There’s no shortage of difficult news when it
comes to California schools. But amidst the budget shortfalls and funding
challenges is a tremendous achievement. California students are making history,
introducing America to the future of instruction.
Since last September, over 400 eighth grade
students have been part of a pilot study, using Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt’s award winning Holt McDougal Algebra 1 core curriculum on
an iPad. In Long Beach, San Francisco, Fresno and Riverside Unified School
Districts, students are learning algebra with the fully interactive HMH FuseTM: Algebra 1
App for iPad.
"HMH is transforming content delivery and the
overall learning experience to take advantage of the iPad environment as well
as alternate digital device platforms. These apps aren’t just digitized copies
of a textbook," said Mike Lavelle, Education Group President, HMH. "HMH Fuse‘s
interactive format takes students to the cutting edge of innovative 21st
century instruction. It represents the next era of digital education."
The innovation was born from former Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Digital Textbook Initiative. Company
officials were seeking to play a leading role, harnessing the very latest
technology to help teachers and students. When they shared the concept
with former Secretary for Education Bonnie Reiss, she was enthusiastic, so much
so that she headlined the official launch of the pilot project at a Long Beach
school last fall. ??HMH had already been working with digital technologies to
supplement textbook lessons. Many students are well versed with cutting
edge technology, so using the iPad seemed like the next logical step. ??"We
(already) had fixed media, such as the Solution Finder on DVD and training
videos online," said John Sipe, Senior Vice President of Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt, in an exclusive PublicCEO.com interview. "We looked at the iPad and
saw it as a place to bring it all together."
HMH FuseTM integrates the traditional
aspects of textbooks, with all the functionality of the iPad. If a student
struggles to find the answer to a question, they can watch one of more than 400
video lessons that help explain mathematical concepts. Sipe noted that it
is like giving a student their very own math tutor 24/7.
The iPad can also wirelessly transmit student
progress to the teacher, providing real-time monitoring. This is invaluable,
helping teachers determine when to proceed with the next concept of a lesson,
or if additional time and practice is needed. Teachers note that it helps
them create customized learning for every student.
"It has been really gratifying to see the
students use the videos or the ‘Check It Out’ feature," said Sipe. "It’s the
coolest thing I’ve worked on in 20 years of educational publishing."
Not only is it an interesting technology, but
also preliminary results are promising. Riverside Unified School District, one
of the districts participating in the pilot is noting that student performance
is improving in the students who are using the app.
Riverside Unified School District Superintendent
Rick Miller has been keeping a close eye on the program, and his anecdotal
evidence reinforces the potential of the technology. The pilot is
comparing students using the HMH FuseTM Algebra 1 with students
using the same curriculum in the traditional textbook. Ninety percent of
the students with the iPad are performing at proficient or better, compared to
60 percent of students using the textbook. ??
"Other digital texts are two-dimensional. They’re
PDFs, a digital copy of a piece of paper," Miller explained. "HMH Fuse is
three-dimension and more like Wikipedia, where in the text you see keywords
underlined and you can select it and see all the information about that word or
concept." ??
Helping the students in the classroom is only one
of the advantages that the app offers. State law dictates how often texts can
be updated because of the cost associated with reprints. But because the HMH
FuseTM textbook is digital, it can easily be updated or corrected. In their
first printing, an extra zero was included in the copyright date, Sipe told
PublicCEO. They quickly corrected the mistake by issuing an update, and the date
changed from 20011 to 2011, at no cost. This ability to update instructional
materials allows publishers to continuously innovate and update the curriculum
while also ensuring that teachers and students always have the most up-to-date
information at their fingertips.
For Superintendent Miller, the question of cost
and convenience are ancillary to the main questions that he has to answer.
"Does it work? Are the teachers comfortable with it? The answers are yes,"
Miller said. "Teachers adapt well. Students adapt well. Parents adapt
well."
Summarizing the program, Superintendent Miller
said, "I think all of the positive assumptions people might have made (before
launching) appear to have become reality."
For their part, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
summarized the potential benefits and what the future holds in a recent news
release announcing that the app was available nationally in the App Store.
"Ultimately, the HMH FuseTM: Algebra 1 App gives
school districts seeking to invest in cutting-edge mobile
content and technology a high-quality curriculum option that has the
potential to lower costs while improving learning. As part of its digital
strategy, HMH is also poised to release Geometry and Algebra
2 apps for spring 2011 availability and is optimizing its major K-12
titles for use across a multitude of digital devices," the company concluded.
The future seems to have arrived and California
is once again playing an important role.