The Knewton Blog

Recently, we posted about Four Ways to Use Tag Clouds in the Classroom — with the promise that we’d follow up with a step-by-step tutorial for making these awesome interactive graphics on your own. Check out our earlier post for a quick background on what tag clouds are, and how they can be used to supplement classroom lessons. Ready to get started? Today I’ll walk you through how to create two types of tag clouds:… Read more

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Back in the days before the Internet, when teachers needed to give students important lists of facts or vocab words, they had few options other than handing out boring, photocopied sheets of paper. Needless to say, technology has progressed a bit since then. Looking for a 21st-century way to spice up your lessons and engage your students? Check out tag clouds. Tag clouds are similar to the “word clouds” that many news sites use to… Read more

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Whether you’re a techie who holds after-school Skype seminars or an old-school prof who demands stapled, hard copies on your desk by 5 PM sharp, you can use blogs to keep students engaged in and out of the classroom. If you’re new to integrating blogging into your lesson plans, here’s a sample plan of action. 1. Decide which blogging platform to use Blogging platforms like Tumblr, WordPress.com, Edublogs.org and Blogger.com provide free, easy ways to… Read more

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American math teachers frequently complain about the mastery level of their incoming students. College professors are frustrated because they find themselves having to teach high school level material. High school teachers are frustrated because they have to teach middle school material. Middle school teachers are frustrated because they have to teach elementary school material. Evidence backs up their collective lament. According to multiple international assessments, American high school students rank in the bottom half of… Read more

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One of the most pressing questions faced by math teachers is, “How do I keep my students interested?” It’s a challenge faced by all educators, but overcoming boredom may not be as tricky as you think. The secret is to remember to illustrate the big picture. For students, math can easily feel like a tedious jumble of facts; it’s not always obvious how the parts join together to become a  coherent whole. A pile of… Read more

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In our latest research at Knewton into how students learn, we’ve found that one of the best ways to get students to think more deeply is to get them to engage in metacognition, i.e. thinking about thinking. All this thinking about thinking about thinking (meta-metacognition?) has led to a few conclusions that can be applied in any classroom. 1. Students learn better when they understand their strengths and weaknesses. Studies show that high-performing students tend… Read more

Posted in EdTech, Education, Education & Technology, Knewton | 6 comments

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