ARMONK, N.Y., Aug. 16,
2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the IBM (NYSE: IBM) Foundation and the
National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) announced their
collaboration on a suite of classroom resources focused on
supporting teachers who work with students with learning and
attention issues. Teacher Advisor With Watson uses machine learning
to correlate and understand nuances within a curated content
collection of over 8,000 Open Educational Resources (OER) including
vetted, quality lesson plans, student-facing activities and
classroom strategies.
"The strategies NCLD is providing through Teacher Advisor with
Watson will not only help the one
in five students with learning and attention issues succeed, but
are actually effective for all students," said NCLD President and
CEO Mimi Corcoran. "We know teachers
are hungry for this information, and our collaboration with the IBM
Foundation to infuse these evidence-based strategies into general
education materials is a crucial next step to support teachers
across the country."
The IBM Foundation and NCLD are adding custom math modules for
grades K-5. These resources provide teachers with evidence-based
strategies to help them more effectively meet the needs of
individual students with learning and attention issues. For
example, a third-grade math teacher can easily leverage hands on
activities introducing fractions with manipulatives to a student
with ADHD. The new content also helps to support the 70
percent of children with learning and attention issues that spend
at least 80 percent of their time in general education classes, too
often without the individualized support they need to truly
thrive.1
"Currently, there are over 1.8 million public elementary school
teachers in the U.S. Unfortunately, too many of them do not always
have the tools they need to support their students," said IBM
Foundation President Jennifer Ryan
Crozier. "Our partnership with NCLD enhances Teacher
Advisor's machine learning capabilities so more teachers can
effectively and efficiently meet individual students' learning
needs."
Teacher Advisor aims to save teachers time planning highly
effective math lessons for all students, which is also why IBM
added additional instructional content to support middle math
teachers for the upcoming school year. Research has shown middle
school to be a critical time in students' development of a positive
'math identity,' which is the key to their continuing engagement
with STEM subjects and career paths. The middle school additions
include full-grade curriculum from EngageNY and Open Up Resources,
the two most reputable math curricula in the OER domain, according
to independent expert reviewers at edreports.org.
Teachers Advisor has been trained in machine learning by math
experts at non-profit UnboundEd to better understand math
terminology. With the average teacher typically spending 12 hours
per week searching for or creating their own resources, this
training from former educators saves teachers valuable lesson
planning time by giving them targeted resource recommendations
based on their search criteria.
Less than a year after its launch, over 12,000 elementary school
teachers have embraced Teacher Advisor With Watson. Nearly nine out
of every 10 instructional coaches who have used the tool said in a
survey that they would recommend Teacher Advisor to other teachers.
And the latest version of Teacher Advisor also enables teachers to
find references best suited for English Language Learners (ELL), so
that they can quickly access tips that will help them tailor their
instruction for students who are not native English speakers.
Katie Leasor
IBM Media Relations
212-671-9356
kleasor@us.ibm.com
Michele Aweeky
National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD), Communications
Senior Manager
908-510-3158
maweeky@ncld.org
For more information on Teacher Advisor With Watson, please
visit: https://teacheradvisor.org/
More About Teacher Advisor With Watson:Teacher Advisor With
Watson is a philanthropic collaboration between IBM, the American
Federation of Teachers, UnboundEd, and external philanthropic
funding partners, such as the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, and the Stavros
Niarchos Foundation.
The tool was created in 2017 out of the firm belief that
improving student achievement depends on high quality teaching, and
that the most innovative technology solutions should be tailored to
enhance and extend teacher expertise. Teachers and educators have
directly helped inform the tool's content and functionality from
day one. Its latest release reflects feedback received throughout
Teacher Advisor's first year as a publicly available OER
tool.
About the National Center for Learning Disabilities
(NCLD)
The mission of NCLD is to improve the lives of the 1 in 5
children and adults nationwide with learning and attention
issues—by empowering parents and young adults, transforming schools
and advocating for equal rights and opportunities. We're working to
create a society in which every individual possesses the academic,
social and emotional skills needed to succeed in school, at work
and in life.
For more information, visit us at www.NCLD.org.
1 The State of Learning Disabilities, NCLD,
2017..
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SOURCE IBM