Speak Agent Badges... Collect Them All!
Ever since we launched Speak Agent, elementary students have been asking us "When are we going to be able to win some cool Speak Agent badges?" Well, the answer is "NOW!"
Speak Agent to Present at 2018 WIDA Annual Conference
We look forward to showcasing the latest additions to the Speak Agent academic language learning platform at the WIDA 2018 Annual Conference in Detroit from October 23rd to 25th.
Five Principles of Personalized Teaching
Todd Rose's book "The End of Average" has underscored the connection between learner variability and the opportunities for personalized learning afforded by education technology. To date, however, the conversation has largely omitted the perspective...
Rethinking Personalized Learning: The End of Average
I was recently at the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum just outside of Washington, DC with my sons. We were looking at the amazing variety of planes and spacecraft including the Columbia Space Shuttle. As we were looking inside some of the older...
The Story Behind Vocab Lab
"Vocab Lab" is a word analysis game on Speak Agent that began with the problem of learning "tier two" words. Many experts classify vocabulary into three tiers. While these vocabulary tiers may not apply to English language learners (ELLs) in quite...
Reading texts are best aligned with content, not skill levels
An excellent article published by The Atlantic (view it here) captured key findings from NAEP reading panelists, wholast weekexamined why reading scores have remained flat for two decades.
The Story Behind Tall Tales
I walked into the MediaBarn User Experience Lab thinking that I knew exactly how the first, second, and third-grade students would use our new learning game prototype. "Tall Tales" is a Mad Libs™-style cloze activity where kids fill in the blanks by...
The Story Behind Scrambled Sentences
Outside South Lake Elementary School in mid-February, snow was still piled high atop grassy medians and street corners. Inside, kids raced, hopped, spun, and meandered around the warm cafeteria. It was pizza time! This was my first visit to Dream...
Visual language can be processed like written and spoken language
A team of researchers from Dalhousie University, Georgetown University, University of Geneva and University of Rochester today published the results of the first study to directly compare how brain systems engaged by sign language differ from those...
