As a teacher, I would kill for a collaborative curriculum and assessment tool. A "backend" service for creating, managing, and personalizing curriculum materials would go a long way to mitigate the absolutely astounding amount of redundant labor that goes on in schools (
you're really creating a comprehension quiz for To Kill a Mockingbird from scratch?).
Contrary to popular belief - even here on HN - teachers are chronically making known sub-optimal instructional tradeoffs because they lack the time to complete tasks as they should ideally be completed. Very little seems to be done to create tools to improve the instructional process (that doesn't involve removing the teacher from that very process - e.g. MOOCs, Khan Academy, Knewton, etc.). Those digital alternative absolutely have a place, but there's a lot of opportunity to fundamentally improve the instructional work being done by teachers in classrooms every day.
Your suggestions are a great place to start:
- network instructional materials and lessons so they can be accessed in their entirety by other teachers
- network assessment materials that are tied (on the question/answer level) to standards and common goals (e.g. comprehension quip above).
Email is in profile if anyone would like to continue this discussion in a more detailed manner outside the thread.
Contrary to popular belief - even here on HN - teachers are chronically making known sub-optimal instructional tradeoffs because they lack the time to complete tasks as they should ideally be completed. Very little seems to be done to create tools to improve the instructional process (that doesn't involve removing the teacher from that very process - e.g. MOOCs, Khan Academy, Knewton, etc.). Those digital alternative absolutely have a place, but there's a lot of opportunity to fundamentally improve the instructional work being done by teachers in classrooms every day.
Your suggestions are a great place to start:
- network instructional materials and lessons so they can be accessed in their entirety by other teachers
- network assessment materials that are tied (on the question/answer level) to standards and common goals (e.g. comprehension quip above).
Email is in profile if anyone would like to continue this discussion in a more detailed manner outside the thread.