Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
description
Transcript of Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
7212019 Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullobserver-tech-monthly-geekie 15
34 OTM | 100116 | The Observer
983109ducation
GIVINGTEACHING AN
UPGRADE
7212019 Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullobserver-tech-monthly-geekie 25
The Observer | 100116 | OTM 35
In Brazil a shortage offunding and staff hasblighted the educationsystem for decadesNow machine-learningsoftware is helpingteachers to deliver acomplete schoolsyllabus tailored toeach pupil And itlearns as it goes alongwrites Claire Rigby
Itrsquos 10am on a sunny Novemberday in Rio de Janeiro and thescene inside the classroom is oneof quiet application At a dozen or
so hexagonal tables pupils work onlaptops or in exercise books At oneof the clusters a teacher sits to help apupil while another talks to a group ofstudents at the far end of the room ndash alarge salon in which almost half of thepupils at the school are seated Therest of the schoolrsquos 213 students agedbetween 11 and 14 are busy elsewhere inthe building which includes six smallmore traditional classrooms
Through the windows that run thelength of the classroom dark blue sea isvisible in the distance past green hillswhile above the school Rocinha favelasurges up the mountain in a clutter ofconcrete and peach-coloured brick
This is Andreacute Urani MunicipalSchool a technology-focusedexperimental academy at the footof Rocinha in Rio de Janiero whichwith 70000 inhabitants is Brazilrsquoslargest favela With almost all of itsstudents drawn from the communityAndreacute Urani is a flagship adopter ofan innovative educational softwaredeveloped by a Satildeo Paulo startupGeekie Launched in 2011 GeekieLabs delivers the entire high-schoolsyllabus in hundreds of digital lessonsincorporating text images videosand exercises and also evaluates thestudentsrsquo performance at every stepfeeding real-time data to teachersand the school A separate widelyaccessible app Geekie Games has thesame components bar the institutionalintegration
Geekiersquos content and study plans areaimed at equipping students for Brazilrsquosnational ENEM exams held annuallyfor final-year high-school students and
doubling as an entrance exam for manyuniversities as well as providing proofof achievement for school-leavers
Claudio Sassaki
co-founder of Geekie a
digital startup that has
revolutionised education
in Brazil Photograph by
Germano LuumldersAbrilComunications
7212019 Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullobserver-tech-monthly-geekie 35
36 OTM | 100116 | The Observer
983109ducation
In the classroom at Andreacute Urani Yago dos Santos Lahas 14 is takinga history test on Geekie using an HPlaptop one of 220 in the school which
has a five-year sponsorship fromcompanies including Natura cosmeticsand Fundaccedilatildeo Telefoacutenica A questionndash part of Geekiersquos bespoke softwarefor the pre-high-school institution ndashreads ldquoIn world commerce there arerich countries with more purchasingpower and others with less Thesearch for better commercial relationsbetween those countries increasingtheir profits is called (a) competition(b) integration (c) association or (d)financingrdquo
Yago reads the question twiceselecting (a) and a green tick appearsAt the end of the 120-minute test Yagoreceives his results instantly 262displayed beside the average for allstudents taking the test 230 How doesit feel to see that you are doing betterthan most ldquoItrsquos OKrdquo he says ldquoI donrsquotreally think about it I sometimes doworse than the others but then you cantry againrdquo The software has machinelearning at its core ndash so the machine likethe students is also learning adaptingand analysing responses as more andmore data is fed in
Its pedagogical content is createdby a team of teachers and educationprofessionals also in-house while the
online lessons are given by teachersfrom private tutorial colleges whoappear in the videos as disembodiedvoices speaking over handwrittennotes on black backgrounds and usingcursors to emphasise points or indicateaspects of images The format of thevideo segments is inspired by theKhan Academyrsquos free video classes on
YouTubeIn a Geekie biology lesson on the
respiratory system text describinghow respiration works is interspersedwith exercises and videos In one videoa teacher speaks engagingly over adiagram showing the transfer of oxygenand carbon dioxide inside the lung ldquoO2 and CO2 take opposite routes but bothmove by a process of diffusion OKOKrdquo At the end of the lesson an ldquoInthis lesson you sawrdquo page reprises thecontent as a list of bullet points
The transmission of content is oneof the platformrsquos main benefits saysAndreacute Uranirsquos headteacher Marcelade Oliveira ldquoYou simply donrsquot need ateacher to carry out this partrdquo Insteadof being lectured en masse on subjectsin which they may fail to understanda given element students she says dobetter when they can set their own pace
return to difficult components in theirown time and get things wrong withoutfear of being shown up in front of their
classmates The idea at Andreacute Uranisays Oliveira is that teachers becomementors rather than lecturers while thechildren take a more active role in thestudy process ldquoThey stop being pupilsand become studentsrdquo
Beginning with a brief test and asurvey on the goal of each user ndash thepurpose of study and which subjectand university if any the student isaiming for ndash Geekie creates study plansselecting content according to eachstudentrsquos needs more economics foraspiring maths candidates for exampleThen as a student uses the softwareit gauges their abilities and presentslessons in personalised sequencesadapted over time as each studentrsquosaptitude evolves and as the algorithm
understands itIn practice itrsquos relatively simple if
a user responds well to certain types
of content it will resurface in similarlessons and as it gauges studentsrsquoperformances based on levels ofdifficulty it will select lessons pitchedat similar levels in other areas of studytoo If a student tends to study best ata particular time of day the app cansend push notifications remindingthem whatrsquos next in the study planAs well as providing structured studyplans Geekie can also says ClaudioSassaki who with Eduardo Bontempois Geekiersquos co-founder and co-directordetect some of the obstacles hinderingstudents Those might include poorreading comprehension leading todifficulty in understanding mathsproblems for example or missed classesand misunderstood lessons causing
knock-on diagnosable problems lateron Geekie also compiles data to identifyfor example specific areas of knowledge
ldquoBrazil is so
diverse Itrsquoscrucially
important
to have
information
coming in
from pupils
all over the
country
7212019 Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullobserver-tech-monthly-geekie 45
The Observer | 100116 | OTM 37
that are prerequisites for more complexsubjects producing material that can beanalysed and incorporated by Geekiersquoshuman education professionals
The more the student uses thesoftware the more successfullytargeted its teaching can becomesays Sassaki and the same is true hesays of the entire platform the morestudents use it the better it becomesfor everyone ldquoScale is everythingrdquo hesays Speaking at the companyrsquos SatildeoPaulo headquarters Sassaki explainsthat operating with as many people aspossible using Geekie is essential tocapitalise on the exponential propertiesof the algorithms ldquoThe machineis making correlations all the timediscerning and understanding patternsrdquo
he says ldquoThe more data we have thebetter it can do thatrdquo
Itrsquos partly for that reason that
Geekie has an unusual buy-one-get-one-free policy for each licencepurchased by a private school a publicschool student is given free accessSassaki says he is someone who hasbenefited from the transformativeeffect of education and got into thebusiness to make a difference Whenhis grandparents arrived in Brazilfrom Japan they became indenturedagricultural servants before escapingto Satildeo Paulo Sassaki earned a degreeat the prestigious public University ofSatildeo Paulo then an MBA and an MA inEducation at Stanford before going towork on Wall Street where he spent 10years in finance
Providing the platform free tosome public-school students is partly
an altruistic gesture he says ndash butalso good business ldquoBrazil is verydiverse Itrsquos crucially important to have
information coming in from studentsall over the country because they areso completely different Having thatrange of data helps to create a product
capable of catering for an ever greaternumber of peoplerdquo
Sassaki is quick to note thatachieving scale is also a major factorin the companyrsquos reaching its businessgoals Finding its way into Brazilrsquospublic-school system is at the heart ofGeekiersquos ambition ldquoWe want to positionourselves as the default digital platformin Brazilian educationrdquo he says ldquoI donrsquotthink this a market in which yoursquoll endup with five platforms like GeekieThere might be one maybe two butnot multiple So therersquos an element oftiming you either go for it or yoursquorenot going to make it And someone elsewillrdquo
Geekie made huge strides in itsreach in 2013-14 when promotionalpartnerships with G1 the news portalfor Globo Brazilrsquos largest mediaconglomerate racked up millions ofregistrations for its Geekie Gamesapp It has so far reached a total of fivemillion users it says with 30 of thoseadults working towards high-schoolcertificates that they missed out onas teenagers With a presence in 650private schools Geekie is also in use inmore than 4000 public schools a hugeproportion in Satildeo Paulo state where the
state government reached an agreementwith the company this year to give freeaccess to students in their third and finalyears a total of 415000 students
Flaacuteudio Azevedo Limas directorof the 196000-strong State of SatildeoPaulo Teachers Union says teachersalso need to be given a chance to
learn to use the new technological toolsldquoThey can be extremely productive ifteachers are included in the processrather than simply being confrontedwith the new technologyrdquo he says Thereis a danger he warns that studentscan end up simply parked in frontof computer screens ldquoBut it doesnrsquotwork that way ndash they can do that athome What they need are decentlyrenumerated properly supportedteachers to guide themrdquo
Professor Glaucia da Silva Brito isresearch leader for the TechnologyTeachers amp Schools study group at theFederal University of Paranaacute in the cityof Curitiba Research carried out by thegroup shows strong teacher interestshe says in incorporating digital toolsinto their teaching ldquoBut at the momentthey are leaving university without any
training in the proper use of technologyin the classroomrdquo
In the hallway between classes at
The Andreacute Urani
school in Rio where
students learn with
the help of Geekie
shown by history
teacher Gilberto
Amorim left
Photographs byLianne Milton forthe Observer
7212019 Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullobserver-tech-monthly-geekie 55
38 OTM | 100116 | The Observer
983109ducation
Andreacute Urani a handful of studentslounge about on beanbags manyabsorbed in their phones ldquoTherersquos nopoint in banning phones at schoolrdquo
says Oliveira ldquoTheyrsquore part of studentsrsquolives and part of our lives toordquo Geekiesoftware is optimised for smartphonesso students who canrsquot get to school on agiven day can work on their phones ortablets if they have them even if theyhave no internet at home Many AndreacuteUrani teachers also run Facebook orWhatsApp groups for their studentsldquoThey ask a lot of questions on thererdquosays teacher Luana Rezende who runs aWhatsApp group for her class
J
ust as Geekiersquos systems are tailoredto students the platform alsoprovides modules for teachers andschool managers and in the state
system can feed performance data tostate authorities too ldquoThe informationit gives me is the best part in termsof managementrdquo says Sueli Cain deOliveira academic director for thesix private schools that with MaterDei make up the Weducation groupWhere Cain de Oliveira previouslycreated her own charts and statisticsGeekie provides them in real timeevaluating the performance of teachersand principals as well as of studentsand allowing her to splice the data in
different ways ldquoI can use it to proposetargets for school directorsrdquo shesays ldquoand they can do the same forco-ordinators and for studentsrdquo
Is there an issue with privacy giventhat data on student ndash and teacher ndashperformance could become widelyavailable within organisations bothprivate and public Itrsquos informationthat has always been gathered byorganisations in one form or anothersays Sassaki Yet the centralised easilytransmittable nature of electronicdata ndash often cloud-based unencryptedand accessed via ldquobring-your-ownrdquodevices belonging to employees ndash couldmake it easy for it to find its way intounforeseen places in future with similarimplications for student privacy asthose raised for patients by the use ofelectronic health records
Sassaki doesnrsquot appear to haveconsidered it He looks thoughtfulldquoThatrsquos truerdquo he says ldquoBut ultimatelythe data belongs to the institutionsthemselvesrdquo
Despite significant improvementsin school attendance rates in the last20 years ndash in part as a result of themeans-tested Bolsa Famiacutelia benefitand before that Bolsa Escola ndash only
45 of Brazilian adults aged 25-64completed high-school compared to theinternational average of 75 according
to figures from the Organisationfor Economic Co-operation andDevelopment International rankingsbased on maths and science test scoresat the age of 15 placed Brazil 60th out of75 countries in a set of May 2015 resultsalso published by the OECD
There remain deep-seated problems
in Brazilrsquos education system includinglow levels of competence in themanagement of many public schoolsand a lack of accountability says SassakiHe says it is also a result of the failureof Brazilian society to demand bettereducation ldquoItrsquos a very complex set ofproblems Without strong pressure fromthe population I doubt many politicianswould be prepared to tackle itrdquo
Yet when Mayrsquos OECD reportwas published the organisation alsoreleased calculations suggesting thatgiven universal enrolment in highschool and the achievement of ldquobasicskillsrdquo for all students Brazilrsquos GDP
could increase by 751 by 2095 ndash thatis over the lifetimes of todayrsquos 15-year-olds If those figures are anywhere
near the truth the question becomeshow much longer Brazil can afford tofail its schoolchildren Technologicalinnovations like Geekie seem toindicate that at least part of the solutionmight be less complicated expensiveand arduous than it once seemedoffering a generation of children new
chances to do betterWhile recognising the potentialFlaacuteudio Azevedo Limas sounds a noteof caution ldquoIncorporating technologyinto education is importantrdquo he saysldquoas long as it isnrsquot intended to substitutefor real teachersrdquo He points to schoolsthat achieve outstanding results underdifficult circumstances with almost notechnology ldquoThey could be out in thesertatildeordquo he says referring to Brazilrsquosimpoverished north-eastern backlandsndash but still manage to serve theirstudents better than schools with all thetechnological solutions in the world
What students need most of all says
Limas are well-trained teachers ndash ldquoandfor tech to stay part of the processrather than becoming the processrdquo
What is adaptive
learningA highly personalisedonline learning methodthat adapts to usersrsquoneeds in real timeSoftware providesfeedback that helpslearners progressat their own pace Itknows who you arewhat yoursquove alreadyunderstood (or not) anddecides what yoursquoregoing to see next basedon your performance
In a class usingadaptive learningsoftware each studentwill be learning thesame syllabus but attheir own pace oftenusing different types oflessons
Who are the main
providers
Knewton based in NewYork is a big providerto schools and claims tohave 10 million studentsworldwide It also has
an office in LondonAleks (Assessment andLearning in KnowledgeSpaces) owned byMcGraw-Hill Education
is also used widely inUS schools Facebookis developing adaptivelearning software withUS schools while theBill and Melinda GatesFoundation has fundedresearch in the areaand given grants to UScolleges and universitiesto launch adaptivecourses
Is it being used in UK
schools
Not widely but interest
is growing Examboard OCR CambridgeUniversity Press andRaspberry Pi jointlycreated adaptive
learning platformCogbooks in 2014to add personalisedlearning to computingGCSE massive onlineopen course (Mooc)It was used by 20000students in 2015
CogBooks is alsoworking with CambridgeUniversity in 120 UKschools and is hoping toexpand this year
What are its limitations
It can be expensive to
develop and can requireschools to invest intechnology up frontClassrooms may alsoneed to be restructured
Adaptive learning
systems often usemultiple choicequestions and somesubjects ndash such ascomputer science ndash areobviously much bettersuited to being taught inthis way than others
Will teachers lose jobs
Probably not JimTompson CEO ofCogbooks says that inthe US teachers havefound them to be usefultools
Some systems helpteachers track studentsrsquoprogress in real timeenabling them to spendmore time with thosewho need extra supportMany systems alsoallow teachers to maketheir own curriculum
But there is a longway to go until adaptivelearning is standardin schools eacherswill probably have tobe trained in how the
systems work to ensurestudents receive thebenefits of adaptiveeducationNatalie Gil
C A N S O F T W A R E T E A C H B E T T E R T H A N T E A C H E R S
ldquoStudents
need good
teachers
and for tech
to remain
part of the
process
rather than
becoming
the process
US-based Knewton says it has 10 million students
7212019 Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullobserver-tech-monthly-geekie 25
The Observer | 100116 | OTM 35
In Brazil a shortage offunding and staff hasblighted the educationsystem for decadesNow machine-learningsoftware is helpingteachers to deliver acomplete schoolsyllabus tailored toeach pupil And itlearns as it goes alongwrites Claire Rigby
Itrsquos 10am on a sunny Novemberday in Rio de Janeiro and thescene inside the classroom is oneof quiet application At a dozen or
so hexagonal tables pupils work onlaptops or in exercise books At oneof the clusters a teacher sits to help apupil while another talks to a group ofstudents at the far end of the room ndash alarge salon in which almost half of thepupils at the school are seated Therest of the schoolrsquos 213 students agedbetween 11 and 14 are busy elsewhere inthe building which includes six smallmore traditional classrooms
Through the windows that run thelength of the classroom dark blue sea isvisible in the distance past green hillswhile above the school Rocinha favelasurges up the mountain in a clutter ofconcrete and peach-coloured brick
This is Andreacute Urani MunicipalSchool a technology-focusedexperimental academy at the footof Rocinha in Rio de Janiero whichwith 70000 inhabitants is Brazilrsquoslargest favela With almost all of itsstudents drawn from the communityAndreacute Urani is a flagship adopter ofan innovative educational softwaredeveloped by a Satildeo Paulo startupGeekie Launched in 2011 GeekieLabs delivers the entire high-schoolsyllabus in hundreds of digital lessonsincorporating text images videosand exercises and also evaluates thestudentsrsquo performance at every stepfeeding real-time data to teachersand the school A separate widelyaccessible app Geekie Games has thesame components bar the institutionalintegration
Geekiersquos content and study plans areaimed at equipping students for Brazilrsquosnational ENEM exams held annuallyfor final-year high-school students and
doubling as an entrance exam for manyuniversities as well as providing proofof achievement for school-leavers
Claudio Sassaki
co-founder of Geekie a
digital startup that has
revolutionised education
in Brazil Photograph by
Germano LuumldersAbrilComunications
7212019 Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullobserver-tech-monthly-geekie 35
36 OTM | 100116 | The Observer
983109ducation
In the classroom at Andreacute Urani Yago dos Santos Lahas 14 is takinga history test on Geekie using an HPlaptop one of 220 in the school which
has a five-year sponsorship fromcompanies including Natura cosmeticsand Fundaccedilatildeo Telefoacutenica A questionndash part of Geekiersquos bespoke softwarefor the pre-high-school institution ndashreads ldquoIn world commerce there arerich countries with more purchasingpower and others with less Thesearch for better commercial relationsbetween those countries increasingtheir profits is called (a) competition(b) integration (c) association or (d)financingrdquo
Yago reads the question twiceselecting (a) and a green tick appearsAt the end of the 120-minute test Yagoreceives his results instantly 262displayed beside the average for allstudents taking the test 230 How doesit feel to see that you are doing betterthan most ldquoItrsquos OKrdquo he says ldquoI donrsquotreally think about it I sometimes doworse than the others but then you cantry againrdquo The software has machinelearning at its core ndash so the machine likethe students is also learning adaptingand analysing responses as more andmore data is fed in
Its pedagogical content is createdby a team of teachers and educationprofessionals also in-house while the
online lessons are given by teachersfrom private tutorial colleges whoappear in the videos as disembodiedvoices speaking over handwrittennotes on black backgrounds and usingcursors to emphasise points or indicateaspects of images The format of thevideo segments is inspired by theKhan Academyrsquos free video classes on
YouTubeIn a Geekie biology lesson on the
respiratory system text describinghow respiration works is interspersedwith exercises and videos In one videoa teacher speaks engagingly over adiagram showing the transfer of oxygenand carbon dioxide inside the lung ldquoO2 and CO2 take opposite routes but bothmove by a process of diffusion OKOKrdquo At the end of the lesson an ldquoInthis lesson you sawrdquo page reprises thecontent as a list of bullet points
The transmission of content is oneof the platformrsquos main benefits saysAndreacute Uranirsquos headteacher Marcelade Oliveira ldquoYou simply donrsquot need ateacher to carry out this partrdquo Insteadof being lectured en masse on subjectsin which they may fail to understanda given element students she says dobetter when they can set their own pace
return to difficult components in theirown time and get things wrong withoutfear of being shown up in front of their
classmates The idea at Andreacute Uranisays Oliveira is that teachers becomementors rather than lecturers while thechildren take a more active role in thestudy process ldquoThey stop being pupilsand become studentsrdquo
Beginning with a brief test and asurvey on the goal of each user ndash thepurpose of study and which subjectand university if any the student isaiming for ndash Geekie creates study plansselecting content according to eachstudentrsquos needs more economics foraspiring maths candidates for exampleThen as a student uses the softwareit gauges their abilities and presentslessons in personalised sequencesadapted over time as each studentrsquosaptitude evolves and as the algorithm
understands itIn practice itrsquos relatively simple if
a user responds well to certain types
of content it will resurface in similarlessons and as it gauges studentsrsquoperformances based on levels ofdifficulty it will select lessons pitchedat similar levels in other areas of studytoo If a student tends to study best ata particular time of day the app cansend push notifications remindingthem whatrsquos next in the study planAs well as providing structured studyplans Geekie can also says ClaudioSassaki who with Eduardo Bontempois Geekiersquos co-founder and co-directordetect some of the obstacles hinderingstudents Those might include poorreading comprehension leading todifficulty in understanding mathsproblems for example or missed classesand misunderstood lessons causing
knock-on diagnosable problems lateron Geekie also compiles data to identifyfor example specific areas of knowledge
ldquoBrazil is so
diverse Itrsquoscrucially
important
to have
information
coming in
from pupils
all over the
country
7212019 Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullobserver-tech-monthly-geekie 45
The Observer | 100116 | OTM 37
that are prerequisites for more complexsubjects producing material that can beanalysed and incorporated by Geekiersquoshuman education professionals
The more the student uses thesoftware the more successfullytargeted its teaching can becomesays Sassaki and the same is true hesays of the entire platform the morestudents use it the better it becomesfor everyone ldquoScale is everythingrdquo hesays Speaking at the companyrsquos SatildeoPaulo headquarters Sassaki explainsthat operating with as many people aspossible using Geekie is essential tocapitalise on the exponential propertiesof the algorithms ldquoThe machineis making correlations all the timediscerning and understanding patternsrdquo
he says ldquoThe more data we have thebetter it can do thatrdquo
Itrsquos partly for that reason that
Geekie has an unusual buy-one-get-one-free policy for each licencepurchased by a private school a publicschool student is given free accessSassaki says he is someone who hasbenefited from the transformativeeffect of education and got into thebusiness to make a difference Whenhis grandparents arrived in Brazilfrom Japan they became indenturedagricultural servants before escapingto Satildeo Paulo Sassaki earned a degreeat the prestigious public University ofSatildeo Paulo then an MBA and an MA inEducation at Stanford before going towork on Wall Street where he spent 10years in finance
Providing the platform free tosome public-school students is partly
an altruistic gesture he says ndash butalso good business ldquoBrazil is verydiverse Itrsquos crucially important to have
information coming in from studentsall over the country because they areso completely different Having thatrange of data helps to create a product
capable of catering for an ever greaternumber of peoplerdquo
Sassaki is quick to note thatachieving scale is also a major factorin the companyrsquos reaching its businessgoals Finding its way into Brazilrsquospublic-school system is at the heart ofGeekiersquos ambition ldquoWe want to positionourselves as the default digital platformin Brazilian educationrdquo he says ldquoI donrsquotthink this a market in which yoursquoll endup with five platforms like GeekieThere might be one maybe two butnot multiple So therersquos an element oftiming you either go for it or yoursquorenot going to make it And someone elsewillrdquo
Geekie made huge strides in itsreach in 2013-14 when promotionalpartnerships with G1 the news portalfor Globo Brazilrsquos largest mediaconglomerate racked up millions ofregistrations for its Geekie Gamesapp It has so far reached a total of fivemillion users it says with 30 of thoseadults working towards high-schoolcertificates that they missed out onas teenagers With a presence in 650private schools Geekie is also in use inmore than 4000 public schools a hugeproportion in Satildeo Paulo state where the
state government reached an agreementwith the company this year to give freeaccess to students in their third and finalyears a total of 415000 students
Flaacuteudio Azevedo Limas directorof the 196000-strong State of SatildeoPaulo Teachers Union says teachersalso need to be given a chance to
learn to use the new technological toolsldquoThey can be extremely productive ifteachers are included in the processrather than simply being confrontedwith the new technologyrdquo he says Thereis a danger he warns that studentscan end up simply parked in frontof computer screens ldquoBut it doesnrsquotwork that way ndash they can do that athome What they need are decentlyrenumerated properly supportedteachers to guide themrdquo
Professor Glaucia da Silva Brito isresearch leader for the TechnologyTeachers amp Schools study group at theFederal University of Paranaacute in the cityof Curitiba Research carried out by thegroup shows strong teacher interestshe says in incorporating digital toolsinto their teaching ldquoBut at the momentthey are leaving university without any
training in the proper use of technologyin the classroomrdquo
In the hallway between classes at
The Andreacute Urani
school in Rio where
students learn with
the help of Geekie
shown by history
teacher Gilberto
Amorim left
Photographs byLianne Milton forthe Observer
7212019 Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullobserver-tech-monthly-geekie 55
38 OTM | 100116 | The Observer
983109ducation
Andreacute Urani a handful of studentslounge about on beanbags manyabsorbed in their phones ldquoTherersquos nopoint in banning phones at schoolrdquo
says Oliveira ldquoTheyrsquore part of studentsrsquolives and part of our lives toordquo Geekiesoftware is optimised for smartphonesso students who canrsquot get to school on agiven day can work on their phones ortablets if they have them even if theyhave no internet at home Many AndreacuteUrani teachers also run Facebook orWhatsApp groups for their studentsldquoThey ask a lot of questions on thererdquosays teacher Luana Rezende who runs aWhatsApp group for her class
J
ust as Geekiersquos systems are tailoredto students the platform alsoprovides modules for teachers andschool managers and in the state
system can feed performance data tostate authorities too ldquoThe informationit gives me is the best part in termsof managementrdquo says Sueli Cain deOliveira academic director for thesix private schools that with MaterDei make up the Weducation groupWhere Cain de Oliveira previouslycreated her own charts and statisticsGeekie provides them in real timeevaluating the performance of teachersand principals as well as of studentsand allowing her to splice the data in
different ways ldquoI can use it to proposetargets for school directorsrdquo shesays ldquoand they can do the same forco-ordinators and for studentsrdquo
Is there an issue with privacy giventhat data on student ndash and teacher ndashperformance could become widelyavailable within organisations bothprivate and public Itrsquos informationthat has always been gathered byorganisations in one form or anothersays Sassaki Yet the centralised easilytransmittable nature of electronicdata ndash often cloud-based unencryptedand accessed via ldquobring-your-ownrdquodevices belonging to employees ndash couldmake it easy for it to find its way intounforeseen places in future with similarimplications for student privacy asthose raised for patients by the use ofelectronic health records
Sassaki doesnrsquot appear to haveconsidered it He looks thoughtfulldquoThatrsquos truerdquo he says ldquoBut ultimatelythe data belongs to the institutionsthemselvesrdquo
Despite significant improvementsin school attendance rates in the last20 years ndash in part as a result of themeans-tested Bolsa Famiacutelia benefitand before that Bolsa Escola ndash only
45 of Brazilian adults aged 25-64completed high-school compared to theinternational average of 75 according
to figures from the Organisationfor Economic Co-operation andDevelopment International rankingsbased on maths and science test scoresat the age of 15 placed Brazil 60th out of75 countries in a set of May 2015 resultsalso published by the OECD
There remain deep-seated problems
in Brazilrsquos education system includinglow levels of competence in themanagement of many public schoolsand a lack of accountability says SassakiHe says it is also a result of the failureof Brazilian society to demand bettereducation ldquoItrsquos a very complex set ofproblems Without strong pressure fromthe population I doubt many politicianswould be prepared to tackle itrdquo
Yet when Mayrsquos OECD reportwas published the organisation alsoreleased calculations suggesting thatgiven universal enrolment in highschool and the achievement of ldquobasicskillsrdquo for all students Brazilrsquos GDP
could increase by 751 by 2095 ndash thatis over the lifetimes of todayrsquos 15-year-olds If those figures are anywhere
near the truth the question becomeshow much longer Brazil can afford tofail its schoolchildren Technologicalinnovations like Geekie seem toindicate that at least part of the solutionmight be less complicated expensiveand arduous than it once seemedoffering a generation of children new
chances to do betterWhile recognising the potentialFlaacuteudio Azevedo Limas sounds a noteof caution ldquoIncorporating technologyinto education is importantrdquo he saysldquoas long as it isnrsquot intended to substitutefor real teachersrdquo He points to schoolsthat achieve outstanding results underdifficult circumstances with almost notechnology ldquoThey could be out in thesertatildeordquo he says referring to Brazilrsquosimpoverished north-eastern backlandsndash but still manage to serve theirstudents better than schools with all thetechnological solutions in the world
What students need most of all says
Limas are well-trained teachers ndash ldquoandfor tech to stay part of the processrather than becoming the processrdquo
What is adaptive
learningA highly personalisedonline learning methodthat adapts to usersrsquoneeds in real timeSoftware providesfeedback that helpslearners progressat their own pace Itknows who you arewhat yoursquove alreadyunderstood (or not) anddecides what yoursquoregoing to see next basedon your performance
In a class usingadaptive learningsoftware each studentwill be learning thesame syllabus but attheir own pace oftenusing different types oflessons
Who are the main
providers
Knewton based in NewYork is a big providerto schools and claims tohave 10 million studentsworldwide It also has
an office in LondonAleks (Assessment andLearning in KnowledgeSpaces) owned byMcGraw-Hill Education
is also used widely inUS schools Facebookis developing adaptivelearning software withUS schools while theBill and Melinda GatesFoundation has fundedresearch in the areaand given grants to UScolleges and universitiesto launch adaptivecourses
Is it being used in UK
schools
Not widely but interest
is growing Examboard OCR CambridgeUniversity Press andRaspberry Pi jointlycreated adaptive
learning platformCogbooks in 2014to add personalisedlearning to computingGCSE massive onlineopen course (Mooc)It was used by 20000students in 2015
CogBooks is alsoworking with CambridgeUniversity in 120 UKschools and is hoping toexpand this year
What are its limitations
It can be expensive to
develop and can requireschools to invest intechnology up frontClassrooms may alsoneed to be restructured
Adaptive learning
systems often usemultiple choicequestions and somesubjects ndash such ascomputer science ndash areobviously much bettersuited to being taught inthis way than others
Will teachers lose jobs
Probably not JimTompson CEO ofCogbooks says that inthe US teachers havefound them to be usefultools
Some systems helpteachers track studentsrsquoprogress in real timeenabling them to spendmore time with thosewho need extra supportMany systems alsoallow teachers to maketheir own curriculum
But there is a longway to go until adaptivelearning is standardin schools eacherswill probably have tobe trained in how the
systems work to ensurestudents receive thebenefits of adaptiveeducationNatalie Gil
C A N S O F T W A R E T E A C H B E T T E R T H A N T E A C H E R S
ldquoStudents
need good
teachers
and for tech
to remain
part of the
process
rather than
becoming
the process
US-based Knewton says it has 10 million students
7212019 Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullobserver-tech-monthly-geekie 35
36 OTM | 100116 | The Observer
983109ducation
In the classroom at Andreacute Urani Yago dos Santos Lahas 14 is takinga history test on Geekie using an HPlaptop one of 220 in the school which
has a five-year sponsorship fromcompanies including Natura cosmeticsand Fundaccedilatildeo Telefoacutenica A questionndash part of Geekiersquos bespoke softwarefor the pre-high-school institution ndashreads ldquoIn world commerce there arerich countries with more purchasingpower and others with less Thesearch for better commercial relationsbetween those countries increasingtheir profits is called (a) competition(b) integration (c) association or (d)financingrdquo
Yago reads the question twiceselecting (a) and a green tick appearsAt the end of the 120-minute test Yagoreceives his results instantly 262displayed beside the average for allstudents taking the test 230 How doesit feel to see that you are doing betterthan most ldquoItrsquos OKrdquo he says ldquoI donrsquotreally think about it I sometimes doworse than the others but then you cantry againrdquo The software has machinelearning at its core ndash so the machine likethe students is also learning adaptingand analysing responses as more andmore data is fed in
Its pedagogical content is createdby a team of teachers and educationprofessionals also in-house while the
online lessons are given by teachersfrom private tutorial colleges whoappear in the videos as disembodiedvoices speaking over handwrittennotes on black backgrounds and usingcursors to emphasise points or indicateaspects of images The format of thevideo segments is inspired by theKhan Academyrsquos free video classes on
YouTubeIn a Geekie biology lesson on the
respiratory system text describinghow respiration works is interspersedwith exercises and videos In one videoa teacher speaks engagingly over adiagram showing the transfer of oxygenand carbon dioxide inside the lung ldquoO2 and CO2 take opposite routes but bothmove by a process of diffusion OKOKrdquo At the end of the lesson an ldquoInthis lesson you sawrdquo page reprises thecontent as a list of bullet points
The transmission of content is oneof the platformrsquos main benefits saysAndreacute Uranirsquos headteacher Marcelade Oliveira ldquoYou simply donrsquot need ateacher to carry out this partrdquo Insteadof being lectured en masse on subjectsin which they may fail to understanda given element students she says dobetter when they can set their own pace
return to difficult components in theirown time and get things wrong withoutfear of being shown up in front of their
classmates The idea at Andreacute Uranisays Oliveira is that teachers becomementors rather than lecturers while thechildren take a more active role in thestudy process ldquoThey stop being pupilsand become studentsrdquo
Beginning with a brief test and asurvey on the goal of each user ndash thepurpose of study and which subjectand university if any the student isaiming for ndash Geekie creates study plansselecting content according to eachstudentrsquos needs more economics foraspiring maths candidates for exampleThen as a student uses the softwareit gauges their abilities and presentslessons in personalised sequencesadapted over time as each studentrsquosaptitude evolves and as the algorithm
understands itIn practice itrsquos relatively simple if
a user responds well to certain types
of content it will resurface in similarlessons and as it gauges studentsrsquoperformances based on levels ofdifficulty it will select lessons pitchedat similar levels in other areas of studytoo If a student tends to study best ata particular time of day the app cansend push notifications remindingthem whatrsquos next in the study planAs well as providing structured studyplans Geekie can also says ClaudioSassaki who with Eduardo Bontempois Geekiersquos co-founder and co-directordetect some of the obstacles hinderingstudents Those might include poorreading comprehension leading todifficulty in understanding mathsproblems for example or missed classesand misunderstood lessons causing
knock-on diagnosable problems lateron Geekie also compiles data to identifyfor example specific areas of knowledge
ldquoBrazil is so
diverse Itrsquoscrucially
important
to have
information
coming in
from pupils
all over the
country
7212019 Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullobserver-tech-monthly-geekie 45
The Observer | 100116 | OTM 37
that are prerequisites for more complexsubjects producing material that can beanalysed and incorporated by Geekiersquoshuman education professionals
The more the student uses thesoftware the more successfullytargeted its teaching can becomesays Sassaki and the same is true hesays of the entire platform the morestudents use it the better it becomesfor everyone ldquoScale is everythingrdquo hesays Speaking at the companyrsquos SatildeoPaulo headquarters Sassaki explainsthat operating with as many people aspossible using Geekie is essential tocapitalise on the exponential propertiesof the algorithms ldquoThe machineis making correlations all the timediscerning and understanding patternsrdquo
he says ldquoThe more data we have thebetter it can do thatrdquo
Itrsquos partly for that reason that
Geekie has an unusual buy-one-get-one-free policy for each licencepurchased by a private school a publicschool student is given free accessSassaki says he is someone who hasbenefited from the transformativeeffect of education and got into thebusiness to make a difference Whenhis grandparents arrived in Brazilfrom Japan they became indenturedagricultural servants before escapingto Satildeo Paulo Sassaki earned a degreeat the prestigious public University ofSatildeo Paulo then an MBA and an MA inEducation at Stanford before going towork on Wall Street where he spent 10years in finance
Providing the platform free tosome public-school students is partly
an altruistic gesture he says ndash butalso good business ldquoBrazil is verydiverse Itrsquos crucially important to have
information coming in from studentsall over the country because they areso completely different Having thatrange of data helps to create a product
capable of catering for an ever greaternumber of peoplerdquo
Sassaki is quick to note thatachieving scale is also a major factorin the companyrsquos reaching its businessgoals Finding its way into Brazilrsquospublic-school system is at the heart ofGeekiersquos ambition ldquoWe want to positionourselves as the default digital platformin Brazilian educationrdquo he says ldquoI donrsquotthink this a market in which yoursquoll endup with five platforms like GeekieThere might be one maybe two butnot multiple So therersquos an element oftiming you either go for it or yoursquorenot going to make it And someone elsewillrdquo
Geekie made huge strides in itsreach in 2013-14 when promotionalpartnerships with G1 the news portalfor Globo Brazilrsquos largest mediaconglomerate racked up millions ofregistrations for its Geekie Gamesapp It has so far reached a total of fivemillion users it says with 30 of thoseadults working towards high-schoolcertificates that they missed out onas teenagers With a presence in 650private schools Geekie is also in use inmore than 4000 public schools a hugeproportion in Satildeo Paulo state where the
state government reached an agreementwith the company this year to give freeaccess to students in their third and finalyears a total of 415000 students
Flaacuteudio Azevedo Limas directorof the 196000-strong State of SatildeoPaulo Teachers Union says teachersalso need to be given a chance to
learn to use the new technological toolsldquoThey can be extremely productive ifteachers are included in the processrather than simply being confrontedwith the new technologyrdquo he says Thereis a danger he warns that studentscan end up simply parked in frontof computer screens ldquoBut it doesnrsquotwork that way ndash they can do that athome What they need are decentlyrenumerated properly supportedteachers to guide themrdquo
Professor Glaucia da Silva Brito isresearch leader for the TechnologyTeachers amp Schools study group at theFederal University of Paranaacute in the cityof Curitiba Research carried out by thegroup shows strong teacher interestshe says in incorporating digital toolsinto their teaching ldquoBut at the momentthey are leaving university without any
training in the proper use of technologyin the classroomrdquo
In the hallway between classes at
The Andreacute Urani
school in Rio where
students learn with
the help of Geekie
shown by history
teacher Gilberto
Amorim left
Photographs byLianne Milton forthe Observer
7212019 Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullobserver-tech-monthly-geekie 55
38 OTM | 100116 | The Observer
983109ducation
Andreacute Urani a handful of studentslounge about on beanbags manyabsorbed in their phones ldquoTherersquos nopoint in banning phones at schoolrdquo
says Oliveira ldquoTheyrsquore part of studentsrsquolives and part of our lives toordquo Geekiesoftware is optimised for smartphonesso students who canrsquot get to school on agiven day can work on their phones ortablets if they have them even if theyhave no internet at home Many AndreacuteUrani teachers also run Facebook orWhatsApp groups for their studentsldquoThey ask a lot of questions on thererdquosays teacher Luana Rezende who runs aWhatsApp group for her class
J
ust as Geekiersquos systems are tailoredto students the platform alsoprovides modules for teachers andschool managers and in the state
system can feed performance data tostate authorities too ldquoThe informationit gives me is the best part in termsof managementrdquo says Sueli Cain deOliveira academic director for thesix private schools that with MaterDei make up the Weducation groupWhere Cain de Oliveira previouslycreated her own charts and statisticsGeekie provides them in real timeevaluating the performance of teachersand principals as well as of studentsand allowing her to splice the data in
different ways ldquoI can use it to proposetargets for school directorsrdquo shesays ldquoand they can do the same forco-ordinators and for studentsrdquo
Is there an issue with privacy giventhat data on student ndash and teacher ndashperformance could become widelyavailable within organisations bothprivate and public Itrsquos informationthat has always been gathered byorganisations in one form or anothersays Sassaki Yet the centralised easilytransmittable nature of electronicdata ndash often cloud-based unencryptedand accessed via ldquobring-your-ownrdquodevices belonging to employees ndash couldmake it easy for it to find its way intounforeseen places in future with similarimplications for student privacy asthose raised for patients by the use ofelectronic health records
Sassaki doesnrsquot appear to haveconsidered it He looks thoughtfulldquoThatrsquos truerdquo he says ldquoBut ultimatelythe data belongs to the institutionsthemselvesrdquo
Despite significant improvementsin school attendance rates in the last20 years ndash in part as a result of themeans-tested Bolsa Famiacutelia benefitand before that Bolsa Escola ndash only
45 of Brazilian adults aged 25-64completed high-school compared to theinternational average of 75 according
to figures from the Organisationfor Economic Co-operation andDevelopment International rankingsbased on maths and science test scoresat the age of 15 placed Brazil 60th out of75 countries in a set of May 2015 resultsalso published by the OECD
There remain deep-seated problems
in Brazilrsquos education system includinglow levels of competence in themanagement of many public schoolsand a lack of accountability says SassakiHe says it is also a result of the failureof Brazilian society to demand bettereducation ldquoItrsquos a very complex set ofproblems Without strong pressure fromthe population I doubt many politicianswould be prepared to tackle itrdquo
Yet when Mayrsquos OECD reportwas published the organisation alsoreleased calculations suggesting thatgiven universal enrolment in highschool and the achievement of ldquobasicskillsrdquo for all students Brazilrsquos GDP
could increase by 751 by 2095 ndash thatis over the lifetimes of todayrsquos 15-year-olds If those figures are anywhere
near the truth the question becomeshow much longer Brazil can afford tofail its schoolchildren Technologicalinnovations like Geekie seem toindicate that at least part of the solutionmight be less complicated expensiveand arduous than it once seemedoffering a generation of children new
chances to do betterWhile recognising the potentialFlaacuteudio Azevedo Limas sounds a noteof caution ldquoIncorporating technologyinto education is importantrdquo he saysldquoas long as it isnrsquot intended to substitutefor real teachersrdquo He points to schoolsthat achieve outstanding results underdifficult circumstances with almost notechnology ldquoThey could be out in thesertatildeordquo he says referring to Brazilrsquosimpoverished north-eastern backlandsndash but still manage to serve theirstudents better than schools with all thetechnological solutions in the world
What students need most of all says
Limas are well-trained teachers ndash ldquoandfor tech to stay part of the processrather than becoming the processrdquo
What is adaptive
learningA highly personalisedonline learning methodthat adapts to usersrsquoneeds in real timeSoftware providesfeedback that helpslearners progressat their own pace Itknows who you arewhat yoursquove alreadyunderstood (or not) anddecides what yoursquoregoing to see next basedon your performance
In a class usingadaptive learningsoftware each studentwill be learning thesame syllabus but attheir own pace oftenusing different types oflessons
Who are the main
providers
Knewton based in NewYork is a big providerto schools and claims tohave 10 million studentsworldwide It also has
an office in LondonAleks (Assessment andLearning in KnowledgeSpaces) owned byMcGraw-Hill Education
is also used widely inUS schools Facebookis developing adaptivelearning software withUS schools while theBill and Melinda GatesFoundation has fundedresearch in the areaand given grants to UScolleges and universitiesto launch adaptivecourses
Is it being used in UK
schools
Not widely but interest
is growing Examboard OCR CambridgeUniversity Press andRaspberry Pi jointlycreated adaptive
learning platformCogbooks in 2014to add personalisedlearning to computingGCSE massive onlineopen course (Mooc)It was used by 20000students in 2015
CogBooks is alsoworking with CambridgeUniversity in 120 UKschools and is hoping toexpand this year
What are its limitations
It can be expensive to
develop and can requireschools to invest intechnology up frontClassrooms may alsoneed to be restructured
Adaptive learning
systems often usemultiple choicequestions and somesubjects ndash such ascomputer science ndash areobviously much bettersuited to being taught inthis way than others
Will teachers lose jobs
Probably not JimTompson CEO ofCogbooks says that inthe US teachers havefound them to be usefultools
Some systems helpteachers track studentsrsquoprogress in real timeenabling them to spendmore time with thosewho need extra supportMany systems alsoallow teachers to maketheir own curriculum
But there is a longway to go until adaptivelearning is standardin schools eacherswill probably have tobe trained in how the
systems work to ensurestudents receive thebenefits of adaptiveeducationNatalie Gil
C A N S O F T W A R E T E A C H B E T T E R T H A N T E A C H E R S
ldquoStudents
need good
teachers
and for tech
to remain
part of the
process
rather than
becoming
the process
US-based Knewton says it has 10 million students
7212019 Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullobserver-tech-monthly-geekie 45
The Observer | 100116 | OTM 37
that are prerequisites for more complexsubjects producing material that can beanalysed and incorporated by Geekiersquoshuman education professionals
The more the student uses thesoftware the more successfullytargeted its teaching can becomesays Sassaki and the same is true hesays of the entire platform the morestudents use it the better it becomesfor everyone ldquoScale is everythingrdquo hesays Speaking at the companyrsquos SatildeoPaulo headquarters Sassaki explainsthat operating with as many people aspossible using Geekie is essential tocapitalise on the exponential propertiesof the algorithms ldquoThe machineis making correlations all the timediscerning and understanding patternsrdquo
he says ldquoThe more data we have thebetter it can do thatrdquo
Itrsquos partly for that reason that
Geekie has an unusual buy-one-get-one-free policy for each licencepurchased by a private school a publicschool student is given free accessSassaki says he is someone who hasbenefited from the transformativeeffect of education and got into thebusiness to make a difference Whenhis grandparents arrived in Brazilfrom Japan they became indenturedagricultural servants before escapingto Satildeo Paulo Sassaki earned a degreeat the prestigious public University ofSatildeo Paulo then an MBA and an MA inEducation at Stanford before going towork on Wall Street where he spent 10years in finance
Providing the platform free tosome public-school students is partly
an altruistic gesture he says ndash butalso good business ldquoBrazil is verydiverse Itrsquos crucially important to have
information coming in from studentsall over the country because they areso completely different Having thatrange of data helps to create a product
capable of catering for an ever greaternumber of peoplerdquo
Sassaki is quick to note thatachieving scale is also a major factorin the companyrsquos reaching its businessgoals Finding its way into Brazilrsquospublic-school system is at the heart ofGeekiersquos ambition ldquoWe want to positionourselves as the default digital platformin Brazilian educationrdquo he says ldquoI donrsquotthink this a market in which yoursquoll endup with five platforms like GeekieThere might be one maybe two butnot multiple So therersquos an element oftiming you either go for it or yoursquorenot going to make it And someone elsewillrdquo
Geekie made huge strides in itsreach in 2013-14 when promotionalpartnerships with G1 the news portalfor Globo Brazilrsquos largest mediaconglomerate racked up millions ofregistrations for its Geekie Gamesapp It has so far reached a total of fivemillion users it says with 30 of thoseadults working towards high-schoolcertificates that they missed out onas teenagers With a presence in 650private schools Geekie is also in use inmore than 4000 public schools a hugeproportion in Satildeo Paulo state where the
state government reached an agreementwith the company this year to give freeaccess to students in their third and finalyears a total of 415000 students
Flaacuteudio Azevedo Limas directorof the 196000-strong State of SatildeoPaulo Teachers Union says teachersalso need to be given a chance to
learn to use the new technological toolsldquoThey can be extremely productive ifteachers are included in the processrather than simply being confrontedwith the new technologyrdquo he says Thereis a danger he warns that studentscan end up simply parked in frontof computer screens ldquoBut it doesnrsquotwork that way ndash they can do that athome What they need are decentlyrenumerated properly supportedteachers to guide themrdquo
Professor Glaucia da Silva Brito isresearch leader for the TechnologyTeachers amp Schools study group at theFederal University of Paranaacute in the cityof Curitiba Research carried out by thegroup shows strong teacher interestshe says in incorporating digital toolsinto their teaching ldquoBut at the momentthey are leaving university without any
training in the proper use of technologyin the classroomrdquo
In the hallway between classes at
The Andreacute Urani
school in Rio where
students learn with
the help of Geekie
shown by history
teacher Gilberto
Amorim left
Photographs byLianne Milton forthe Observer
7212019 Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullobserver-tech-monthly-geekie 55
38 OTM | 100116 | The Observer
983109ducation
Andreacute Urani a handful of studentslounge about on beanbags manyabsorbed in their phones ldquoTherersquos nopoint in banning phones at schoolrdquo
says Oliveira ldquoTheyrsquore part of studentsrsquolives and part of our lives toordquo Geekiesoftware is optimised for smartphonesso students who canrsquot get to school on agiven day can work on their phones ortablets if they have them even if theyhave no internet at home Many AndreacuteUrani teachers also run Facebook orWhatsApp groups for their studentsldquoThey ask a lot of questions on thererdquosays teacher Luana Rezende who runs aWhatsApp group for her class
J
ust as Geekiersquos systems are tailoredto students the platform alsoprovides modules for teachers andschool managers and in the state
system can feed performance data tostate authorities too ldquoThe informationit gives me is the best part in termsof managementrdquo says Sueli Cain deOliveira academic director for thesix private schools that with MaterDei make up the Weducation groupWhere Cain de Oliveira previouslycreated her own charts and statisticsGeekie provides them in real timeevaluating the performance of teachersand principals as well as of studentsand allowing her to splice the data in
different ways ldquoI can use it to proposetargets for school directorsrdquo shesays ldquoand they can do the same forco-ordinators and for studentsrdquo
Is there an issue with privacy giventhat data on student ndash and teacher ndashperformance could become widelyavailable within organisations bothprivate and public Itrsquos informationthat has always been gathered byorganisations in one form or anothersays Sassaki Yet the centralised easilytransmittable nature of electronicdata ndash often cloud-based unencryptedand accessed via ldquobring-your-ownrdquodevices belonging to employees ndash couldmake it easy for it to find its way intounforeseen places in future with similarimplications for student privacy asthose raised for patients by the use ofelectronic health records
Sassaki doesnrsquot appear to haveconsidered it He looks thoughtfulldquoThatrsquos truerdquo he says ldquoBut ultimatelythe data belongs to the institutionsthemselvesrdquo
Despite significant improvementsin school attendance rates in the last20 years ndash in part as a result of themeans-tested Bolsa Famiacutelia benefitand before that Bolsa Escola ndash only
45 of Brazilian adults aged 25-64completed high-school compared to theinternational average of 75 according
to figures from the Organisationfor Economic Co-operation andDevelopment International rankingsbased on maths and science test scoresat the age of 15 placed Brazil 60th out of75 countries in a set of May 2015 resultsalso published by the OECD
There remain deep-seated problems
in Brazilrsquos education system includinglow levels of competence in themanagement of many public schoolsand a lack of accountability says SassakiHe says it is also a result of the failureof Brazilian society to demand bettereducation ldquoItrsquos a very complex set ofproblems Without strong pressure fromthe population I doubt many politicianswould be prepared to tackle itrdquo
Yet when Mayrsquos OECD reportwas published the organisation alsoreleased calculations suggesting thatgiven universal enrolment in highschool and the achievement of ldquobasicskillsrdquo for all students Brazilrsquos GDP
could increase by 751 by 2095 ndash thatis over the lifetimes of todayrsquos 15-year-olds If those figures are anywhere
near the truth the question becomeshow much longer Brazil can afford tofail its schoolchildren Technologicalinnovations like Geekie seem toindicate that at least part of the solutionmight be less complicated expensiveand arduous than it once seemedoffering a generation of children new
chances to do betterWhile recognising the potentialFlaacuteudio Azevedo Limas sounds a noteof caution ldquoIncorporating technologyinto education is importantrdquo he saysldquoas long as it isnrsquot intended to substitutefor real teachersrdquo He points to schoolsthat achieve outstanding results underdifficult circumstances with almost notechnology ldquoThey could be out in thesertatildeordquo he says referring to Brazilrsquosimpoverished north-eastern backlandsndash but still manage to serve theirstudents better than schools with all thetechnological solutions in the world
What students need most of all says
Limas are well-trained teachers ndash ldquoandfor tech to stay part of the processrather than becoming the processrdquo
What is adaptive
learningA highly personalisedonline learning methodthat adapts to usersrsquoneeds in real timeSoftware providesfeedback that helpslearners progressat their own pace Itknows who you arewhat yoursquove alreadyunderstood (or not) anddecides what yoursquoregoing to see next basedon your performance
In a class usingadaptive learningsoftware each studentwill be learning thesame syllabus but attheir own pace oftenusing different types oflessons
Who are the main
providers
Knewton based in NewYork is a big providerto schools and claims tohave 10 million studentsworldwide It also has
an office in LondonAleks (Assessment andLearning in KnowledgeSpaces) owned byMcGraw-Hill Education
is also used widely inUS schools Facebookis developing adaptivelearning software withUS schools while theBill and Melinda GatesFoundation has fundedresearch in the areaand given grants to UScolleges and universitiesto launch adaptivecourses
Is it being used in UK
schools
Not widely but interest
is growing Examboard OCR CambridgeUniversity Press andRaspberry Pi jointlycreated adaptive
learning platformCogbooks in 2014to add personalisedlearning to computingGCSE massive onlineopen course (Mooc)It was used by 20000students in 2015
CogBooks is alsoworking with CambridgeUniversity in 120 UKschools and is hoping toexpand this year
What are its limitations
It can be expensive to
develop and can requireschools to invest intechnology up frontClassrooms may alsoneed to be restructured
Adaptive learning
systems often usemultiple choicequestions and somesubjects ndash such ascomputer science ndash areobviously much bettersuited to being taught inthis way than others
Will teachers lose jobs
Probably not JimTompson CEO ofCogbooks says that inthe US teachers havefound them to be usefultools
Some systems helpteachers track studentsrsquoprogress in real timeenabling them to spendmore time with thosewho need extra supportMany systems alsoallow teachers to maketheir own curriculum
But there is a longway to go until adaptivelearning is standardin schools eacherswill probably have tobe trained in how the
systems work to ensurestudents receive thebenefits of adaptiveeducationNatalie Gil
C A N S O F T W A R E T E A C H B E T T E R T H A N T E A C H E R S
ldquoStudents
need good
teachers
and for tech
to remain
part of the
process
rather than
becoming
the process
US-based Knewton says it has 10 million students
7212019 Observer Tech Monthly - Geekie
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullobserver-tech-monthly-geekie 55
38 OTM | 100116 | The Observer
983109ducation
Andreacute Urani a handful of studentslounge about on beanbags manyabsorbed in their phones ldquoTherersquos nopoint in banning phones at schoolrdquo
says Oliveira ldquoTheyrsquore part of studentsrsquolives and part of our lives toordquo Geekiesoftware is optimised for smartphonesso students who canrsquot get to school on agiven day can work on their phones ortablets if they have them even if theyhave no internet at home Many AndreacuteUrani teachers also run Facebook orWhatsApp groups for their studentsldquoThey ask a lot of questions on thererdquosays teacher Luana Rezende who runs aWhatsApp group for her class
J
ust as Geekiersquos systems are tailoredto students the platform alsoprovides modules for teachers andschool managers and in the state
system can feed performance data tostate authorities too ldquoThe informationit gives me is the best part in termsof managementrdquo says Sueli Cain deOliveira academic director for thesix private schools that with MaterDei make up the Weducation groupWhere Cain de Oliveira previouslycreated her own charts and statisticsGeekie provides them in real timeevaluating the performance of teachersand principals as well as of studentsand allowing her to splice the data in
different ways ldquoI can use it to proposetargets for school directorsrdquo shesays ldquoand they can do the same forco-ordinators and for studentsrdquo
Is there an issue with privacy giventhat data on student ndash and teacher ndashperformance could become widelyavailable within organisations bothprivate and public Itrsquos informationthat has always been gathered byorganisations in one form or anothersays Sassaki Yet the centralised easilytransmittable nature of electronicdata ndash often cloud-based unencryptedand accessed via ldquobring-your-ownrdquodevices belonging to employees ndash couldmake it easy for it to find its way intounforeseen places in future with similarimplications for student privacy asthose raised for patients by the use ofelectronic health records
Sassaki doesnrsquot appear to haveconsidered it He looks thoughtfulldquoThatrsquos truerdquo he says ldquoBut ultimatelythe data belongs to the institutionsthemselvesrdquo
Despite significant improvementsin school attendance rates in the last20 years ndash in part as a result of themeans-tested Bolsa Famiacutelia benefitand before that Bolsa Escola ndash only
45 of Brazilian adults aged 25-64completed high-school compared to theinternational average of 75 according
to figures from the Organisationfor Economic Co-operation andDevelopment International rankingsbased on maths and science test scoresat the age of 15 placed Brazil 60th out of75 countries in a set of May 2015 resultsalso published by the OECD
There remain deep-seated problems
in Brazilrsquos education system includinglow levels of competence in themanagement of many public schoolsand a lack of accountability says SassakiHe says it is also a result of the failureof Brazilian society to demand bettereducation ldquoItrsquos a very complex set ofproblems Without strong pressure fromthe population I doubt many politicianswould be prepared to tackle itrdquo
Yet when Mayrsquos OECD reportwas published the organisation alsoreleased calculations suggesting thatgiven universal enrolment in highschool and the achievement of ldquobasicskillsrdquo for all students Brazilrsquos GDP
could increase by 751 by 2095 ndash thatis over the lifetimes of todayrsquos 15-year-olds If those figures are anywhere
near the truth the question becomeshow much longer Brazil can afford tofail its schoolchildren Technologicalinnovations like Geekie seem toindicate that at least part of the solutionmight be less complicated expensiveand arduous than it once seemedoffering a generation of children new
chances to do betterWhile recognising the potentialFlaacuteudio Azevedo Limas sounds a noteof caution ldquoIncorporating technologyinto education is importantrdquo he saysldquoas long as it isnrsquot intended to substitutefor real teachersrdquo He points to schoolsthat achieve outstanding results underdifficult circumstances with almost notechnology ldquoThey could be out in thesertatildeordquo he says referring to Brazilrsquosimpoverished north-eastern backlandsndash but still manage to serve theirstudents better than schools with all thetechnological solutions in the world
What students need most of all says
Limas are well-trained teachers ndash ldquoandfor tech to stay part of the processrather than becoming the processrdquo
What is adaptive
learningA highly personalisedonline learning methodthat adapts to usersrsquoneeds in real timeSoftware providesfeedback that helpslearners progressat their own pace Itknows who you arewhat yoursquove alreadyunderstood (or not) anddecides what yoursquoregoing to see next basedon your performance
In a class usingadaptive learningsoftware each studentwill be learning thesame syllabus but attheir own pace oftenusing different types oflessons
Who are the main
providers
Knewton based in NewYork is a big providerto schools and claims tohave 10 million studentsworldwide It also has
an office in LondonAleks (Assessment andLearning in KnowledgeSpaces) owned byMcGraw-Hill Education
is also used widely inUS schools Facebookis developing adaptivelearning software withUS schools while theBill and Melinda GatesFoundation has fundedresearch in the areaand given grants to UScolleges and universitiesto launch adaptivecourses
Is it being used in UK
schools
Not widely but interest
is growing Examboard OCR CambridgeUniversity Press andRaspberry Pi jointlycreated adaptive
learning platformCogbooks in 2014to add personalisedlearning to computingGCSE massive onlineopen course (Mooc)It was used by 20000students in 2015
CogBooks is alsoworking with CambridgeUniversity in 120 UKschools and is hoping toexpand this year
What are its limitations
It can be expensive to
develop and can requireschools to invest intechnology up frontClassrooms may alsoneed to be restructured
Adaptive learning
systems often usemultiple choicequestions and somesubjects ndash such ascomputer science ndash areobviously much bettersuited to being taught inthis way than others
Will teachers lose jobs
Probably not JimTompson CEO ofCogbooks says that inthe US teachers havefound them to be usefultools
Some systems helpteachers track studentsrsquoprogress in real timeenabling them to spendmore time with thosewho need extra supportMany systems alsoallow teachers to maketheir own curriculum
But there is a longway to go until adaptivelearning is standardin schools eacherswill probably have tobe trained in how the
systems work to ensurestudents receive thebenefits of adaptiveeducationNatalie Gil
C A N S O F T W A R E T E A C H B E T T E R T H A N T E A C H E R S
ldquoStudents
need good
teachers
and for tech
to remain
part of the
process
rather than
becoming
the process
US-based Knewton says it has 10 million students