Digital Tools Evolving to Track Students' Emotions, Mindsets by Benjamin
Herold
The idea of creating a program that brings
new understanding to the concept of tutoring to the home and the classroom
sounds like an excellent and fascinating idea, especially because it seems like
it could be accessible to a wide range of students. It also seems like the concept
could be very beneficial to young elementary students and how the program would
interact/ respond to their emotional responses. The article discusses the
opportunity of developing computerized tutoring systems, in which several
organizations are working on developing a program that meets the needs of the
student. For example the MIND research institute are hoping to create a,
”software that would be able to recognize each student's strengths and
weaknesses across each of those domains, then provide a steady stream of
customized problems based in part on such factors as a student's capacity to
keep trying to solve new challenges.” But still at this time their research
focuses more on the mind and character traits of the typical 2nd grader. A
program like this could majorly shape student learning and better evolve
student tutoring. I love how the article makes the point that, "The idea
is that emotions have a powerful influence on cognition.” It’s a strong statement that I completely
agree with. If you think about it from
the perspective of a child working on their math homework, when they come
across hard problems their frustration
and anger can influence/effect their ability to look for other ways to solve
it. With the concept of a program that acknowledges strengths, weaknesses, and
human emotion, the program in concept could sense the frustration and better
help the student to problem solve and bring down frustration. Frustration too
often can stunt critical thinking and a student’s ability to openly learning.
As a future teacher I am actually excited for the idea of this program and its
possibilities to reshape and enhance tutoring.
The article seems to be more directed towards mostly #4(Critical
thinking, problem solving, and decision making) and some of #5(digital
citizenship) of the ISTE standards for students. The concept of a computerized
tutoring program allows for students to problem solve, manage and complete
tasks, to analyze information and to make cognitive decisions of what’s
correct, and the possibility of seeing problems and solutions from differing
perspectives. This program in time could possibly be a lifelong learning tool
that can be used at any age and encourage a more positive use of technology.
I really enjoyed this post. I love seeing new technologies implemented in ways that can help children and students with their education. However there could be problems with this technology though that are unforeseen. What might happen if the technology is used on a child and the student is responding negatively via their emotion to the program, but we can not identify necessarily why they are feeling that way. For example, a student starts having a stress response and they might be on the brink of tears. Is that because the question that they received is too difficult and they do not know the answer, or is it because his father was hospitalized last night? There might not be a definite way to tell between the two. So I am curious to see if the technology might be so advanced as to be able to tell the difference between the reasons behind the emotions of the student. What do you think?
ReplyDeletethe idea of these kinds of programs adapting so as to encourage learning, and variety is a good one. my first thought was that this kind of technology could backfire, as it allows students to progress along a very narrow track determined by how they seem to be reacting at a young age. This process could, down the road, lead to students whose educational scope is overly narrow. With an overly narrow field of study, we do not have the goal of a well rounded, educated, and informed population. However, it seems that as long as possible unexpected eventualities are taken into consideration during the design process, technology that can aid in keeping students interests high, by examining additional factors beyond just answering correctly or incorrectly can be very helpful in a classroom.
ReplyDeletethe idea of these kinds of programs adapting so as to encourage learning, and variety is a good one. my first thought was that this kind of technology could backfire, as it allows students to progress along a very narrow track determined by how they seem to be reacting at a young age. This process could, down the road, lead to students whose educational scope is overly narrow. With an overly narrow field of study, we do not have the goal of a well rounded, educated, and informed population. However, it seems that as long as possible unexpected eventualities are taken into consideration during the design process, technology that can aid in keeping students interests high, by examining additional factors beyond just answering correctly or incorrectly can be very helpful in a classroom.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous commentators to most degrees. A narrow field of study can be a hindrance as an adult and its not the the goal of most educators. Also, technology can fail the child with an incorrect response of an emotional state of a children and open up a whole new can of worms. With those thoughts in mind, I don't think its all negative. I think some kids need a track to follow. Many kids feel disconnected with education and a program like this can help them feel more individualized and therefore more connected with their own education.
ReplyDelete