Hi Lisa - Great questions. The focus of our research has been students using KinderTEK independently. (In our controlled, comparison group studies, individual use is a requirement.) Independent use guarantees the data is that of the student whose account is being used and the student encounters more difficult material only when they’re ready. Because of this, the teacher (and researchers) can trust it to be an accurate reflection of student performance and mastery of KinderTEK content.

In one of our informal studies, there is more flexibility. In one, a teacher had pairs of students use KinderTEK together. She specifically paired a high-math student with a low-math student with the hope that the higher-math student would provide modeling for the lower-math student. I believe she used “exploration mode” or “directed mode” for this purpose, rather than the “sequenced mode” of instruction. She reported that such an approach worked really well for a change-of-pace and very specific instructional purpose. Since data is kept separately for each mode, students did their own work in sequenced mode and did the paired or aide-assisted work in one of the other learning modes….the teacher could tell which was which while looking at the data. She still feels strongly that the sequenced mode is super important and best fits most instructional goals.

KinderTEK is an instructional tool for teachers and students to use together, not a game for students to use all alone as their mood suits them. Thus, the teacher’s role in KinderTEK is an important one. First, it is imperative to decide the purpose for using KinderTEK…Intervention? Supplement? Free-time activity with a hidden instructional goal? With that in mind, the teacher will decide how (logistically) to integrate KinderTEK into classroom instruction (which mode? How often? How long each day? What classroom configurations?) and set up processes and expectations to help students use KinderTEK successfully.

Once KinderTEK is being used by students, we HIGHLY recommend that teachers, aides, or parent volunteers, adjust student’s settings to fit each student and do spot-checks of student’s KinderTEK use while students are working and that they regularly check the student’s data. This is important because students sometimes don’t mention that they’ve run into a roadblock (e.g., with log on or with an activity they don’t understand) or that they’ve finished all the KinderTEK lessons. Sometimes students LOOK like they’re hard at work when they’ve really figured out how to use a completely different app and aren’t doing math at all! If the teacher doesn’t look, he or she will never know. If educators see any red flags or unexpected patterns in the data, they can intervene to help the student along, adjust behavior expectations, or change KinderTEK settings to help the student be more successful.

Hi Jessica – KinderTEK is meant to help teachers provide additional and differentiated instruction, not replace their core instruction (especially because KinderTEK currently does not teach measurement or geometry).

Teachers often ask us about using KinderTEK in front of the class or as a full-class activity. Though using KinderTEK in front of the class could be done, it would be “clunky” right now for two main reasons: (1) The app has built in response windows…if a student doesn’t respond, the app re-prompts, provides instruction, or moves on. To make the time to speak themselves or to call on students, teachers would have to pause the app and restart it again in a rather round-about way. (2) The app decides the “items”….there is currently no way for teachers to move on, request more items, or dictate WHICH items to show.

 We’ve actually considered making a version of the app for teacher use in front of the class and also for purposes of allowing students with dedicated aides to more easily use the app, but have not had the development funds available to do so within our existing grants. (If teachers out there feel that this would be a strong tool, please weigh in. It would be interesting to have folks interested in this feature join our educator panel to help us think through - prioritize - potential next steps!)

As a side note, having a 1:1 device to student ration is awesome because it leaves all options open to teachers.

• Our study teachers with good WiFi in their classrooms during math time love having the entire class use KinderTEK at once. In one block of time, all their student can experience differentiated math instruction and the teacher can circulate through the class to see first-hand what students are working on and whether they’re on task OR can check the data to see if any adjustments should be made for the class or individual students before the next KinderTEK session. If a student would benefit from additional teacher instruction, this is a great time to do that as well.
• Teachers choose to use KinderTEK in groups smaller than the full class for a number of reasons (limited devices; WiFi that gets bogged down with many users; time is devoted to small group instruction; KinderTEK is only used for intervention). In those cases, teachers use KinderTEK with half the class at a time or in small groups (centers or at desks). Sometimes students are supervised by classroom aides, other times, they worked completely independently. Meanwhile the teacher works with other students.  

Hi Jennifer –I love seeing parents checking out this showcase! Thanks for weighing in.

As researchers we’re digging into mountains of data to see just how effective KinderTEK is and for whom. That’s not reasonable for teachers or parents, so we’re still seeking the “perfect” reporting formats. Meanwhile, one teacher shows KinderTEK reports to parents because they tell a visual picture of students’ behavior and learning in KinderTEK that mirrors that she sees throughout the school day.

Side note: As a parent myself, I’ve been torn over the years with contributing to “more screen time” for kids. Given that I’ve seen so many poor apps being used in schools, I wanted to help make whatever screen time there is, productive (especially because we’ve noticed apps installed on classroom devices just because of their name…regardless of their content, approach, or utility). I am of the “technology use is inevitable” camp…the KinderTEK team is working hard to convey that we’re building tools that need to be used correctly in order to be good for students and classrooms.

Hi Stephen - We are very interested in helping students transfer their math knowledge to the real world, but we haven't had the opportunity to pursue those extensions within our KinderTEK projects thus far. We have been pleased to see that using KinderTEK does at least transfer to other types of classroom math activities. Students perform better on math assessments administered by the project, plus some teachers have shared with us that students participate more in math class and one principal was super excited by his students' progress monitoring assessments gains and attributed the scores to KinderTEK and another CTL project.

The app is available in a wifi-supported version we use the most in our research and a device-only version that is better suited for home users (or classrooms with unreliable or no wifi). We've envisioned adding a portal to facilitate home-access to KinderTEK if a student is using it in class, but haven't had the resources to pursue that yet. in the interim, students could use KinderTEK independently of what they're doing in class. Until the teacher can see what students have done at home, the flipped approach your idea brings to mind could be problematic as it's unlikely all the students would have the resources, schedule, or supervision to support that home use. 

It would be great to get feedback from teachers and other researchers/developers of how they'd extend KinderTEK into the "everyday life" domains.

Thanks, Anushree, for this set of questions. Traditionally, our curriculum development work and evaluation at CTL has relied on in-person teacher PD ranging from 4-24 hours, either initially or distributed throughout implementation and has sometimes included a coaching component. Over the years, this model has been harder and hard to sustain due to the difficulty in scheduling, the need for substitutes (paid either with district or project funds), and the concern that this approach probably isn't the most effective in the long-term. For the KinderTEK project, our initial, very local work did follow this in-person PD model. Teachers really enjoyed it - especially when we invited classroom aides (who often are the ones monitoring KinderTEK anyway!), but we didn't feel like the content sunk in. We found ourselves providing the same information one on one later on when the teachers finally came to a point where they needed it. As KinderTEK has moved out from our local area, we simply didn't have the resources to support in-person PD anymore. So,  for both these reasons, we've moved to on-demand, virtual PD. We're refining the system to hopefully allow principals or team leads to see whether and how teachers use that PD and to make it really interactive so that participants realize what they do and don't know, what steps they might still need to take to make their classrooms ready for KinderTEK, etc. For now, we include "how to plan instruction based on data and reports from KinderTEK" in that PD (there's a reports-specific module) and are constantly adding more in-depth modules for teachers really ready to take that leap. We're excited to see how teachers use those modules and related resources this year in the OSEP-funded study that allows schools to use KinderTEK in any way they wish and to adapt over time, if desired. We also expect to see better fidelity of implementation in our IES-funded controlled study as teachers use reports to improve students' engagement and use of the program.

Some day, with more funding, I'd love to add in-app features that help teachers with ideas about what to do with the data they're looking. In the interim, as time allows, we can try to build explicit links into the online reporting tools for teachers using the hosted version of KinderTEK.