Administrators selecting educational technology programs for their schools or districts face big decisions due to the time and money at stake, so having accurate and relevant information about the programs’ impact on student performance elsewhere should be a critical part of the decision-making process. During a recent edWebinar sponsored by MIND Research Institute, Andrew Coulson, Chief Data Science Officer at MIND Research Institute, and Brian LeTendre, Director of Content and Communications, explained a process for finding data that will help administrators make the best choices for their student population, and in doing so “raise expectations about the availability of information” during program evaluations.
For leaders and teachers, discussing data gives everyone a common understanding of where their students are and a clear plan of action
Join this edWebinar to learn replicable strategies for generating, collecting, analyzing, synthesizing, and sharing student learning evidence resulting from inquiry instruction.
At first, educators could count the number of edtech programs in their school on one hand—and the number of users wasn’t too much more. Later, schools used spreadsheets and written reports to determine usage, and developers had to wait months, possibly years to get and analyze efficacy data. Now, when usage data is available on a daily basis, developers and educators have a shared interest in that information. During their edWebinar, “Edtech Usage Data: Key to Planning Efficacy Research,” Dr. Denis Newman, Co-founder of Evidentally, Inc., and Kylene Shen, VP of Marketing at Evidentally, Inc., explained why usage data studies are beneficial to edtech companies and schools as well as what types of additional studies can provide relevant insights.
In a 2018 survey, the majority of school districts either have 1:1 as a current goal or have already achieved it. Along with a 1:1 goal, comes the deluge of edtech tools, software, and applications into classrooms. School districts are struggling with the fact that 70% of purchased licenses for edtech programs don’t get used at all within the school year and only 10% of teachers know how often students should use edtech programs to drive learning outcomes. In a recent edWeb.net edWebinar, Jena Draper, Founder and General Manager of CatchOn; Mike Schwab, Education Team at Google; and Suzy Brooks, Instructional Technology Director for Mashpee Public Schools, MA, point out that in order to combat this deluge of technology, it is imperative that school districts address the tech usage data that impacts and drive success in classrooms. While it is believed that the barrier to district leaders and classroom teachers using more data is that they don’t have time to look at it, 33% of districts and teachers say the real challenge is that information is in too many places for them to access.
Teachers from previous decades may have focused on “What did I teach?” but the new focus is “What did the students learn?” Whether classroom resources are digital or not, educators can collect data every day to inform their instruction. In the presentation “Authentic Learning Starts with Informed Instruction” Michael Haggen, Chief Academic Officer at Scholastic Education, and Suzanne Lucas, Vice President of Product Marketing for Scholastic Education Digital Solutions, discussed how teachers can use formal and informal data to guide ELA lessons and make sure all students are receiving the education they need.
In this edWebinar, discover some easy-to-implement student data privacy and monitoring best practices, including steps to better safeguard your data.
How can you prepare your students for a data-rich future? In this edWebinar learn how you can bring data experiences into your classroom.
In this edWebinar, learn how one district is effectively tracking tools and applications used on devices to optimize and safeguard learning environments.
