Technology Archives | Page 5 of 7

Ways to Use Technology In Your Subjects: History

Posted on March 23, 2019April 26, 2023 by user

Continuing with our series of Reasons for Bringing Technology Learning into Subject Areas, today we look at how the right infusion of technology can transform student learning in any History class.

When students study history the typical end product is too often something static such as a diorama or poster. Despite schools recent embrace of technology, this too often ends up as internet research, video watching in history class.

However, the right infusion of technology can transform the existing curriculum of any history class into an active learning experience that exposes students to the real-world application of technology in different contexts and scenarios.

When properly incorporated into history class, technology can empower learners to understand concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequences, similarity, difference and significance.

These critical thinking skills can then be applied to frame historically valid questions and create structured accounts including written narrative

Here are 3 examples of how technology can enhance history class:

Curiosity – Active Artifacts

With BSD’s TechConnected curriculum, students can forgo writing yet another research report and instead create their own interactive, virtual museum!

Students can select and research an artifact then, use the design thinking process to draw connections to the people who used them. Students can then visualize the relationships and dependencies between their artifact and the time period, linking online content and resources.

The project will culminate with students showcasing their Artifact research through a real web page they will individually build from scratch using HTML and CSS.

Adapted from Haverford Ancient Egypt Project

Creativity – Interactive Timelines

Historical events rarely unfold in linear progressions. Big or small, the overwhelming majority of milestones throughout history are caused by a combination of direct and indirect actions taken by a slew of actors.

Yet, more often than not history is taught in the classroom as one event after the next. One solution is too use technology to better understand the complexity of historical events with an interactive timeline where students can visualize the interconnections within the time period.

Approaching history as a vibrant web of actors and actions can help students make connections, draw contrast and analyze trends that have directly influenced the world we live in today.

Adapted from Book of BSD – Timeline Builder (History) Project

Critical Thinking – Separating Fact from Fiction

Understanding the difference between objective (cited) and subjective (uncited) research has always been a core piece of history class. While Student’s today have instant access to unlimited research and resource at their fingertips, it has also brought about an influx of bad information.

At it’s best, this material can be viewed as subjective opinions but more and more we see the dissemination of misinformation for malicious intentions. One strategy we’ve found effective for reinforcing research best practices is to have students create their own digital scavenger hunt games.

This fun approach empowers students to compare and contrast information, ask perspective questions, weigh evidence, develop insight into the complexity of different factors and better Understand the wider world.

Adapted from Book of BSD – Fact or Opinion Scavenger Hunt Project

Incorporating Technology into Non-Tech Classes

Posted on March 23, 2019September 20, 2022 by user

BSD works with core subject teachers around the world who are tasked with weaving technology into their classroom experience. In many cases, there are no guidelines for where to begin or metrics provided for measuring impact. To help navigate the challenges of tech integration, we’ve outlined 4 tips for creating meaningful technology experiences that will engage students and enhance learning.

1. Ditch the Gadgets

All too often, we see schools attempt to meet technology requirements by purchasing the latest smart board or 3D printer. There is a notion that learning naturally follows after the acquisition of these devices. However, even when a motivated English teacher elects for her students to use a 3D printer during her poetry unit, how can she be sure that learning is happening? Are students gaining real world technology skills? Is the presence of 3D printing enhancing the existing poetry curriculum? How can we be sure?

Inevitably, without regular professional development, tech support and integrated lesson plans, we find that these devices go under-utilized.

2. Embrace Computational Thinking

Counter intuitively, the key to successful technology integration is not technology! Rather, students must learn to think in a way that empowers them to use technology to create real world solutions. Computational Thinking is a method of problem–solving used by computer scientists that breaks down into Decomposition, Pattern Recognition, Abstraction, and Algorithm.

Let’s expand on the example above of an English teacher who aims to bring technology skills into her poetry lessons. The goal of this project is to analyze a poem and extract insights.

Decomposition – Students choose a collection of poems and identify specific properties within each work, such as author details, number of lines, rhyming schemes, syllables, tone, etc.

Pattern Recognition – The class determines various connections that can be made by noticing patterns across works. Do certain authors reuse specific metaphors? Do distinct vocabulary words appear only within the work of a defined time period?

Abstraction – Challenge students to decide which properties are important to solving the problem and which are not? If your goal is to determine whether or not a poem is a haiku, then syllables are quite important. Whereas, if you’re hoping to surmise the poet’s gender, then syllables may be irrelevant.

Algorithms – Using what they’ve learned, each student will now design a reliable method for extracting specific insights from a poem. Notice, that students have not necessarily used technology up to this point! The final product can take the form of a flow chart or survey that asks relevant questions about any given poem in order to determine something about it. Examples could be “Was this poem written by Emily Dickinson?” or “Is this poem a sonnet?” or “Was this poem written before 1900?”

By following the Computational Thinking process, students are thinking deeply about the core subject matter while gaining 21st century problem solving skills.

3. Leverage Real-World Data

Teachers know that students learn best when they feel that the learning applies directly to their real lives. Fortunately, it’s never been easier to illustrate real-world connections using real time data!

A classic word problem in math asks students to calculate the exact time and place that two trains traveling in opposite directions will pass each other. Perhaps the updated version requires students to plot the route using Google Maps and incorporate factors like train delays, weather, and holiday scheduling.

Consider a US history assignment that prompts students to write an essay about their favorite president. By leveraging 70 years of free detailed presidential approval ratings online, teachers can challenge students to map their chosen president’s approval rating to significant historical events and use those insights to make predictions about the future.

4. Share Student Work Online

Finally, one of the simplest ways to bring technology concepts into non-tech classrooms is by publishing student work online. Regardless of their future endeavours, curating an online presence is an unavoidable part of being a member of the innovation economy.

In addition to popular tools such as Github, Behance, and Linkedin, the BSD Online platform provides all students with a place for showcasing real-world technology projects that can be shared with college admissions and even directly to employers.

If you are a teacher or school administrator and have questions about integrating technology into your classroom, please feel free to reach out to BSD Education. We can help you prepare your students for the ever–changing challenges of tomorrow and engage them with projects that combine core subjects with 21st century technology skills.

Learn Something New: Our Favorite Technology Education Resources

Posted on March 17, 2019September 20, 2022 by user

You’ve decided you want to learn a new technique for the classroom. Now comes the tough question: where to go? How many times have we found ourselves combing through various MOOCs, teacher Instagram accounts, university continuing education courses, and online teacher resource guides only to realize that a full hour has gone by and we still haven’t come to a decision?

Don’t worry, we’ve all been there! To make it easy for you, we have created a quick guide on some of our favorite resources for finding new techniques you can try in your classroom.

FutureLearn – they have a specific section for teaching, and a sub-section from primary teaching or STEM education so you can easily find something relevant. The courses are often short (2-3 hours per week, for 2-4 weeks) and can be done flexibly and over a longer period of time if needed. We particularly recommend reading the comments – often the instructors ask other students to suggest activities and have gotten lots of ideas there.
Twinkl – one of the best places to go for inspiration while lesson planning, it will give you ideas for new techniques to try and has all the materials ready to go in an instant. Again, it is really easy to sort by year group and subject so you immediately find something relevant to you. You do need to pay for access to the resources, but we often find it is a good source of inspiration to flip through the ideas in our subject area even if you don’t have a subscription.
Pinterest and Instagram – while social media is often thought of us a time waster, there are tons of amazing education accounts out there showcasing real teacher activities in the classroom. Some of our favorites on Instagram include @thsfoundry and @steamexplorers.
Technology providers – have a new technology that you want to use in your classroom but don’t know where to start? A lot of tech companies are more than happy to help you get started, whether it’s Raspberry Pi’s classes on FutureLearn or Google’s Teacher Center there are often a lot of free resources. And of course, if you use (or want to use) BSD’s curriculum we are always happy to help so just contact us here.

Boost Your Confidence in Introducing Technology Into Your Classroom

Posted on March 6, 2019October 4, 2023 by user

<h1>… <p>… <body>? Does it sound familiar or like a foreign language to you?

This is the answer we usually get when we work with non-tech teachers to make technology part of their classroom.

Teaching is fun but can also be terrifying, especially when you’re doing it for the first time. Adding technology you may not be familiar with, to enhance your students’ learning experience, may even sound more intimidating. But don’t worry, we have come up with top tips to make this potentially daunting experience, easy for you.

1. Learn with your students. Your students will love the opportunity to drive the learning and at times act like the teacher. Frame it as an adventure to explore together: “Let’s explore together, I know that some of you may have had experience with it before, let’s take this opportunity to learn from each other and together.”

2. Use the in威而鋼
ternet as a tool. A lot of technology experts use YouTube to top up their skills – whether to learn a new code or create a new tool. Can you use YouTube creatively with your students to learn and build something? For some classes with older kids, this can be a great way to change the learning environment. Besides, who would say no to watching YouTube for homework?

3. Work in partnership. Remember the idea to make your students the teacher? You can assign students a role to make them part of the learning – whether it’s the CSS Superhero or HTML expert – this is a great way to build their capacity as experts and confidence teaching their peers a new skill.

4. It’s cool to copy. In technology, it’s not considered cheating if you copy! In fact open-source code is how a lot of programs are built. The role of the programmer or product designer is to bring together existing pieces to make something useful and they only build new things where they need to. Don’t be afraid to look online for inspiration for your design or code, and focus on encouraging students to think of new combinations that make something useful in the real world.

Technology Projects That Will Inspire Your Students To CARE

Posted on February 10, 2019September 20, 2022 by user

At BSD Education, we are passionate about education technology and project-based learning.

As a wise 6-year-old once said, “Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.” (Disney Baby)

You might not be able (or want!) to share your French fries, so we came up with a few creative digital ways that you can show you care.

1. Online Card

The technology project ‘Design your own Valentine’s theme online card’ is complete with pictures, graphics, and of course, your views about love.

Read our step-by-step project breakdown of this project here.

2. 3D Printed Creations

For the people in your life that you can’t live without, you can design a heart-shaped custom 3D printed creation. Other options include a unique design about a place you visited together, their favorite hobby, an inside joke – this is entirely up to you! Designing and printing it yourself will undoubtedly show them how much you care.

3. Poem Website

Design your custom website complete with a loving or appreciative poem for that particular person in your life. Are you a writer? Try combining technical skills with a bit of “iambic pentameter” to show off your inner Shakespeare to loved ones.

How else do you teach your students to care about other people? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

If you’d like to learn more about our projects at BSD Education, please reach out to us at info@bsd.education!

Integrate Technology Into Your Subject: Sciences

Posted on January 28, 2019September 20, 2022 by user

Last week we discussed tech-ed versus edtech and introduced 3 reasons why you should bring technology learning into your subject. For the next 3 weeks, we will be sharing ways to integrate technology into different subject areas, to kick off this series, let’s begin with science.

Many educators would immediately consider bringing in hardware, such as robotics. However, this requires purchasing new kits. There are other quick and simple ways to inject tech into your existing lessons and activities!

We are going to look at the 3 main ways that technology enhances and supports the science classroom: improving data collection and analysis, supported visualization of abstract phenomena and the presentation of findings.

Improving Data Collection and Analysis

When introducing the topic of data to students, don’t stop with pen and paper! Introduce tech tools such as Google Sheets to help students organize their data for better analysis. For an authentic technology learning experience, introduce students to simple programming projects using JavaScript to create dynamic data visualizations that support their understanding of the relationships between their datasets. Through such activity, students will practice 21st-century skills in working with and interpreting meaning from data with the support of technology.

Visualization of Abstract and Intangible Concepts

In a school environment, some experiments and simulations are inaccessible due to safety or budget constraints. For many students, abstract and intangible concepts in science can become challenging to grasp without visualizations. This is where computer-generated simulations become extremely useful to support student understanding. Bring in simulation projects, such as a project that simulates the speed of orbit of different planets around the sun, a plant simulation game to learn about the requirements to keep a healthy plant or a game of Pong to understand forces. Students can be challenged to solve problems by modifying values of simple computing concepts such as variables, conditionals, and animations to represent a real-world process/phenomena through experiential learning.

Presentation of Research/Findings

Give students an authentic audience to write for. The next time you set a poster or report task or assessment, consider asking students to present their findings and research through an online poster, website, or information app. In planning to use digital artifacts, students are challenged to consider the user experience and will use graphical and organization devices effectively to present information in an engaging and dynamic way. An added benefit of this activity is the shareability of the completed artifacts. Practice online safety and digital citizenship by asking students to consider how they communicate information online.

As shown above, you don’t have to change your existing curriculum and sacrifice hours from your existing practices and curriculum to give students the opportunity to practice important tech skills! If you are interested in hearing more about the BSD cross-curricular project offerings, please contact us – we would love to walk you through what we have to offer to you and your students.

Integrating Technology Education Into Schools: The How

Posted on January 28, 2019September 20, 2022 by user

In this post we will share how we work with schools globally to integrate Technology Education in their existing curricula in a simple, 3 step process. Once a school has decided to partner with us, they can be ready to start teaching with BSD curriculum in less than a week!

1. Choosing a Curriculum

Every school’s journey begins with identifying their needs which are gathered by answering two questions:

What skills and competencies they want to develop in their students
How much time they have available

Based on what a school requires, we suggest either one or a combination of units from our 4 curricula offerings. Our suggestions are based on factors like (national) curriculum followed, lesson time available, skills to be developed, student interest, infrastructure available, etc.

Our 4 curriculum offerings are:

TechReady: These are focused technology courses (like Data, AI, App and Game Dev, etc) for ages 8-14 aligned to US/UK/IB curricula and mapped to ISTE/CSTA standards.

TechConnected: Technology projects for English, Mathematics, Science, Geography, Humanities and Language Learning for ages 8-14. Aligned to US/UK/IB curricula and mapped to ISTE/CSTA standards.

Technovators: After school and camp courses for ages 8-14 covering a range of topics including Coding, Robotics, Tech Entrepreneurship, E-Sports, Lego, Roblox, Minecraft, etc.

Connect2Work: BTEC aligned vocational courses for career readiness in technology first jobs for ages 16-18.

2. Teachers Skills Building and Curriculum Familiarisation

After the requirements have been identified and projects chosen, teachers receive professional development training by our instructors. The training gives the teachers the skills and confidence needed to adopt, implement and sustain the delivery of BSD curriculum seamlessly in their classrooms. The training covers:

An orientation to BSD Online – our online learning software platform
Skills building – hands on introduction to digital and coding skills
Curriculum familiarisation – understanding of the teaching resources like lesson plans or teacher prep guides BSD provides and how to use them

3. Start Teaching and Community Building

After training, teachers are ready to integrate technology education in their classroom. As teachers start teaching, we support them by providing virtual or onsite coaching with regular check-ins. Teachers who are trained and gain experience in the classroom, are encouraged to try new projects and strategies.

As teachers experience and confidence grows, some go ahead and start sharing their experiences and success stories of using BSD curriculum in their classrooms with their colleagues while others take the initiative of training more teachers within the school. This helps develop a robust community of technology education practitioners in the school, all supported by BSD’s online Educator Community!

The BSD Advantage

Our professional development training is designed to help teachers overcome the three fundamental barriers that we have found to consistently prevent a broader implementation of technology education in the classroom.

Confidence: Teachers usually don’t have background in technology so can see bringing technology education into the classroom as risky and unfamiliar. Professional development for an area that is new and technical can be hard to access. We help teachers by providing an online teaching environment and training by professionals that gives them the skills and confidence by putting them in control of the learning experience.

Content: Technology is constantly changing. Curriculum can, therefore, become quickly outdated. We help overcome this by providing up to date curriculum and content with real world relevant curriculum that can be brought into every subject.
Community: Teachers don’t often have a community of practice or peers to collaborate with, or a core group of trained practitioners to learn from and share ideas with. We assist teachers by becoming their trusted partners. We provide ongoing virtual or onsite coaching, regular check-ins, and an online community and events with like-minded educators from around the world.

If you are a teacher using BSD curriculum in your classroom, we would love to hear your experiences. If you are not yet a BSD School but are interested to bring technology education into your classrooms, get in touch with us.

Education Technology vs. Technology Education

Posted on January 22, 2019September 20, 2022 by user

As educators, we want to bring our students the most relevant and engaging learning experience to prepare for the future. Furthermore, providing “meaningful digital activities” within courses is effective, and what does this mean? Where do you start? First of all, let’s debunk the differences between Education Technology (EdTech) versus Technology Education (Tech-Ed).

To boost the learning process in STEM, teachers use search engines to conduct research or write using Google Docs. Through EdTech, students use appropriate technology tools to do a traditional classroom activity more effectively, efficiently, or engagingly.

However, while using technology to improve formal education, many teachers are not changing “what” students learn. Unfortunately, many teachers are not changing “what” students learn by using technology to improve formal education. We need to teach our students to create rather than consume.

To learn more about how technology works, we recommend studying technology education which encompasses coding and programming, technology innovation, and computer science. Your school’s coding elective or technology class will likely cover technology education learning.

However, we still find the absence of a real-world connection and authenticity in classroom technology projects.

Education Technology	Technology Education
Using technology in your classroom	Teaching how technology works

At BSD, we believe in a holistic approach to learning, where students are creatively pro-active and their education is sustainably relevant. So in our curriculum, we take on a blended approach to bring balance to technology learning. It shouldn’t be EdTech or tech-ed.

Additionally, we enable teachers to integrate technology meaningfully into their lessons by offering a project-based technology curriculum. These include projects like building a website to present research for history using HTML and CSS or reinforcing the learning of planets and orbit using JavaScript.

In the K-12 Comp-Sci Framework, the ‘practice’ highlights the opportunities and benefits of a cross-curricular approach to developing computational thinking purposefully.

Supported by tech in English, Mathematics, and Science, students develop their skills in defining problems and developing models through abstraction. Additionally, students hone their communication skills through exciting projects such as building an information chatbot to showcase their subject understanding.

Therefore, schools prefer a more specialist approach to offer students the depth of learning, especially with the current curriculum demands.

Advantages of Real World Technology Camps: Robotics with Micro:bit

Posted on January 13, 2019April 27, 2023 by user

What is a micro:bit?

A micro:bit is a pocket-sized microcontroller designed by the BBC to enhance technology education in schools. With its versatile features, it can be programmed using JavaScript, Python, or block code. At BSD Education’s technology camps, students harness the power of micro:bit to build innovative projects like gaming consoles, fitness trackers, wearables, and more.

Using micro:bit, students develop valuable skills like design thinking, prototyping, coding, and working with materials and electronics. They also learn the importance of collaboration while creating their projects.

A micro:bit is a pocket sized microcontroller designed by the BBC for use in Technology Education education in schools. It can be programmed using JavaScript, Python or block code. A micro:bit has:

– 25 red LED lights that can flash messages and be used to create games.

– two programmable buttons that can be used to control games or hardware prototypes.

– an accelerometer, so it can detect motion and knows when the user is moving.

– a built-in compass which can be used to detect the direction and it can use a low energy

– a Bluetooth connection to interact with other devices and the Internet.

– power input and can be powered by a battery and additional sensors can be attached.

You can find more information about the micro:bit features here.

Students can use micro:bit to build a wide range of tools like gaming consoles, fitness trackers, wearables, autonomous vehicles, soil moisture and temperature sensors. In the process of programming a micro:bit and building tools with it, students develop skills like Design Thinking, prototyping, coding, experience working with materials and electronics, using hardware and collaboration. Let’s take a look at the skills students learn:

Design Thinking and Product Design

To build any functional tool, it’s of utmost importance to understand who the users are and to clearly define the problem – this is a direct application of Design Thinking.

While building tools with micro:bit, students will be encouraged to research and define who their user is, what the users’ needs are, and what problems their tool will solve. If students do not have this information, they will spend time researching.

Students will also learn to think about their tools as a product, so they will not only consider how it works and what problem it solves but will also have to consider what it looks like and what the user’s experience will be i.e. how the user will use it and interact with it.

At our technology camps, students are encouraged to apply design thinking principles, understanding their users’ needs and the problems their projects will solve. This helps them create functional and user-friendly products.

Prototyping and Testing

Building a commercially viable product is a resource intensive task. In the industrial world, it takes the combined effort of numerous experts backed with R&D, financial resources and time. Before a product is ready for commercial use, it has to go through cycles of prototyping, testing, feedback and improvements.

Using micro:bit to build tools, Students learn the real-world industrial skills of prototyping and testing, using low-cost and easily available materials to iterate their designs based on user feedback.

Materials

Most products or tools are built using numerous components and materials, the same is true for working prototypes.

While building products with micro:bit, students will have to consider:

1. The users: who will use it and how

2. The use case: where and in which situations will it be used

3. The wear and tear: does it have moving parts or does it need to be carried around or is it exposed to air and water

4. The safety for the products: are there any moving parts or open wiring

Students explore various materials like cardboard, paper, acrylic, PVC, and wood while building their micro:bit projects. They learn the basics of electronics, working with circuits and understanding electricity requirements for different components.

Basics of electronics

Micro:bit is powered by electricity, either via two AAA batteries or via a USB port. Students who use Micro:bit will learn how electricity works, how to wire different components together to create a circuit, how to ensure that device has the correct amount of electricity and what the electricity requirements are for different components like LED lights and motors or sensors like ultrasonic and moisture sensors.

Sensors

A micro:bit comes with four inbuilt sensors, and students can connect additional sensors to expand its capabilities. They learn to code in JavaScript, Python, and Blocks, developing computational thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills.

These additional sensors include:
– light sensor: detects ambient light
– temperature sensors: detects the current temperature of the device, in Celsius
– accelerometer: detects the acceleration of the micro:bit; it senses when the micro:bit is moved and other actions like shake, tilt, and free-fall
– compass: detects the earth’s magnetic field, allowing it to detect which direction the micro:bit is facing

Connecting additional sensors to the micro:bit opens a world of opportunities. A micro:bit can be connected to sound, ultrasonic, temperature and moisture sensors. For example, a micro:bit powered plant watering bot will need light, moisture and temperature sensors.

Learn to code

A micro:bit can be programmed using three coding languages – JavaScript, Python and Blocks. Learning how to program a micro:bit enables students to learn how to code as well as empowers them to have total control over the features of the micro:bit.

Learning to code is more than a technical skill. Coding develops soft skills like Computational Thinking, attention to detail, collaboration, creativity and problem solving.

Teamwork and collaboration

As previously mentioned, building a product or a working prototype requires collaboration between numerous people with different skills and working styles. Our technology camps emphasize teamwork and collaboration, mirroring real-world professional situations. Students work in groups, taking on different responsibilities and learning from each other as they create their micro:bit projects. Every member of the team has to select a specific responsibility, decide on deadline, communicate progress with the team members and learn from each other.

Learning to make products or prototypes with micro:bit is a well rounded activity which teaches students technical skills like electronics, prototyping, testing, and coding. Students also gain transferable life skills like design thinking, communication and collaboration. Activities like this expose students to the emerging technologies they interact with every day, and encourages them to not just be consumers of technology but also creators of solutions while preparing them for technology first careers.

Join BSD Education’s technology camps to help students become creators of technology solutions and prepare for technology-first careers. Share your micro:bit experiences and projects with us, and we might feature them in our future newsletters!

If you are using micro:bit in your lessons we would love to hear how you are using them and would love to feature your experience and your students’ products in our future newsletters.

It’s Time for Data – And Time To Make Time for Data

Posted on January 13, 2019September 20, 2022 by user

Data has been a core part of education for years. We all remember being graded at school, both formatively as well as summatively. Strong observational practice, or constructivist methods, by teachers in classrooms has also been an effective way to gather data. This human-led combination has historically informed about how students are progressing with work, socializing and communicating with their classmates, or how they respond to struggling – perhaps crossing the line from persistence and concentration, to frustration and disengagement.

An increased introduction of technology into classrooms brings with it artificial intelligence, real time visible information and a multitude of options to introduce more personalized student learning experiences. However, how do we ensure that what is being measured is relevant and will produce meaningful results?

In an article about the approach taken by Broken Arrow Public Schools in the US, it illustrates how their school sites take a meaningful approach to data which considers the overall stories being told by the data in each of their schools. They approached developing their solution through a Professional Learning Community process and eventually made time, through embedding it in the schools’ schedules, for collaboration time to reinforce the process. The point carried through strongly that, data being available is one thing, however this will not return value unless teachers are given the time to analyze, collaborate and act upon it.

Another article about how data can inform teaching made a great point about the wealth of information that is available from student files and the insight that can be drawn from them, however brought up the difficulty in finding the time to view them.

The technology tools on offer today impact not just the fabric of the school, such as learning management systems, but also the hands on learning of students, such as online learning platforms. All of these platforms produce data and it is in the amalgamation of all of this data that the benefits will be found, rather than in a single tool in isolation.

Understanding the data from environmental conditions, attendance, learning data and results; what happens when and by whom across a range of activities; can identify not only opportunities to enhance teaching practice, but also duplication of effort. Subsequent automation or use of artificial intelligence, made effective from the initial understanding of the data involved, might improve e.g. communication and time availability.

On BSD Online, teachers can access real time data about work that their students are currently doing, including when they do it – at school or at home, where they are up to, and what parts of the work they most frequently make errors on. The latter feeds a machine learning algorithm to improve personalized in-platform suggestions and tips given to students as they learn.

We have seen teachers become able to better understand how different types of content are paced down to individual student levels for personalization, as well as understand the interdisciplinary performance of students and preferences of the overall student body. In some schools, preference data has been compared to attendance data to identify strategies to increase engagement in traditional subjects. Because data is available in real time and accessible anywhere, it becomes more easy and flexible for teachers to connect in person or virtually to discuss their findings.

Data is available from more sources than ever before. A trend only set to continue growing. To convert the insight from data analysis and interpretation into actionable and valuable initiatives, data must be considered from all aspects of school life and time must be made to consider the story that data is telling as a collaborative community. In the end though, the opportunity is better than ever to take back time and really understand how student life is performing at your school.