Big Idea #4: A Comprehensive Online Adaptive Test Prep Program

This is part four of a special week-long series called Big Idea Week, ideas that I hope will become realities one day soon.

As with some of the ideas I discussed earlier this week, there are many types of adaptive test prep software in existence. There are also online test prep programs for a wide range of tests. Unfortunately, like those other big ideas, no one has gotten it quite right yet.

Last month I wrote a bit about adaptive test prep software for students preparing for college placement exams. In this case, I'm focusing on preparing students for standardized testing across the board. For the uninitiated, an adaptive test changes based on your answers--it might give you easier or harder questions, or it could offer help to guide you to the right answer. This is the heart of this particular idea.

For the purposes of this big idea, adaptive would mean providing hints, simple explanations, videos, animations, audio cues and interactive tutorials whenever a student is struggling on a particular question or topic. The software would provide simpler questions when needed, to both build student confidence and prepare them for the highest level of questioning they'll face on a standardized test.

As long as this structure is present, the rest of the requirements are pretty straightforward:

• It must be completely free.
• Registration and sign up should be easy for schools and students (this is a fatal flaw of so many programs out there right now).
• Make results and progress available to track online, and comprehensive reports should be simple for teachers and administrators to generate at any time.
  
• It should be almost entirely self-guided, intuitive, and most importantly fun!
• This should be online, Web 2.0 technology. There should be nothing to download, no Java applets--basically, it should be compatible with most computers.

Put all of this together, and you have the killer app of standardized test prep, making the lives of teachers, students and administrators so much easier.

I know some people may leave comments and ask, "What about [insert widely used educational software]?" If you've read this blog for a while, you know I've seen a lot of technology that was marketed as if it was the solution to all our problems. Each one lacked one or more of the features I outlined above, and you just can't leave any of those out and really claim to be solving more problems than you're creating.

Big Idea #3: A Math Problem & Worksheet Generator That Gets It Right

This is part three of a special week-long series called Big Idea Week, ideas that I hope will become realities one day soon.

This idea is once again something that many websites and software applications try to do, but that nobody has gotten quite right yet: a powerful, easy-to-use math problem and worksheet generator.

Two sites jump to mind immediately when you think about generating a series of arithmetic or simple algebra problems: Math.com and edHelper.com. Both websites are good at what they do, but as helpful as they are, they both offer limited options on relatively few topics (and in edHelper's case, you only have free access to a few sample worksheets). On the software side, if you've used ExamView, you know that it has a fairly powerful editor that gives you a lot of control over each question and the overall layout. Yet you also know that it is aimed at making tests and not more varied types of assignments, and you are still drawing from a relatively small pool of question stems.

The purpose of this program would be to both generate questions on virtually any topic (middle and high school math primarily) and to allow users to virtually cut-and-paste exactly the kind of practice problems and/or worksheets they need. I can't tell you the hours I have spent literally cutting a pasting from online and offline sources just to create an assignment that meets the needs of my students and covers things the way I want them to be, not the way a textbook publisher dictates.

This software could be based online or off, but due to the scope that I'm imagining, it would probably need to be both: a powerful but simple editor/publishing program for your computer, and a huge database of questions based on state standards and commonly tested question stems available online when needed.

It must be easy to learn and use right "out of the box," because it would be meant to save time and effort that would have been spent gathering resources and then assembling things by hand. A user must have complete control over the layout of a sheet--we should be able to make everything look the way we want it to print, including making things fit on as few pages as possible--without having to play around with copier and printer settings too much. One of the realities many teachers face today is limits on their access to paper and/or the number of copies they can make, so this software should easily optimize our use of each page without compromising quality or readability.

You should also be able to output your work in different formats. In ExamView, for example, you can export your tests as RTF files that can be read by most word processors (which is acceptable, but not much fun to edit). In short, you should not have to download or purchase this particular editing software (especially since installing software is not always an option for school computers) to read and edit your content.

I think having a web-based community where you can save and share your content online would also be useful to many people, and would be a great service to integrate with the ultimate search engine/database I discussed earlier. The sharing/online publishing process should also be easy and not necessarily require registration.

Come back tomorrow for Big Idea #4 (and Five for Friday)!

Big Idea #2: Ultimate Lesson Plan Database/Search Engine

This is part two of a special week-long series called Big Idea Week, ideas that I hope will become realities one day soon.

The Problem

There are many lesson plan databases out there already--that by itself is not a new or bold idea. Unfortunately, these websites share one or both of these flaws:

1. The lesson plans aren't very good in terms of quality or quantity.
2. They're not free to access.
   

The fact of the matter is this: there is no free, comprehensive, high quality teacher resource database on the Internet. There are too many cooks in the kitchen, and so no single site is even close to being the one-stop shop they aspire to be.

The first part of the problem is that too many people want to create their own proprietary database, which limits the scope of their content to whatever is uploaded by members or developed themselves. This leads to many individuals and companies charging for access, which doesn't really work: teachers, not school districts, are the ones searching for lesson ideas, and most aren't going to pay for anything online.

I've found that more often than not, the best lesson plans, projects and related ideas are rarely on any sort of "lesson plan website," free or not. They can be found in all the corners of the web: blogs, individual teacher websites, non-profit organization websites, YouTube, and often on sites not directly related to education at all. It's sometimes difficult to find lesson ideas when using any search engine; it requires a lot of patience and knowledge of keywords, operators and so forth.

The Solution

The ultimate lesson plan website would be part search engine and part database. It would be a metasearch engine, surveying a long list of known education sites at the same time. The database part would allow educators to upload materials not available anywhere else, without the need for them to create their own site. The interface would be simple, Google-esque even, with advanced search options available.

That part would be rather easy, but to make it work better than what already exists, you would need to employ people to, fine tune the search engine and write reviews and descriptions of the uploaded content. Content would be classified by keywords, subject, grade level, and what part of the lesson was included (i.e. complete lesson, lesson idea, game, study guide, project, extension, handout, lab, etc). This would provide a consistent level of quality control and make search results more meaningful and useful.

Most importantly, it would be completely free to submit content and free to search and access everything as well. That means all of the pay-for-access lesson plan websites would be out of luck. The website would get revenue from relevant advertisements, Google AdSense, affiliate sales and preferably grants and other charitable donations.

Why this doesn't exist already?

Honestly, I'm not sure. This seems to me a glaring need, and I'm surprised that a research university hasn't invested their time and effort in this, since so many seem to be invested in helping improve education. I think they would be in the best position to have the resources and the knowledgeable people to get this idea off the ground.

There are individuals and corporations that are certainly trying, but as usual, it seems most are just out to profit from school districts too willing to spend money on the next big thing (or whatever a neighboring district is spending their money on).

Stop by later today for Big Idea #3!

Big Idea #1: A TV Show That Changes The Way We Think About Math

This is part one of a special week-long series called Big Idea Week, ideas that I hope will become realities one day soon.

My first idea is perhaps the most ambitious and difficult to get off the ground, but is probably also the most important and necessary of everything I will discuss this week.

America needs an educational reality TV show that makes mathematics easy, accessible and fun for everyone.

The biggest hurdle this country faces in terms of mathematics education is not one of standards, curricula or ability. Our central problem is cultural: America hates math. No subject elicits such near-universal fear, anger and disdain as mathematics does, regardless of the particular focus. The many stakeholders in our educational system are constantly working to overcome this from the inside out: professional development, curriculum writing, technology and innovative student support systems improve with each passing year. Yet all of these positive changes are part of an uphill battle. We have to change the way people think about math. That's where the show comes in.

There are entire cable channels devoted to history, science, and even literature. More directly, these subjects provide the source material for nearly everything else out there. There is no Math Channel; the CBS crime procedural Numb3rs stands alone as the shining example of accessible math in pop culture. Sure, there is educational children's programming that teaches math, but those shows are designed for and reach only their intended audience. What's needed is a fun, interesting show aimed at an older audience that just happens to teach and engage you in mathematics.

What would this show look like? I think the ideal show would take the best elements of children's shows like Mr. Wizard, Beakman's World and Bill Nye The Science Guy and combine them with the wider-reaching appeal of Discovery Channel hits like Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs. It would show math in the real world, in a way that was relevant and interesting to the broadest range of people possible. It could show all of the people who use math every day who never knew they were going to need it beforehand, as well as the math behind the science that's already explored in so many programs. There would be wild experiments and feats of mathematical intrigue, and explorations into the fascinating areas of the subject that we rarely get to talk about in school (like discrete math).

Each episode of the show would be supplemented with teacher resources (lesson plans, projects, experiments) that would be freely available online, part of an interactive website that would help build a community to perpetuate the growth and reach of the show's goal of universal math acceptance. I believe that if done correctly, this could be the first of many shows about math, perhaps one day leading to a Math Channel.

What I'm proposing is nothing short of the first step in a paradigm shift in the way math is thought about. It will make everything else we're trying to do in this country to improve education that much easier.

I'm honestly a little surprised that we haven't seen this kind of show on the Discovery Channel, since they seem to have an amazing ability to find the most fascinating things in the world around us, but perhaps it's just because no one has come along with the right proposal yet. TV executives, hear me: we need this show not because it will teach math, but because it will fundamentally change the way we think about it. That's the kind of impact any show, any network would kill for.

Come back tomorrow for the next post of Big Idea Week!

"Big Idea Week" Special Series

Tuesday will mark the kickoff of a special new series literally years in the making:

Big Idea Week!

I am a bit of a dreamer, and I have a lot of ideas that I believe could impact classrooms across the planet on a scale that I can only imagine at this point. These are the kinds of ideas that are entirely possible, but that I don't yet have the resources to pull off. I'm also aware that some of what I'll be proposing may already exist in some form or another, but I'm working from the assumption that no one has gotten it quite right yet.

So my main goal is that someone who can help turn some of these ideas into reality will be reading and offer advice, support or help me connect with others who can. I'm also excited to get feedback to make these ideas even bigger and better! Here they are in one place:

• Big Idea #1: A TV Show That Changes The Way We Think About Math
• Big Idea #2: Ultimate Lesson Plan Database/Search Engine
• Big Idea #3: A Math Problem & Worksheet Generator That Gets It Right
• Big Idea #4: A Comprehensive Online Adaptive Test Prep Program
  

(If you're wondering why I'm starting a "week" on a Tuesday, that's because Mondays are reserved for the ongoing 52 Teachers, 52 Lessons community project.)