and digital instruction in classrooms. Thirty-six percent anticipated more-intensive digital tutoring offerings.

Khan and his organization are adjusting accordingly.

Khan Academy, for example, has expanded its "Districts" offering, aimed at easing systemwide implementations by offering extensive training, better integration with student information systems, and digital dashboards that can be used to track student growth. During the pandemic, Khan also launched an online peer-to-peer tutoring platform called Schoolhouse.world. The Long Beach Unified School District in California is already piloting the platform, Khan said, even paying some of its own high school students to serve as tutors.

The challenge ahead is steep. Researchers with NWEA, makers of a benchmark assessment given to millions of elementary and middle school students each year, have found big drops in math performance compared to pre-pandemic. The resulting gaps are highest in the schools serving the highest percentage of poor students.

But Khan has a plan for that, too. His group has also partnered with NWEA to help ensure that use of Khan Academy is connected to the interim assessments that districts are already using and that student progress is psychometrically valid and tied to districts' overall instructional plans.

"I think in 2022-23, we're going to, hopefully, get back to where we were in 2019, with probably more online independent student work," he said. "This is a long game. We want to be here for generations."

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How Tech-Driven Teaching Strategies Have Changed During the Pandemic

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Expanded use of popular tools like Khan Academy, Google Classroom, and Accelerated Reader point to lasting changes in how teachers work.

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This article sums up what has been talked about in this course. When I first pulled it up, I had no idea it would summarize what we have learned. However, this just stresses the fact that what we are seeing be used are going to be important in the future for education.

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The pace of digital transformation in the education sector has accelerated immeasurably over the past two years. Every stage of education, from primary to higher education as well as professional and workplace training, has undergone a shift towards online and cloud-based delivery platforms. Beyond that, the changing needs of industry and workforces have prompted a dramatic change in the relationship between adult learners and providers of further education, such as colleges and universities.

The Five Biggest Education And Training Technology Trends In 2022
Adobe Stock

The value of the educational technology (EdTech) sector is forecast to grow to $680 million by 2027. Much of this will be due to mobile technology, cloud services and virtual reality creating new possibilities for accessible, immersive learning. From an optimistic point of view, we can celebrate the fact that the quality of education available in 2022 is less limited by where someone happens to live in the world and the time they have available to attend classes. On the other hand, we must remain aware that disparities in access to technology create another set of challenges when it comes to striving for equality of educational opportunities. With that in mind, here's a look at some of the most important tech trends affecting education over the next 12 months:
Remote learning
The coronavirus pandemic forced many schools and colleges to switch to a remote learning model. However, as with many other changes, this was simply an acceleration of a trend that's been going on for some time already. The market for online learning services and e-learning is forecast to grow by 15% annually between 2020 and 2025, reaching a value of $50 billion. E-learning offers school-age students the possibility of learning subjects and skills that are not taught locally, while for those in higher education, the benefits include allowing them to more easily fit learning around other commitments such as work or family responsibilities.

E-learning is an increasingly popular option for workplace training, too - a study by IBM into its own remote learning initiatives found that its learners had been able to absorb five times more content, at one-third of the cost to the company, resulting in a saving of $200 million.

As well as formal education and training, many more of us are now taking the opportunity to engage in recreational learning and learning driven by interests outside of our professional lives. Apps like Duolingo offer accessible language tuition, while others such as Flowkey and Simply Piano are aimed at those who want to learn to play instruments.
Lifelong learning (subscription services)
The education system in place today was developed for a different world when youngsters were expected to train for a "job for life." Learning opportunities were restricted to those that could be delivered in venues that students could physically access, and our years of formal education would be "front-loaded" - crammed into our first 20 years. The employment landscape today is vastly different from the one our grandparents or even parents were accustomed to. The rapid pace of technological advancement means skills can quickly become outdated, and developing new competencies on an ongoing basis is a vital strategy for career and business success.

In the face of this wave of change, education providers and learners are moving towards an ongoing model of education - perhaps taking cues from the trend for subscription services in many other areas of life. Another driver is the emergence of online learning aggregators such as Coursera or Udemy, which, along with traditional degrees and multi-year courses, offer thousands of "micro-courses." These aim to break learning down into bite-sized chunks that can be completed in a matter of weeks or months. New methods of learning like this are designed to fit in with the changing needs of businesses and employers in the 21 st century and will become an increasingly popular option with learners looking for flexible ways of fitting education into their lives.
Immersive learning technology - AR and VR
Extended reality (XR) - which covers virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), promises to create more immersive and engaging learning opportunities. This is essential in an age when it's said that attention spans are dropping, and we're becoming accustomed to absorbing information in ultra-fast, bite-sized, and attention-grabbing chunks. Many people reading this will probably remember learning about topics like the Roman Empire by reading history books - imagine how much more information you might have absorbed if you'd been able to wander around a digital reconstruction of ancient Rome.

XR technologies also have other advantages - for example, they can help us train in simulated environments that closely resemble reality but don't create the risk of harm or damaging expensive equipment. This is why VR is used to train surgeons, as well as firefighters and search-and-rescue teams operating underground. Less dangerous but still potentially stressful or tricky skills can also be catered for - the VirtualSpeech app, for example, enables anyone to practice public speaking in front of a virtual audience. This means you can get a feel for delivering a speech in front of an audience and also receive real-time feedback on your tone and delivery. Similarly, Labster offers a simulated science laboratory and equipment, allowing students to get hands-on without the potential for costly mistakes. And the VR Expeditions app allows teachers to take students on virtual field trips to 360 different cities.
AI and automation in the classroom
Artificial intelligence (AI) will impact every area of human activity during 2022, and education is certainly no exception. The ongoing deployment of software powered by self-learning algorithms, capable of becoming better and better at whatever task it is assigned to, will have far-reaching consequences; as well as automating repetitive aspects of educators' work such as grading papers, it will be used to provide more personalised forms of education or remote learning. One example is the Altitude Learning system founded by a Google engineer and part-funded by Facebook, which uses AI to suggest personalized learning pathways for school-age children. A similar concept is adaptive learning, in which the course adapts to meet learners' needs as they progress through it. Schools in China have even implemented a system that uses facial recognition to check whether students are paying attention in class by scanning their faces with cameras equipped with computer vision algorithms.

AI-powered personal assistants similar to Amazon's Alexa have also been deployed in schools - one device, called Merlyn, is designed to help teachers with classroom management and in presenting their lessons.
Nano-learning
This trend links back once again to the fact that attention spans are shrinking, and there is always something competing for our time. Nano-learning describes a new EdTech concept where we can get ultra-bite-sized lessons exactly when and where we need them. Under this paradigm, it doesn't matter if we don't even remember what we've learned for more than 10 minutes because when we need to use the knowledge again, we can simply re-learn it! A good analogy is a cooking recipe - if we aren't professional bakers, we might only bake one or two cakes a year, so there's no need to hold the exact weights and measures of sugar and flour in our long-term memories. Applying the same principle to academic or professional subjects, brief lessons - such as those provided by the text message learning service Arist, can be absorbed over WhatsApp, Slack, or Teams. Other nano-learning platforms impart knowledge over social networks like Twitter or TikTok. Nano-learning will undoubtedly grow in popularity during 2022 as it fits with society's need for ways of passing on knowledge and proficiency that are instantaneous, modular, and even addictive!

To stay on top of these and other trends, sign up for my newsletter, and check out my books ' Tech Trends in Practice' and 'Business Trends in Practice.'

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The Five Biggest Education And Training Technology Trends In 2022

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The education sector is undergoing a digital transformation. Here we look at the key edtech trends for 2022, such as remote learning, lifelong learning subscription services, more immersive learning technology (AR and VR), AI and automation in the classroom, as well as Nano-learning.

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Article:  Looking Ahead to Teaching and Technology

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Article:  Looking Ahead to Teaching and Technology

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This article hits home for me because one of the things that I got out if it using technology to identify our at-risk students. As I worked at a school with many at-risk students, this would help us get the data we need by using the technology that we have or can get.

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Educational technology, both online and in the classroom, went into overdrive during COVID. And ed-tech will certainly continue to increase its presence in teaching and learning in innovative new ways, regardless of the trajectory of the pandemic.

To help administrations and their teams of educators make sound decisions around the adoption of ed-tech, industry representatives and other thought leaders are sharing their predictions for 2022.

Ensuring all students have access

If it wasn't already, tracking students' wellbeing and supporting mental health will become a top priority, says Martin McKay, CEO and founder of Texthelp, a provider of assistive technology.

"We cannot expect today's or tomorrow's students to be like previous generations," McKay said. "They've had a tremendously difficult start to their education and it'll likely have a lasting impact."

A drop in the use of laptops and other 1-to-1 devices is highly unlikely regardless of where learning takes place because educators have seen the benefits of widespread ed-tech. Now, educators must ensure all students have the same opportunity and access to these tools. "These tools support more personalized learning, enabling students to have a choice in how they take notes, process information, and complete assignments," McKay says. "Now, it is time we ensure that all students have access to technology, whether it be in their classrooms or at home."

Here are some more predictions for 2022 from TextHelp:

Ed-tech companies that fail to prioritize accessibility will be left behind: "As ed-tech tools become more integrated into the classroom, teachers will want to ensure that all students, including those with disabilities or language barriers, are being supported. This means that teachers will prefer to use tools from ed-tech companies that prioritize accessibility... as accessibility will become a major factor for ed-tech tools in 2022 and beyond."-Jason Carroll, chief product officer

2022 will be the 'Year of Decision-making' for K-12 educators: "With schools transitioning back to the classroom, we're seeing what hopefully is the beginning of greater stabilization in education. Districts and schools that embraced new ed-tech tools since the start of the pandemic are learning what works for them. We will begin to see these schools and districts make more permanent decisions on the ed-tech tools they're using and will continue to use in the future. The ed-tech industry will use this as an opportunity to evolve."-Jason Carroll, chief product officer

The classroom experience will include increased technology and personalized learning: "Using the right ed-tech tools has been shown to give teachers more time and freedom to focus on improving outcomes for students. Through the use of EdTech tools, we will see teachers be able to differentiate instruction, support, and encourage every student on a much different scale, especially as students re-learn or seek to catch up on certain concepts that were disrupted during the past year."-Ryan Graham, chief technology officer

Empowering teachers to innovate

In the coming year and beyond, the ed-tech industry will offer more online resources that support in-person instruction, says Lisa O'Masta, president of Learning A-Z, a curriculum provider.

She recommends that educators prioritize ease of use for teachers and students when choosing these resources. "Teachers will continue to seek out multiple supplemental resources that offer engaging, effective and accessible functionality," O'Masta says. "They will be able to pick multiple providers, so continuity across programs will likely become a greater focus for both ed-tech providers and administrators as districts purchase more resources that overlap."

Teachers will also need regular professional development to maximize the use of AI and other automation tools in closing achievement gaps. "Curriculum and delivery only go so far; the relationship between teacher and student is ultimately irreplaceable," O'Masta says. "In 2022 and beyond, districts and administrations need to invest in teachers to match their worth: priceless."

Learning A-Z's thought leaders also see the following priorities ahead:

Ensure that professional development is digestible: "On top of the stress that accompanies teaching, the pandemic has placed a heavy responsibility on teachers to overcome new challenges such as tailoring learning in a remote environment. In 2022, professional development will need to be integrated into educational materials, such as detailed lesson guidelines or avenues for collaborating with other teachers."-Jaya Yoo, vice president of product

Moving away from traditional quizzes: "When a teacher can access actionable student performance data, then that teacher can better assess student progress and support the student's learning and ultimate success. In 2022, there will be a move away from traditional assessments such as multi-question quizzes and a move toward methods that measure student progress on a real-time basis with aligned recommendations for resources, support, or remediation."-Jaya Yoo

SEL will be crucial in nurturing successful students: "The issue is with time: How do teachers fit social-emotional learning initiatives into their schedules while also prioritizing curriculum requirements? In 2022 and beyond, educational content will have to be built with social-emotional learning initiatives in mind. For example, prior to a group discussion, a teacher might discuss what a good group discussion looks like. The most efficient and effective way to teach social-emotional learning is to weave it into what teachers are already teaching."-Becca Hughes, vice president of content development

How sustainability and equity work together

Students and parents will increasingly promote and lead green initiatives-and choose schools that support them, says Cheryl Aquadro, K-12 vertical market director for Johnson Controls, which provides building equipment.

"We are seeing a big push toward renewable energy for school districts ... and when renewable energy is not possible for the school district, leaders are pushing for energy efficiency-focused facilities improvements," Aquadro says. "Those serve to create a healthier building and community while shrinking the school's carbon footprint, appealing to green-minded students and parents and creating long-term cost savings for the school."

In 2022, schools leaders can advance equity goals is by prioritizing projects and partnerships that provide savings that can be leveraged into equity improvements across district facilities, Aquadro says. Utah's Cache County School District, for example, entered into a $15 million performance contract to update district-wide LED lighting and controls, fire and CO alarm systems, and new photovoltaic solar systems. The project is projected to generate $16 million in energy and operational savings over 20 years, Aquadro says.

Some administrators will also continue to focus on women and diversity inequities throughout school leadership, she says. "Our mission is to enrich the communities we serve-when approaching a new K-12 facilities project, we make it a priority to select and hire local and diverse talent through Equal Business Opportunity firms, which enhances our capacity to deliver the highest quality of work," Aquadro says.

Communication and data go hand-in-hand

Communication between parents and educators surged when schools were first shut down by COVID and some industry leaders hope to see that momentum carry over into the future.

"Now is the time for schools to establish communication processes, frequency, and consistency-while parents are still very comfortable with increased engagement and information," says Russ Davis, founder and CEO of SchoolStatus, an analytics and communications technology provider. "As such, over the next year, we will see this momentum continue, as more schools realize the benefits of more meaningful communication between school and home and implement solutions to enable this."

Here are some other developments Davis foresees for 2022:

School districts will need to leverage data to identify and support at-risk students: "Comprehensive data on the student, classroom, and school will be critical to understanding the disproportionate impact of the COVID pandemic and addressing the resulting inequities system-wide. Having a holistic picture of each student-including academic, behavioral, social-emotional learning, attendance, and disciplinary data-will be essential to targeting interventions and resources to the students who need them most. Most importantly, sharing this data with families through ongoing, meaningful school-home communication will become paramount."

New technologies will support equity in K-12 parent communication: Busy work schedules and language or culture barriers can hamper communication with student families. Many school-home communication solutions also require parents to own a smartphone or computer or have reliable Wi-Fi. Schools need to prioritize removing these barriers to parent engagement to create an environment where all kids can succeed. Equity in K-12 parent communication is about reaching out in ways that are direct and convenient to parents. In 2022, we will see growing demand for K12 technologies and platforms that support more equitable parent communication and collaboration. Platforms that fuse data and communications, and offer multiple modes of communications and translation capabilities can help enable expanded educator understanding of student home life."

Social-emotional learning will be a critical area of focus in K-12: "We learned in 2021 that to successfully monitor SEL, it takes a lot of two-way communication between the school and parents to stay abreast of and address any issues. To meet these needs, schools are implementing communications platforms with expanded capabilities that enable schools and classroom educators to have more in-depth, meaningful discussions with parents, and use tools such as one-to-one phone calls and video calls more often. Schools are also tracking metrics such as sports and activities involvement, chronic absenteeism, and disciplinary infractions to capture, track and monitor the social-emotional health of their students."

Eliminating inequities

In the coming years, there will be more and more state legislation that requires colleges and universities to teach pre-service teachers about linguistics, cognitive neuroscience, and how the brain learns to read, says Janice Kohler-Curtis, the chief academic officer of IMSE, The Institute for Multi-Sensory Education, a provider of professional development in reading instruction.

This will enable districts to provide rigorous instruction from the time students start school rather than continuing with a 'wait to fail' model where students are identified as struggling in third or fourth grade, Kohler-Curtis says.

She also predicts:

More investment in teacher training and certification: Teachers want programs that they can implement immediately-not just something they read from a book. Educators want something they can implement through knowledge, partnerships, and fidelity. Certification will become increasingly more important to ensure fidelity, and cohorts of teachers will pop up who are dedicated to making significant changes.

Increased support to prevent teacher shortage: Teachers who remain in education have a passion for it and are dedicated to helping children. The past two years have been very challenging for educators. Districts will see the importance of giving teachers the tools to be successful, provide support, and show greater appreciation of them to prevent quality educators from leaving the field.

Amy Gulley, an academic language therapist and dyslexia specialist, expects that more districts will adopt the science of reading concepts to increase reading gains, which includes providing teachers will professional development in the approach. She also predicts that schools, districts and states will develop new policies to reduce the inequities in education.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a heightened awareness of the important role parents play in a child's education," Gulley says. "But it has also brought a heightened awareness to the inequities we face across the nation to, not just virtual learning, but parental leave to be at home with their kids, time away from their jobs with no funding reprieve, and the need to have basic knowledge/understanding of what their children are learning on schools."
Interested in edtech? Keep up with DA's Future of Education Technology Conference®.

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the institute for multi-sensory education

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Industry looks ahead to teaching and ed-tech in 2022

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Educational technology, both online and in the classroom, went into overdrive during COVID. And ed-tech will certainly continue to increase its presence in teaching and learning in innovative new ways, regardless of the trajectory of the pandemic.