Thursday, March 30, 2006

7 Days?

It is our goal to have the rewrite of the units section, now called lessons, and beready for our alpha testers in the next 7 days. This is the last major change we are making from early user feedback before we intend to go live in May. April will be spent working with alpha user feedback in order to update the milestone plan for the summer and fall. Now is a great time to submit those features you want for the next school year.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Example from George Washington True Patriot

I've created two example lessons for my previous post in StudyTag. If you visit the George Washington group you can see these examples and see how StudyTag presents the questions for the facts in the first chapter of the George Washington: True Patriot by Janet and Geoff Benge.

I named the first lesson after the first chapter name, The Enemy. This can be done for each chapter in the book, creating a unique lesson with the appropriate questions.

If students did this exercise as they read each book in the Benge's collection, they will have learned well over 3000 interesting facts about history!

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

George Washington and StudyTag History Facts

To provide you with a feel of one way to use StudyTag with your students let me describe how you might approach the book George Washington: True Patriot.

The first step is to begin reading the first chapter, "The Enemy." Even though this chapter is small at only three pages it is packed full of interesting facts. After reading the chapter the student or group of students should discuss what in the chapter do they think is worth remembering? They can highlight intersting sentences in the chapter or record their ideas on paper. Here are a few ideas from that chapter that I have recorded:

George Washington was born in Virginia.
George Washington was born Feb 22, 1732.
There were thirteen American colonies in 1775.
George Washington's plantation in Virgina was called Mount Vernon.
George Washington was born a British subject.
George Washington commanded the Continental army in 1775.

There are many other facts students may also find worth remembering in that chapter. Once they have an idea of what they might be they can launch StudyTag and record the fact they want to remember.

In the above example here is what I would select as a variable in each fact:

George Washington was born in [var]Virginia[/var].
George Washington was born Feb 22, [var]1732[/var].
There were thirteen American colonies in [var]1775[/var].
George Washington's plantation in Virgina was called [var]Mount Vernon[/var].
George Washington was born a [var]British[/var] subject.
George Washington commanded the [var]Continental[/var] army in 1775.

Enter these into StudyTag, add a few foils, and quickly learn these facts forever! It really is that simple. And, if the students write their own facts, it will be a lot better learning experience than if you write the facts for them.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

StudyTag History

Students have a powerful opportunity to learn and explore history through the use of biographies, original source documents, and other non-textbook based materials. Biographies, so much more powerful than textbooks, allow us to immerse ourselves in people's life stories, in their times, and in their actions.

YWAM Publishing has created several biography series that can be used in a history curriculum. The YWAM History Biographies, written exclusively by Goeff and Janet Benge, provide readers with a unique opportunity to explore history through the lives of individuals that have impacted the world. The Christian Heroes series described people who have chosen a path of service to others. Their lives serve as shining examples that success in life is not be measured in dollars and cents, but in service and with compassion for others.

YWAM Publishing's Heroes of History biography covers people'’s lives that were not necessarily Christian (and hence can be used in a Public School). Although some, like George Washington Carver, are excellent examples of Christian character serving the world through education and Science, others, like Christopher Columbus, demonstrate the conflicts that arise when cultures conflict. In all cases, Heroes of History tells powerful stories of men and women who directly impacted their world and forever changed ours.

The only weakness of biographies is that sometimes the stories are so moving and compelling we miss learning the important facts and details that should become part of our long term knowledge. These facts and details serve as hooks within our brains to hang and place information and to understand the narrative flow of historical events; facts such as when did the Revolutionary War actually begin and end? What role did George Washington play? When was George Washington elected President of the United States? StudyTag was created to provide students and parents a simple tool to collect important facts they want to learn. Once collected, StudyTag ensures the students actually master the information.

A student taking a simple test or quiz that shows they know the year George Washington was elected President today, does not at all guarantee they will remember that key historical fact tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year.

StudyTag ensures the students really learn the important information over the long term.

If a student identifies and records just ten important historical facts for each book in the YWAM Heroes series, by the time they finished all of the books in the series they will have recorded over 500 important historical facts.

StudyTag ensures the students really have mastered the facts by continually refreshing and reinforcing them in timed tutorial sessions that require only Five Minutes A Day (5MAD).

The computer can accomplish what is difficult or impossible to the teacher. The computer can know precisely what facts each student has been exposed to, how many times the fact has been reinforced, how many times the student has demonstrated a knowledge of the fact, and for how long they have been able to demonstrate that knowledge. The computer can know exactly which of the 500 facts should be reinforced with each individual student for five minutes, each and every day.

If the teacher and students identify ten important facts in each biography they read, the StudyTag tutorial will ensure the student remembers these facts for a lifetime.

StudyTag is a tool so powerful for teaching and reinforcing facts that there is no reason to stop with History.

StudyTag was designed to serve as a fact and companion guide for any book and for any subject. Teachers and students can add additional units to study and reinforce on any subject, student are only limited by their imagination and their desire to learn.

Students can even identify information they wish to learn only for the short term. StudyTag tutors and drills the student in that information only as long as the student desires, and will not include that information in long term refresher sessions. StudyTag works to make the learning of long term facts both fun and painless. It provides parents and teachers with detailed reports about what the student has learned, and it removes the guesswork out of trying to understand what a student needs reinforced.