December 2003 — Industry Perspective
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Difference by Design: Taking Learning Tools From the Home into the Classroom
Product designers must also accommodate teachers' needs to easily integrate the learning system into their curriculum's scope and sequence. This is not a concern for consumer products except in the most general sense. Product designers address this by adjusting a learning system's content and pace. Vendors address this by providing additional instructional materials and resources for teachers.
Adding Assessment
To be successful in the K-12 market vendors must always be asking: What do teachers need? Sometimes it's something relatively simple to provide such as adding more lesson plans; other times it's something more difficult to deliver. The latest push, for example, is to integrate assessment components within technology platforms. In response to the high-stakes testing implementation in schools nationwide, teachers need more timely and accurate ways to measure the mastery of skills and content from their students. Naturally, they are looking to technology for help, and vendors are certainly answering the call.
For example, our school division developed our LeapTrack system, which measures student mastery and prescribes content so that it fully and quickly assesses students' discrete skills. We developed new hardware to allow teachers to record and store that data for a whole class — making sure the system enabled educators to print out detailed reports on how each student is performing against particular standards. It also lets educators aggregate reports on the progress of groups, classes, buildings or even whole districts relative to state standards.
Of course, we are not alone in these efforts. Better assessment and reporting functionality can be found in many firms' latest-generation products. It is the common thread among all companies serving the K-12 education market — a deep commitment to helping teachers, administrators and learners.
Contact Information
LeapFrog SchoolHouse
Emeryville, CA
(800) 883-7430
www.leapfrogschoolhouse.com
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