Gone are the days where education revolves around paperback books and chalkboards. Technological advancements are empowering educators to move beyond typical learning methods and teach in a way that is more interactive and tailored to each child’s needs. However, in order to leverage innovative teaching methods, educators need the applications and infrastructure to support them.
IBM is working to transform the learning experience through personalization with IBM Watson Education cognitive solutions. These solutions can help educators understand the learning styles, preferences, and aptitude of each individual student. As a result, each learner has an individualized, holistic learning path that better prepares them to be a lifelong learner.
IBM also recently partnered with Blackboard, the world’s leading education technology company. Through the partnership, IBM will manage Blackboard’s technology infrastructure and provide support for their expanding use of the public cloud, while Blackboard will leverage IBM software to promote agile, reliable, and secure environments for customers to enhance the educational experience.
The main goal of the partnership is to collaboratively develop cognitive solutions utilizing the capabilities of both companies to advance learner success. By combining IBM Watson cognitive computing technology with Blackboard’s innovative education products, educators will be able to help students achieve their education goals in entirely new ways than the past.
Another example is IBM Watson Element for Educators, which is an IBM MobileFirst for iOS app, where all interactions can be personalized based on data and delivered in a user-friendly experience. Watson Element provides educators with a single dashboard view of students by consolidating academic, social and behavioral data. The app offers data-driven insights into how to best teach and help each student so educators can target support where it is needed in the classroom. As a result, educators will have more facetime with students and be able to give and receive real-time feedback to guide instructional designs.
IBM Watson Enlight for Educators is another planning tool built for teachers that offers curated, personalized learning content and activities to align with each student’s individual needs. By integrating data about their class, Enlight offers educators on demand insights about their students that they can then use to target learning experiences from trusted content.
Texas’s Coppell Independent School District is the first school district to utilize these apps to provide more targeted learning to its students. “Working with Apple and IBM, we are developing creative solutions and designing experiences for educators to engage learners, tap into their interests and align with their learning styles in order to help meet academic needs,” Dr. Marilyn Denison, Coppell ISD Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction explained in a recent press release. She continued, “using the Watson Element app, educators now have the relevant, real-time information they need in order to individualize learning and prepare students to be successful in an ever changing world.”
IBM’s groundbreaking education solutions shouldn’t stop in Texas. For more information on how your school district can get involved check out the resources at IBM Watson Education.
