I really like the idea of using technology and algorithms to spot, decipher and give ideas to teachers and principals in order to help students in areas that they are struggling. This article seems, to me, very helpful in terms of management systems. I would enjoy seeing more information on this upon getting a job as an educator and getting to know programs such as these that can truly help the way I conduct a lesson so every student is in the know. Features such as graphs and charts plus getting an update on when a student is doing below average is so helpful for the already busy life of a teacher!
The use of the learning management systems could be critical towards the development of individualized learning. By allowing both teachers and administrators access to specific areas of difficulty for each student, then we can better accommodate what that specific student needs help on. Furthermore, with real-time updates, teachers can quickly adapt their lesson plans to best benefit the students so that they do not fall further behind in specific areas. By breaking down the specific task a student has in a subject, they are able to focus their efforts on that initial problem rather than reteaching the entire subject. Perhaps the most amazing function of these learning management systems is to actually recognize the patterns in students learning to help the teacher group students in relation to their learning ability. Obviously there is an inherent risk in letting a computer program deem what is the best approach towards teaching a student; however, this will be an invaluable starting point for most teachers who have difficulty identifying the best methods for their students.
As I was reading this article I was thinking of little robots and data being collected from them. Although I do agree with the world of technology and the importance of it, I feel teachers need to not rely on it so much. If they rely on this program and half way through the school year it crashes then what?... I understand it must be difficult in large class sizes for teachers to keep track of all of their students and maybe in a large school this would work good, but definitely not for all schools. I wonder if this program would be used mainly for funding and trying to find the lower performing schools/teachers rather than really benefiting the students education.
I can see your point. They do make the students seem like objects, but the data systems can be very easy to use. Our school has many of our assessments done on bubble sheets. Then when you scan the students answers it automatically graphs the students, the class and the school data. It is much quicker than doing it by hand!
The fact the author recognizes that a “cookie-cutter” learning management system is impossible to create because of the wide base of users that will use the system is interesting. However, the author does go on to explain that through using software algorithms, a program may be able to identify areas in which the student is struggling. The thing that stood out to me the most is that even if a child is general proficient in a subject they might struggle in some aspect of the lesson. A student might have high grades on the test but consistently get the same type of problem wrong. Normally a teacher probably would not notice because the student is passing with high marks but the software will identify this “weak spot” and notify the teacher. Passing a test should not be the most important thing a student does. Learning ALL the material should be, and having a system that could tell a teacher if a student does not understand a concept, even a minor one, is very important.
I enjoyed reading this article. As a future teacher, if I can have a data system that will identify the weakness and the strength of my students then I will be more equipped to help my students in their learning. As a teacher, I will be able to prepare them to be more academically ready. The system should be connected throughout the State so that if a student moves to another school district the information would be ready and available to the student’s new teacher. We should use technology as a means to help our students.
I thought this article was interesting. There were a couple things that stood out to me that I feel are worth mentioning. Looking at each student as an individual is beyond important. Recognizing the class as a whole isn't a bad thing, but teachers (and administration) also need to pay attention to students as an individual. Encouraging students to achieve more, recognizing their accomplishments and providing extra help in necessary areas is critical for the student to progress.
I think the management systems could allow for teachers to focus on "problem" areas in a much easier way. Because most people who enter the field of education are dedicated and determined to help students, or make a change, we see a lot of teachers who bend over backwards, staying up late to grade papers and create lesson plans. This management system could allow teachers to allocate their time in a more efficient way. The management system could also allow teachers to notify parents of the "problem" areas. If a student is having trouble in Math, they would be able to pin-point the specific difficulties and have their child see a tutor, or spend more time in a study hall working on specific problems. Homework and lesson plans could also be designed around this data information.
Overall, I think the article is informative. We should spend more time understanding and accepting these new technologies. If we put time into making them work we might spend less money on other ineffective programs.
After reading this article it really opened my eyes as to how technology can be useful to track student progress. By using learning management systems it allows teachers the opportunity to track student progress on a more personal level; highlighting their strengths and weaknesses, like many other classmates have pointed out. I think that is a great benefit. It allows teachers to manage students and their work all in once place and keep track of their action on the system (ex. practices tests). Like the article pointed out, it allows teachers to see how many times students take a practice test so that they can identify a skill area specific to the student. I do also agree that it will make sharing student data easier because the results can be printed out or, if safe, emailed in PDF format. One part of the article that really stood out to me was, "For each student, you must consider where the student is right now, what it will take for that student to reach curriculum standards, and what types of exercises are required for different students to reach different goals.' I found this to highlight the main idea of the article. To me it just sums up the idea that technology is valid to help students achieve the level of progress that is critical to learning. I can understand how this whole idea of the learning system can seem like it is a little more, "un-personal" because the students are seen as "robots."-I don't disagree there. As I was reading this article it had me thinking of the Blackboard Vista system that we use. It is a way for teacher to stay connected with students outside of the classroom as well as make resources available to students at home. Just think of how often and how much we as college students rely on using vista as an outside source to keep on top of our work, prepare for exams, and take practice quizzes over and over again. By doing this I find it easier to communicate with my professors. Since they have access to our pages they can see our activity and this data helps professors make decisions based on student needs. I know their have been classes where I wished my teachers have used vista.
Finally, my feelings on this article are very positive because it reminds me of the learning systems central uses and I see them as a resource. This article has pointed out a lot of knowledge that I think is important when considering the use of technology in the classroom. This idea of learning systems invites lots of technological advances in the classroom that can be very beneficial for teachers as they plan and communicate between other staff, students, and parents.
After reading this, I do feel that the way that learning management systems was presented was done well. In the sense of being able to detect when a student is having difficulty in a specific area, this gives a major aid to the teacher in noting a difficulty the student will be having and preparing exercises to improve that area that was providing a headache. It really is all about picking the right system to fit the teacher's and students' needs. I know at Central, some professors prefer Moodle over Blackboard Vista just based on organization of the site and how they both run. I would like to work a learning management system into my classroom for the purpose of helping me detect early on if a student is showing to have difficulty in a particular area, so that I can provide an exercise or consult him/her and help them understand the subject matter and improve their learning and education.
I see how helpful it would be for teachers in the secondary classroom to be able to track progress. Especially if you administer multiple choice or other assessments that are not being graded by hand. It does I seems like it would be very tough to find one system that fits the needs of all teachers and administrators. I think that is one of the biggest drawbacks since the data system you may like might not be the one that your administrator likes. I think it could be very useful too when you are talking with students and parents. Students might feel that y They work hard and never seem to improve if you can have an honest conversation and show them that is the same type of questions that cause them problem and focus learning they might be more receptive.
My one critique is that this type of 'data mining' even when simplified still takes time itself. And in an elementary school where students grades are established a bit differently from in middle in high school. Elementary school teachers have typically 20 to 30 students are even in large classes seem to have a very good sense of their students strengths and weaknesses and how they learn. I would be curious to se if elementary school teachers felt that it would serve them well. Will the ime in effort put in to the system provide enough new and pertinent data to make it worth while. Overall I found it helpful explanation of the benefits of these types of systems.
After reading the article I feel like learning management systems can be very benificial for teachers and less time consuming. Teachers will be able to get a breakdown of which students are falling behind the core of the class and specifics to which areas they are lagging in. For instance the example with Damien and Jaina the teacher was able to see what the two were struggling with and get the breakdown of questions from quizzes they each got wrong. Having the ability to quickly recieve results of what contnent areas that students are stuggling in can help the teacher quickly advise a plan to increrase students knowledge in those disciplines and ideally provide those students with a teaching style that would beneifit them.
I think that learning management systems can be useful in schools. Not only does it help teachers who are teaching the student that year but it can be a resource to teachers who will have the students in the future. They would be able to check the students and see where they struggled in the past and change their teaching style to teach students more effectively. This could also be an alternative to standardized testing. If the information is available to administrators they would get a more realistic view of how students preform and how they are being taught. It would be a more genuine result of their learning rather than a few tests that limit what teachers are allowed to teach.
I think learning management systems can be very helpful to the teacher. I like how since not all students learn the same way, you have to ability to assign tasks that are oriented around the individuals learning style. The alerts are a plus too because they allow you to see when a student is falling behind and address the problem.
I really like the idea of using technology and algorithms to spot, decipher and give ideas to teachers and principals in order to help students in areas that they are struggling. This article seems, to me, very helpful in terms of management systems. I would enjoy seeing more information on this upon getting a job as an educator and getting to know programs such as these that can truly help the way I conduct a lesson so every student is in the know. Features such as graphs and charts plus getting an update on when a student is doing below average is so helpful for the already busy life of a teacher!
ReplyDeleteI agree! I don't think people understand or recognize the daily work of a teacher. From grading papers, making lesson plans, researching, etc.
DeleteVery True! The help of technology is always great!
DeleteThe use of the learning management systems could be critical towards the development of individualized learning. By allowing both teachers and administrators access to specific areas of difficulty for each student, then we can better accommodate what that specific student needs help on. Furthermore, with real-time updates, teachers can quickly adapt their lesson plans to best benefit the students so that they do not fall further behind in specific areas. By breaking down the specific task a student has in a subject, they are able to focus their efforts on that initial problem rather than reteaching the entire subject. Perhaps the most amazing function of these learning management systems is to actually recognize the patterns in students learning to help the teacher group students in relation to their learning ability. Obviously there is an inherent risk in letting a computer program deem what is the best approach towards teaching a student; however, this will be an invaluable starting point for most teachers who have difficulty identifying the best methods for their students.
ReplyDeleteEducation is also very data driven. This is a great way to show that you are using the data as often as possible to adjust your teaching!
DeleteAs I was reading this article I was thinking of little robots and data being collected from them. Although I do agree with the world of technology and the importance of it, I feel teachers need to not rely on it so much. If they rely on this program and half way through the school year it crashes then what?... I understand it must be difficult in large class sizes for teachers to keep track of all of their students and maybe in a large school this would work good, but definitely not for all schools. I wonder if this program would be used mainly for funding and trying to find the lower performing schools/teachers rather than really benefiting the students education.
ReplyDeleteI can see your point. They do make the students seem like objects, but the data systems can be very easy to use. Our school has many of our assessments done on bubble sheets. Then when you scan the students answers it automatically graphs the students, the class and the school data. It is much quicker than doing it by hand!
DeleteThe fact the author recognizes that a “cookie-cutter” learning management system is impossible to create because of the wide base of users that will use the system is interesting. However, the author does go on to explain that through using software algorithms, a program may be able to identify areas in which the student is struggling. The thing that stood out to me the most is that even if a child is general proficient in a subject they might struggle in some aspect of the lesson. A student might have high grades on the test but consistently get the same type of problem wrong. Normally a teacher probably would not notice because the student is passing with high marks but the software will identify this “weak spot” and notify the teacher. Passing a test should not be the most important thing a student does. Learning ALL the material should be, and having a system that could tell a teacher if a student does not understand a concept, even a minor one, is very important.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this article. As a future teacher, if I can have a data system that will identify the weakness and the strength of my students then I will be more equipped to help my students in their learning. As a teacher, I will be able to prepare them to be more academically ready. The system should be connected throughout the State so that if a student moves to another school district the information would be ready and available to the student’s new teacher. We should use technology as a means to help our students.
ReplyDeleteI thought this article was interesting. There were a couple things that stood out to me that I feel are worth mentioning. Looking at each student as an individual is beyond important. Recognizing the class as a whole isn't a bad thing, but teachers (and administration) also need to pay attention to students as an individual. Encouraging students to achieve more, recognizing their accomplishments and providing extra help in necessary areas is critical for the student to progress.
ReplyDeleteI think the management systems could allow for teachers to focus on "problem" areas in a much easier way. Because most people who enter the field of education are dedicated and determined to help students, or make a change, we see a lot of teachers who bend over backwards, staying up late to grade papers and create lesson plans. This management system could allow teachers to allocate their time in a more efficient way. The management system could also allow teachers to notify parents of the "problem" areas. If a student is having trouble in Math, they would be able to pin-point the specific difficulties and have their child see a tutor, or spend more time in a study hall working on specific problems. Homework and lesson plans could also be designed around this data information.
Overall, I think the article is informative. We should spend more time understanding and accepting these new technologies. If we put time into making them work we might spend less money on other ineffective programs.
After reading this article it really opened my eyes as to how technology can be useful to track student progress. By using learning management systems it allows teachers the opportunity to track student progress on a more personal level; highlighting their strengths and weaknesses, like many other classmates have pointed out. I think that is a great benefit. It allows teachers to manage students and their work all in once place and keep track of their action on the system (ex. practices tests). Like the article pointed out, it allows teachers to see how many times students take a practice test so that they can identify a skill area specific to the student. I do also agree that it will make sharing student data easier because the results can be printed out or, if safe, emailed in PDF format. One part of the article that really stood out to me was, "For each student, you must consider where the student is right now, what it will take for that student to reach curriculum standards, and what types of exercises are required for different students to reach different goals.' I found this to highlight the main idea of the article. To me it just sums up the idea that technology is valid to help students achieve the level of progress that is critical to learning. I can understand how this whole idea of the learning system can seem like it is a little more, "un-personal" because the students are seen as "robots."-I don't disagree there. As I was reading this article it had me thinking of the Blackboard Vista system that we use. It is a way for teacher to stay connected with students outside of the classroom as well as make resources available to students at home. Just think of how often and how much we as college students rely on using vista as an outside source to keep on top of our work, prepare for exams, and take practice quizzes over and over again. By doing this I find it easier to communicate with my professors. Since they have access to our pages they can see our activity and this data helps professors make decisions based on student needs. I know their have been classes where I wished my teachers have used vista.
ReplyDeleteFinally, my feelings on this article are very positive because it reminds me of the learning systems central uses and I see them as a resource. This article has pointed out a lot of knowledge that I think is important when considering the use of technology in the classroom. This idea of learning systems invites lots of technological advances in the classroom that can be very beneficial for teachers as they plan and communicate between other staff, students, and parents.
After reading this, I do feel that the way that learning management systems was presented was done well. In the sense of being able to detect when a student is having difficulty in a specific area, this gives a major aid to the teacher in noting a difficulty the student will be having and preparing exercises to improve that area that was providing a headache. It really is all about picking the right system to fit the teacher's and students' needs. I know at Central, some professors prefer Moodle over Blackboard Vista just based on organization of the site and how they both run. I would like to work a learning management system into my classroom for the purpose of helping me detect early on if a student is showing to have difficulty in a particular area, so that I can provide an exercise or consult him/her and help them understand the subject matter and improve their learning and education.
ReplyDeleteI see how helpful it would be for teachers in the secondary classroom to be able to track progress. Especially if you administer multiple choice or other assessments that are not being graded by hand. It does I seems like it would be very tough to find one system that fits the needs of all teachers and administrators. I think that is one of the biggest drawbacks since the data system you may like might not be the one that your administrator likes. I think it could be very useful too when you are talking with students and parents. Students might feel that y
ReplyDeleteThey work hard and never seem to improve if you can have an honest conversation and show them that is the same type of questions that cause them problem and focus learning they might be more receptive.
My one critique is that this type of 'data mining' even when simplified still takes time itself. And in an elementary school where students grades are established a bit differently from in middle in high school. Elementary school teachers have typically 20 to 30 students are even in large classes seem to have a very good sense of their students strengths and weaknesses and how they learn. I would be curious to se if elementary school teachers felt that it would serve them well. Will the ime in effort put in to the system provide enough new and pertinent data to make it worth while. Overall I found it helpful explanation of the benefits of these types of systems.
After reading the article I feel like learning management systems can be very benificial for teachers and less time consuming. Teachers will be able to get a breakdown of which students are falling behind the core of the class and specifics to which areas they are lagging in. For instance the example with Damien and Jaina the teacher was able to see what the two were struggling with and get the breakdown of questions from quizzes they each got wrong. Having the ability to quickly recieve results of what contnent areas that students are stuggling in can help the teacher quickly advise a plan to increrase students knowledge in those disciplines and ideally provide those students with a teaching style that would beneifit them.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great tool!
DeleteI think that learning management systems can be useful in schools. Not only does it help teachers who are teaching the student that year but it can be a resource to teachers who will have the students in the future. They would be able to check the students and see where they struggled in the past and change their teaching style to teach students more effectively. This could also be an alternative to standardized testing. If the information is available to administrators they would get a more realistic view of how students preform and how they are being taught. It would be a more genuine result of their learning rather than a few tests that limit what teachers are allowed to teach.
ReplyDeleteI think learning management systems can be very helpful to the teacher. I like how since not all students learn the same way, you have to ability to assign tasks that are oriented around the individuals learning style. The alerts are a plus too because they allow you to see when a student is falling behind and address the problem.
ReplyDelete