The Benefits of Adaptive Technology
Adaptive Technology has the
potential to transform how students learn in the classroom. It has the power to make lessons more engaging,
and individualize content to meet every students’ needs. Technology can provide teachers with more consistent
and regular data on student achievements, enabling them to focus their
attention on the students’ areas of need.
It combines the benefits of data analysis, and provides students with
immediate feedback on their progress.
There are five major ideas behind adaptive
technology. They are providing feedback,
sequencing, pacing, cognitive flaws and gaming.
Research has shown that intelligent adaptive learning can be as
effective as a personal tutor, and proper sequencing requires students to
master content before they can move on (District Administration, 2013). Students learn more when they can master the
content at their own pace, rather than moving on to the next topic just because
a majority of the class is ready. Since
students must master content to move on, adaptive technology has a strong
understanding of the students’ previous knowledge, and can minimize cognitive
flaws by introducing content in manageable chunks to help to prevent
frustration and cognitive overload (District Adminstration, 2013). The final step allows students to engage in gaming,
which is a fun and interactive way to learn.
With adaptive technology, students will no longer have to
sit through lessons of content they already know. Each student is able to advance at their own
pace and move on to the next lesson once they have mastered content. For example, Khan Academy offers diagnostic
quizzes that students can take for SAT preparation. The quizzes will help to determine what each
student knows, and what content may need improvement. There are four diagnostic quizzes in the
areas of math, reading and writing. Once
students have completed the quizzes, Khan Academy will recommend additional
practice quizzes based on each students’ areas of need, and a targeted test
date. The program focuses on the
students’ weaker areas of the test, and provides feedback with four different
levels of difficulty. This helps give
the advanced students a challenge, while also allowing the novice students to
work on needed skills (Khan Academy, 2018).
Adaptive technology allows students
to work at their own pace, and only progress through content after they have
demonstrated mastery (Dreambox, 2018).
It helps to prevent students from struggling to understand concepts
later in the year, because they did not fully understand a concept at the
beginning of the year. They are able to
access instructional content at any time, and it enhances the efficiency of the
time spent learning the material. Since
the content is meeting individual students’ needs there will be more engagement
with the curriculum, as well as fitting into the students’ interest of digital
technology. Adaptive technology is able
to act like a tutor for students when they are stuck on content, and help them
rethink the strategies that may not be working for them (Dreambox, 2018). A students’ prior knowledge can also be
determined to enhance their academic progress towards their learning goals. Providing
teachers with this information can help them to adapt their lessons in order to
reduce frustration for students struggling as well decreasing the likelihood of
gifted students losing interest when not being challenged with the content.
Student progress can be recorded by
adaptive technology and gives teachers valuable feedback to adapt lessons to
students’ needs. Teachers will no longer
have to spend hours grading papers to find out what the students know. The reports in adaptive technologies give the
teachers the knowledge they need to change their lessons for planning
purposes. This can also provide teachers
with increased time to meet individually with students and focus on their specific
needs, while making this time more productive.
Teachers are able to adapt the curriculum to make it effective for
individual students. They also receive
immediate snapshots of each students’ progress and can easily target students
that need additional support in specific areas of content. Tracking progress can also be helpful in
implementing response to intervention programs for students who may be falling
behind as well as implementing advanced learning for the gifted students. The immediate feedback is just as helpful to
the learner as it is to the teacher.
As adaptive technology is used in
more settings, it will become more efficient in how it works. The technology tracks student responses, and
uses that technology to decipher how the students learn (Hicks, 2015). As it collects data, it is better able to
accurately guide the learner through challenging content, and make the learning
more effective. Some of this adaptive
technology can be found on websites such as Amazon and Netflix. Amazon will use data about previous purchases
and viewed items to offer suggestions of items you may be interested in
purchasing. Netflix will analyze the
data of shows that are previously watched and use that to recommend new shows
that may be of interest. Both web sites
will update their suggested content based on shows you decide to watch, or
items you decide to purchase. They will
also take data from other users that purchased similar products to offer
suggestions of additional items to purchase or new shows to watch. The U.S. Military and NASA have used Adaptive
Technology to help enhance their training for specific areas. Adaptive technology can help teachers meet
students’ needs, while enhancing the learning process. As adaptive technology continues to be
developed, learning is going to become more personalized and efficient for
individual students.
Dr. Ulrik Christensen discusses the benefits of adaptive learning for McGraw-Hill Education below.
Pat,
ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting to see how this technology is being developed not only in education, but in the business sector as well (Amazon and Netflix, for example). I think that if I had had the opportunity to use Khan Academy's adaptive technology to tutor me before the SAT, I may have done better!!!
Khan Academy has some great resources for SAT and other subjects. Best of all the students can sign up for free. There are some courses on Khan Academy that focus on music and take a look at different instruments of the orchestra, music notation basics, and sections that will dig into learning about specific symphonies. I have used lessons from Khan Academy in my music classes when we have a substitute and found it to be very successful.
DeleteHello Patrick. As a teacher who was recently introduced to adaptive technology, I must say that I think it is amazing. My school's model this year is Personalized learning, and adaptive technology helps to make students' learning truly personalized. We use a variety of programs including Khan Academy and Front Row. Students enjoy taking the pre-tests at the beginning of ever domain or unit and it matches them exactly to their level. I love how Front Row even has a Spanish Math component that works well for me, since I teach Spanish immersion math. Khan Academy is helpful with Spanish resources as well. I support adaptive technologies, but a few parents have expressed concerns that adaptive technologies such as these cause students to spend too much time on computer screens. I guess this is an issue that will certainly be brought up more and more as adaptive technology is an emerging trend we will certainly hear more about in the years to come.
ReplyDeleteI think that spending too much time in front of a computer screen can be a drawback of adaptive technology. Balance between an adaptive environment and traditional classroom model may work well to help mix it up and keep students' interest. Students are given the responsibility of taking ownership of their work and this may not be the best solution for every student. Overall, adaptive technology can help individualize the instruction, and as you stated match them exactly at their level. Balancing adaptive technology with a more traditional instruction could be a good way to balance out the parents concerns.
DeleteHey Patrick! Adaptive technology is definitely an emerging trend that is the future of technology in the classroom. With so much emphasis on differentiating the classroom, I myself have turned to adaptive technology websites as my go-to, letting me meets the needs of all my learners based on their each individual levels. In fact most of their end of year assessments (SBAC, Math Inventory, & Reading inventory) are adaptive. This allows teachers to be better at setting goals and measuring growth. In fact I'm really not sure how to support personalized goals and instruction without adaptive technology. I love how you pointed out that amazon and Netflix have implemented adaptive technology in their business model. I've notice in the last few years, that all internet adds/articles seem to be personalized to my preferences and political views- Which when you think about it, can be problematic.
ReplyDeleteHey Eric, The benefits of adaptive technology really do help support personalized goals, and assist in measuring growth. I am glad to hear that is such a benefit in your classroom. It can be hard to imagine a time of trying to meet the students individual needs before adaptive technology was available. Our entire worlds are being geared towards our abilities and interests. I have read studies that indicate the algorithms in websites like facebook etc. generally reinforce current beliefs and ideas, and mostly show content that is of some interest to the reader. It is almost as if it puts us in a bubble, and reinforces our current ideas rather than connecting us to different ideas and thoughts. The technology was originally designed to show us more information and different view points, but as with any technology, it gets geared towards our interest to help make it more relevant and popular.
DeleteMy school is piloting the IReady program. It gives the students the personalized lessons that they need to enhance their accademic growth. The students only needs to be on the math section for 45 minutes a week and on the reading section for 45 minutes. Some of my students go way over the time and others barely are on the program. I have noticed the novelty of it has seem to wear off. I have actually had to conference with students to find out why they are not actively engaged in the program. I am wondering how I can keep them interested in program? I am thinking I need to add an incentive.
ReplyDeleteHello Sanda, I have not heard of the IReady program and will have to take a look into it. I have used technology in my classroom and experienced the same thing. For some it feels like they are playing a game or doing something new, and it is easy to motivate them to spend time with the program. Others will lose interest after the initial "wow" factor has worn off. Even through there are immense benefits to adaptive technology our students are unique, and just as in a traditional classroom setting, different things will motivate different types of students. I still believe one of the hardest things to figure out in teaching is how to motivate students. It changes from student to student, and year to year, and there never seems to be a definitive answer. Some students may need more variety or some extrinsic motivation to complete the course each week. In a perfect world, all students would be motivated because the content is engaging and meets their needs, but we realize that is simply not the case. Some students no matter how hard you try, will be difficult to motivate in certain subject areas simply because they are not that into the subject. One idea would be to make it a contest or game where if you spend "X" number of minutes on the program you are eligible for some type of prize. You could pick a winner each week and see if that helps with motivation. Are the students who are not as engaged in the program struggling with the content? If they are struggling, that could be a reason they are not as motivated. I hope you find something that helps ignite the initial spark they had when they started the program.
ReplyDelete