In this webinar, Dr. Tim Hudson shares insights about leveraging technology to improve student learning. At a time when schools are exploring “flipped” and “blended” learning models, it’s important to deeply understand how to design effective learning experiences, curriculum, and differentiation approaches. The quality of students’ digital learning experiences is just as important as the quality of their educational experiences inside the classroom. Having worked for over 10 years in public education as a teacher and administrator, Dr. Hudson has worked with students, parents, and teachers to improve learning outcomes for all students. As Curriculum Director at DreamBox Learning, he provides an overview of Intelligent Adaptive Learning, a next generation technology available to schools that uses sound pedagogy to tailor learning to each student’s unique needs. This webinar focuses on how administrators and teachers can make true differentiation a reality by focusing on learning goals and strategic use of technology.

1. Intelligent Adaptive Learning:
A Powerful Element for 21st Century
Learning & Differentiation
Tim Hudson, PhD
Senior Director of Curriculum Design
DreamBox Learning
timh@dreambox.com
@DocHudsonMath

2. Introduction
• Senior Director of Curriculum Design for
DreamBox Learning
• Over 10 years in public education:
o HS math teacher
o K-12 Math Curriculum Coordinator
o Strategic Planning Facilitator
• Consulted for Authentic Education
• PhD in Educational Leadership
• Co-author of a chapter in NCTM book on
Math Intervention Models: Reweaving the
Tapestry (I get no royalties)

3. How can we leverage
technology to improve
student learning?

4. Which schedule is better?
BLOCK
• 8 courses/semester
• 4 classes/day
• Each course meets
every other day
• 90-minute periods
TRADITIONAL
• 8 courses/semester
• 8 classes/day
• Every course meets
every day
• 45-minute periods
Scheduling is a means to what ends?
What is happening during class?

5. Which blended model is better?
FLIPPED-CLASSROOM ENRICHED-VIRTUAL
Blending is a means to what ends?
What is happening during class?
What is happening on the computers?
H. Staker, M. Horn, Classifying K-12 Blended Learning, © 2012

6. The Quality of Digital
Learning Experiences
is just as important
as the Quality of
Classroom Learning
Experiences

7. Plan Schooling Backwards
• “Contemporary school reform
efforts… typically focus too much
on various means: structures,
schedules, programs, PD,
curriculum, and instructional
practices (like cooperative learning)
• [or blended learning]
• [or flipped learning]
• [or iPads, hardware, etc]
p. 234-235, Wiggins & McTighe, © 2007

8. Plan Schooling Backwards
• Certainly such reforms serve as
the fuel for the school
improvement engine, but they
must not be mistaken as the
destination…[which is]
improved learning.”
p. 234-235, Wiggins & McTighe, © 2007

9. Plan Curriculum Backwards
1. Identify desired
results
2. Determine
acceptable
evidence
3. Plan learning
experiences
and instruction
Understanding by Design, Wiggins & McTighe, ©2005

10. Key Questions
1. What do you want
students to accomplish?
2. How will you know
they‟ve achieved it?
3. What technologies can
help students meet goals?

11. Plan Schooling Backwards
• “The first stage in the design
process calls for clarity about
priorities expressed as
achievements.”
• “…take time to clarify not just
goals, but also the needed
assessment evidence and
initial data before [you]
generate a detailed action plan
[for blended learning, block
scheduling, etc.].”
p. 204, 227, Wiggins & McTighe, © 2007

12. Let‟s Take a Poll!
Question #1: Have you ever used Wolfram Alpha?
12

13. Math Learning Goals

14. Wolfram|Alpha

15. Wolfram|Alpha

16. Wolfram|Alpha

17. Let‟s Take a Poll!
Question #2: If computers can solve math problems so
efficiently, why do we drill our students in answering them?
17

18. Better Goals for Students
David Bressoud, Mathematical Association of
America (www.maa.org/columns)
Regarding Wolfram|Alpha:
• “If computers can solve [math] problems so
efficiently, why do we drill our students in
answering them?
• “There are important mathematical ideas behind
these methods, and showing one knows how to
solve these problems is one way of exhibiting
working knowledge of these ideas.”

19. Better Goals for Students
David Bressoud, (cont‟d)
• “The existence of Wolfram|Alpha does push
instructors to be more honest about their use of
standard problems executed by memorizing
algorithmic procedures.
• “If a student feels that she or he has learned
nothing that cannot be pulled directly from
Wolfram|Alpha, then the course really has been
a waste of time.”

20. New Teacher Induction
What do you offer students in your
classroom that they can‟t get online
for free?

21. Pop Quiz
• 3,998 + 4,247 =
• 288 + 77 =
• 8 + 7 =
• What is a good strategy?
• What is fluency?
• How is fluency learned?
• Can you get this from Wolfram|Alpha?

22. Compensation

23. Learning Principles
• “An understanding is a
learner realization about the
power of an idea.”
• “Understandings cannot be
given; they have to be
engineered so that learners
see for themselves the
power of an idea for making
sense of things.”
p. 113, Schooling by Design, Wiggins & McTighe, ©2007

24. What do you remember
about math from when you
were in middle & high
school?

25. Common Experience
From a 5th grade teacher in NY:
“I had a lot of good people teaching me math when I
was a student – earnest and funny and caring. But
the math they taught me wasn‟t good math. Every
class was the same for eight years:
„Get out your homework, go over the
homework, here‟s the new set of exercises,
here‟s how to do them. Now get started. I‟ll
be around.‟”
p. 55, Teaching What Matters Most, Strong, Silver, & Perini, ©2001

26. Typical Teaching Cycle
Whole
Class or
Small
Group
Instruction
Guided
Practice
Whole
Class
Assessment
Use Data
Formatively
to Plan
Use Data
Summatively

27. Teaching as Content Delivery
Whole
Class or
Small
Group
Instruction
Guided
Practice
Whole
Class
Assessment
Use Data
Formatively
to Plan
Use Data
Summatively

28. Let‟s Take a Poll!
Question #3: How old were you when you decided whether
or not you were a "math person?"
28

29. Lichtenberg, 1749-99
“We accumulate our opinions at an age
when our understanding is at its
weakest.”
At what age did you acquire your
mental models of how math is
taught and learned?

30. Transmission View of Learning
30

31. High school?

32. Thinking Mathematically
“They were so concerned with making
sure we knew how to do every single
procedure we never learned how to think
mathematically.
I did well in math but I never understood
what I was doing. I remember hundreds
of procedures but not one single
mathematical idea.”
p. 55, Teaching What Matters Most, Strong, Silver, & Perini, ©2001

33. Let Me
Show You
How To Do
X
Now You
Go Do
X
Can You
Independently
Do
X?
Maybe You
Need to Be
Shown X
Again
You Know
X
Schooling as Content Delivery

34. Let Me
Show You
How To Do
X
Now You
Go Do
X
Can You
Independently
Do
X?
Maybe You
Need to Be
Shown X
Again
You Know
X
Content Delivery cannot
„give understandings‟

35. Blended Learning Clarified
H. Staker, M. Horn, Classifying K-12 Blended Learning, © 2012
“online delivery of
content & instruction”

36. Time, Place, Path, Pace
H. Staker, M. Horn, Classifying K-12 Blended Learning, © 2012
“Learning is no longer restricted to the pedagogy
used by the teacher.”
Learning IS restricted – and impacted by – the
pedagogy used by the online teacher, in the online
instruction, or in designs of the learning software.

37. Typical Cycle
At School:
Explicit
Instruction &
Problem
Solving
At Home:
Practice
Problems
Whole
Class
Assessment
Maybe You
Need to Be
Shown X
Again
Use Data
Summatively

38. Flipping the classroom?
At Home:
Explicit
Instructional
Videos & Online
Practice
At School:
Guided
Practice &
Problem
Solving
Whole
Class
Assessment
Maybe You
Need to
Watch the
Video Again
Use Data
Summatively

39. Pros & Cons
Benefit of Blending &
Flipping
Becoming MORE thoughtful
and strategic about the use
of precious class time
Danger of Blending
& Flipping
Becoming LESS thoughtful
and strategic about how
students learn and make
sense of things

40. Transmission View of Learning
40
y = mx + b

41. Learning Myth
“Presentation of an explanation, no matter how
brilliantly worded, will not connect ideas unless
students have had ample opportunities to
wrestle with examples.”
From Best Practices, 3rd Ed., by Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde, ©2005
From Understanding by Design, Wiggins & McTighe, ©2005
“If I cover it clearly, they
will „get it.‟”

42. Kid Snippets: “Math Class”

43. Don‟t Start by Telling
“Providing students with opportunities
to first grapple with specific information
relevant to a topic has been shown to
create a „time for telling‟ that enables
them to learn much more from an
organizing lecture.”
• How People Learn, p. 58

44. Let‟s Take a Poll!
Question #4: Are you currently working on differentiated
instruction in your classroom, school, or district?
44

45. Differentiation Defined
• Teachers have a responsibility to ensure that all of
their students master important content.
• Teachers have to make specific and continually
evolving plans to connect each learner with key
content.
• Differences profoundly impact how students learn and
the nature of scaffolding they will need at various
points in the learning process.
• Teachers should continually ask, “What does this
student need at this moment in order to be able to
progress with this key content, and what do I need to
do to make that happen?”
Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom
by C.A. Tomlinson & M.B. Imbeau, ASCD, © 2010, pp. 13-14

46. Rethink Differentiation
Our mental models of learning often cause us to
differentiate in two wrong ways:
1. around knowledge, skills, and procedures rather than
ideas, understanding, and complex performance
2. in response to student knowledge AFTER being shown
a skill instead of in response to student thinking when
solving an unfamiliar problem or at the point of
conception formation.

47. Formative Assessment
• What incorrect answers would we expect on a
problem like 29 + 62?
• 81 Student does not regroup to the tens place
• 81 Student adds columns from left to right
• 811 Student adds each column independently
• 92 Arithmetic error in ones place
• 33 Student believes this is a subtraction problem
• How would you score each error?
• How would you respond to each error?
• What lesson(s) need to come before & after?
• Which of these errors are “naturally occurring?”

48. Pop Quiz
For a bicycle race, Donald’s time was:
3 hours, 4 minutes, and 11 seconds.
Keina’s time was:
2 hours, 58 minutes, and 39 seconds.
How long was Keina finished before Donald
crossed the finish line?

49. Hours Minutes Seconds
3 4 11
2 58 39
3 X
71
61
3
2
6 3
5 1
50 2
304 – 298 = ?
one strategy

50. Oxford University, 1992
“To the person without number sense,
arithmetic is a bewildering territory in
which any deviation from the known
path may rapidly lead to being totally
lost. The person with number
sense…has, metaphorically, an effective
„cognitive map‟ of that same territory.”
Ann Dowker, Computational Estimation Strategies of Professional Mathematicians,
Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Vol. 23(1), January 1992

51. Constant Difference

52. Let‟s Take a Poll!
Question #5: Did you learn the Constant Difference strategy
for subtracting in elementary school?
52

53. How can we leverage
technology to improve
student learning?

54. DreamBox Pedagogical Design
Student
Engages
within a
Context
Student
Transfers
&
Predicts
Student
Receives
Feedback
Engine
Adapts &
Differentiates
Student
Independently
Transfers

55. Engineered for Realizations
Student
Engages
within a
Context
Student
Transfers
&
Predicts
Student
Receives
Feedback
Engine
Adapts &
Differentiates
Student
Independently
Transfers

56. Division with Remainders

57. Let‟s Take a Poll!
Question #6: How many gumballs would you pack first?
57

58. Division with Remainders

59. Ma & Pa Kettle

60. 3rd Grade

61. 3rd Grade

62. 4th Grade

63. 4th Grade

64. A
C
B
Continuous Embedded Assessment

65. Multiplying Fractions

66. Engaging Learning
Experience
with Context
Individuals are Presented
with Accessible Problems or
Questions
Individuals Make a Prediction,
Answer the Problem, Take a
Guess
Individuals Receive Instant,
Specific Feedback Based on
their Prediction
Data from that Prediction
Informs the next Problem
Presented or Question Posed
Original, Independent, Strategic Thinking

67. Engaging Learning
Experience
with Context
Self-Directed, Coherent, Connected Paths
Individuals are Presented
with Accessible Problems or
Questions
Individuals Make a Prediction,
Answer the Problem, Take a
Guess
Individuals Receive Instant,
Specific Feedback Based on
their Prediction
Data from that Prediction
Informs the next Problem
Presented or Question Posed

68. Seamless
• DreamBox
Lessons, Practice,
& Assessments
look identical to
students
• These are not
banks of practice
items.
• Students need no
prior instruction to
engage in the
lessons.
Original,
Independent
Thinking
Feedback,
Realizations
Practice or
Assessment
Feedback,
Realizations
New Problem
or New
Lesson

69. Assessments throughout the curriculum assess the skills taught in a unit
Unit
Pretest
Lesson1
Lesson3
Lesson4
Lesson2 Lesson5
Students who demonstrate understanding of this concept skip the
unit and move to a new skill assessment
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
Lesson 1
Lesson 2 Lesson 5
Students who don‟t have these skills work through a unique sequence
of lessons in the unit to learn those concepts
Why is DreamBox so Effective?
Integrated Assessment and Instruction

70. Primary Engagement Environment

71. Persevere: Build Optimally

72. Look for Structure: Quick Images

73. Intermediate Engagement Environment

74. Sequenced Challenges

75. Timely, Specific Feedback

76. Kindergarten Data Report

77. Student Reporting by Proficiency

78. DreamBox Combines Three Essential
Elements to Accelerate Student Learning

79. Q & A
timh@dreambox.com
@DocHudsonMath
www.dreambox.com