It takes a special bunch of people and a very special product to get a tiny startup in the Wall Street Journal!

Between that, and our news announced this week that Pearson Canada will distribute DreamBox Learning K-2 Math in the Canadian market - it’s been a big week for us. It’s weeks like this that make working in startups so compelling. Much has been written about startup life, but I think it’s all about character. In case you haven’t heard, it takes a unique personality to thrive in a startup environment – part optimist, part dreamer, part workaholic (although I have to say that DreamBox is unique – I guess making a learning product for kids is good for work/life balance). You have to see potential where others see hurdles, and be totally committed to deliver. You must thrive on ambiguity, be flexible enough to change direction quickly if need be, a fast learner, driven. It sure helps if you have a sense that you’re on a mission, that you are part of a team that’s focused on a higher purpose. At the same time, you’re in the real world, not in a little bubble – not every startup is a success and you have to be able to maintain your balance in the face of setbacks, even failure. The ability to learn from your (and others’) mistakes is key. Wow, I’m amazed anyone wants to work in a startup! It’s a roller coaster ride, but it’s never boring! And it’s re-energizing to have a week like this.

Harness the power of the internet for math learning and education

This is only made possible through the intelligent, rapid, and sophisticated technologies that energize these leading websites and their related services. So it amazes me that none of this transformative horsepower has been used in any meaningful way to educate children. Instead, we largely teach students the same way we have for a century, with large classes, lectures, and textbooks. And our use of technology in schools is reserved for improved whiteboards, automated practice, or distance learning. DreamBox Learning aims to change this: we are building a new software platform for education so that children can enjoy an individually-tailored, world class learning experience over the Web both at home and in school.

“Led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, the states, including Maryland and Virginia, are aiming to define a framework of content and skills that meet an overarching goal. When students get their high school diplomas, the coalition says, they should be ready to tackle college or a job. The benchmarks would be “internationally competitive.”

Once the organizers of the effort agree to a proposal, each state would decide individually whether to adopt it. …

[U.S Education Secretary Arne] Duncan and others also said that even the highest goals lose their punch if there’s not an accurate way to gauge whether students measure up. That means revamping state tests — a cumbersome and expensive process. So far, the states have committed only to working to develop the standards.”

Does the assessment portion of this plan strike anyone else as being “too little, too late”? Darn it, if only there were a way to accurately assess a student’s knowledge and understanding at a very fine grained level that actually integrated with what and how they learned while they learned it! Then assessment would be neither cumbersome nor expensive. And the students might just be taught – and when necessary, retaught – what they needed to know when they needed to know it.

The DreamBox Learning K-2 Approach

Those of you familiar with DreamBox Learning K-2 Math know that our approach is to continually assess each student and individually adapt how we then present not just portions of the curriculum or individual lessons, but individual questions within those lessons. While DreamBox is based upon existing national standards, it teaches each student as an individual with their own strengths and weaknesses. In other words we continually assess then teach. Which is what good teachers have been doing for hundreds – perhaps thousands – of years.

Children aren’t screws or widgets. Each one is uniquely different and may require specifically individualized teaching. While the debate about national standards goes on, let’s not forget that no matter which “standard” you adopt, if you consider assessment as an afterthought rather than an integral part of teaching, then you are forcing some students to continually play catch up. As I wrote in a recent blog (Sometimes Things Just Don’t Compute…): If you don’t know a student is having a problem, how can you address it in a timely manner?

The success with which DreamBox Learning addresses students with widely varying skill levels has reinforced for me a variation of that old Chicago saying: If you want to provide a successfully individualized learning experience for a student,  “assess early and assess often”!

Let’s hope our politicians can be taught that as well.

The genesis of how DreamBox does assessment, and one of the reasons I am with the company, occurred over 30 years ago when one of my relatives was diagnosed with a learning disability.

This surprised us and shocked his teachers, who considered him to be in the upper middle to top third of the class for math. His test scores consistently supported this. In many areas he was significantly ahead of his peers. Yet a detailed examination with an expert showed that for him division just didn’t compute. Put another way, his brain simply wasn’t “wired for division”.

What does this mean? Well, you could ask him something like “If there are four children and each one has three oranges, how many oranges are there in total?” and you’d get the correct answer every time. If you instead asked “If I have twelve oranges and am going to give an equal number to each of four children, how many does each child get?” you might just as easily get an answer like “seven?” or “six” as “three”.

How had all the very good teachers at a very good school missed this through most of primary school? As it turns out, for a lot of years you can do pretty well at math tests if you get close to 100% of all the questions correct that don’t involve division. Or if the teacher only removes a few points for the “one little mistake” you made in the division part of a problem. Or if you have developed strategies to compensate that often approximate the correct answer, without understanding what you were doing.

The simple fact was that no-one over the years tracked the specific type of problems that caused difficulties for this student. And – this being a traditional “English” school – most teachers were more interested with how many answers were correct than how those answers were obtained.

DreamBox Learning Personalizes Online Math Education

So when we started working on what became DreamBox math I wanted to develop a system that would analyze each action the student took as they made it and respond accordingly, adapting automatically to provide the structured support each student needs as they need it. I also wanted a system that could provide specific feedback to parents and teachers identifying not only areas of strength but also weakness. It didn’t take long to realize that a system that adapts like this would work for all ages and skill levels.

DreamBox Learning K-2 Math is our first small step towards this goal and by all accounts is helping children across the spectrum learn math. Though specifically designed for home use, this version is already in use in over 800 schools and is proving particularly valuable for teachers of remedial math.

No child should struggle with math because a learning problem goes undiagnosed and unaddressed. However, recent studies (such as that by the Education Trust that detail how some teachers “are just one chapter ahead of their students”) show that in some communities this is unfortunately not only possible, but likely.

So I am personally looking forward to working on a more school-oriented version of DreamBox, and to the day when DreamBox math is a valuable tool in every teacher’s toolbox for ensuring each of their students is successful at math, no matter what difficulties they may face.

Oh, and how did things turn out for my relative? Things were tough for him for a while. Eventually he became a spreadsheet guru and has created inventory and financial management systems for corporations in the U.S. and overseas.

Looking for more depth I wandered around his blog, where he explores the misunderstanding about the role games play in the educational process. There’s a lot of great insight here! He describes games not so much as programs “with content that must be delivered but rather as spaces for exploration, experimentation, and problem solving.” In other words, learning games aren’t just textbooks in a different form. They are so much more powerful because they can harness the active participation, exploration, and self-directed learning inherent in game play.

“The learning which games foster… is “undisciplined” in the best sense of the world—the child is encouraged to pursue their interests where-ever they lead without regard to the way schools divide up content or time.” For parents who care about fostering a lifelong love of learning, this is a powerful way to look at how to look at online learning games and their children’s “screen time”.

You can read more from Henry Jenkins on his blog.

A parent wrote to us recently that her four year old daughter was new at using the mouse and was having trouble precisely placing objects on the screen. I had a similar experience with my then 4 year old while we were developing DreamBox, so we already knew that some drag-and-drop operations can initially be frustrating for little ones learning to use the mouse. There are good educational reasons why we do things the way we do, and we don’t simply snap the counters to the correct locations when the student gets things “sort of in the general vicinity”. But the way a program responds is only one of a number of factors that can affect the experience for early mousers.

While some young children take to the mouse really quickly — mine was initially as adept using it turned 180 degrees as he was when it was “normal” (try that for yourself right now!) — their small motor skills are often still developing and lack the fine control we adults usually take for granted. Luckily, there are a number of things we can do to reduce this impact while they learn.

Setting Your Kindergarten through 2nd Grade Child Up With the Right Mouse Can Make All The Difference

First of all, if you haven’t done so yet, it is well worth investing in a small inexpensive mouse, either one designed for children or a “travel” version. (At home we use a corded one simply because there is less chance of it “wandering off” to have other adventures around the house.) I would avoid the super tiny ones. I found a reasonable selection, many in bright colors, for less than $15 at a local electronics store. So he and I made a special trip to choose HIS mouse and he chose one that fit his hand well (and just happened to be blue, his favorite color).

Once you have a suitable mouse, check the mouse settings to make certain they aren’t too sensitive (i.e. you don’t want a small movement of the physical mouse to move the cursor half way across the screen). Often the main problem with little ones is that when they press down to click (or they are releasing after a drag) they also move the mouse body without meaning to. A very sensitive mouse magnifies this movement. So if you haven’t done so already, you may want to create an individual login for your child so you can set the mouse up just for them.

Finally, make sure their fingers go as far towards the front of the button as seems comfortable. Many mice still work pushing WAY from the back, but it takes a lot more effort for little fingers, and the extra force tends to move the mouse around at the same time.

With His Own(!) less twitchy mouse and a revised grip, my son quickly mastered ‘drag and drop’ and soon left those frustrations behind. I hope these suggestions help provide your budding mathematicians with a similar level of success.

Instead, did I spend the first weeks of school assessing these particular objectives to determine the appropriate starting point for each student? Ideally, yes. But what teacher has of time? Remember, I can spend as much time planning and preparing for my students as I want, but it’s much more difficult to increase the actual instruction time I have with them. Instruction time is a valuable commodity and it’s important to use it wisely. Assessment is an important part of using instruction time wisely, but how much time should I spend assessing supplementary software?

Using Software to Better Gauge Kindergarten through Second Grade Math Curriculums

Although I hate to admit this, I’d usually make my best guess for a starting place. Reflecting back on this, I’d usually include too many objectives which didn’t challenge the students early enough, and resulted in my students not wanting to use the software. Or maybe the software just wasn’t engaging enough.

This prior experience had a dramatic impact on DreamBox Learning K-2 Math. I didn’t want to burden teachers and parents with this same requirement. We (teachers, developers and our wonderful assessment advisor) spent hours developing an assessment model that allows our software to dynamically adjust and provide just the right curriculum for each individual. As a result there are over a million paths through our curriculum. While I can’t tell you exactly how we do this (it’s part of our secret sauce!), I can tell you this is ground-breaking work. We’ve built something I haven’t seen any other product emulate. And to have my name associated with the patent — well, that’s just too cool!

It did make me wax nostalgic for the first time I was personally responsible for launching a new product. There was the same anxiousness. I watched one of the engineers pace back and forth, not quite sure whether he should continue to enjoy the break, or go back and monitor how the site was doing. The same mixture of joy and weariness from all the work down the home stretch was on people’s faces. There was even the plastic stemware used for a celebratory toast. However, back then I never really got to enjoy the toast. Literally as the corks were popping, my beeper, as well as those of a few other engineers, all started going off at the same time alerting us to a problem on the servers. Off we rushed to go fix the problem, fortunately succeeding quickly.

Nothing like that happened to add more excitement to the DreamBox lunch. Of course, instead of beepers, the DreamBoxers have iPhones with a slick graphical display of the vital stats of all the servers, so they can keep a sharp eye on the health of the system. Ah, beepers…

Everybody does remember what a beeper was, right?

A week ago you stood in front of the nation and spoke the following words:

“That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood . . . our schools fail too many . . . [But] we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.”

We at DreamBox Learning welcome your words. In fact, DreamBox Learning exists to be a key agent of transformative change in education, such that every student enjoys an individually-tailored, world class learning experience. We are doing our part by providing a web-based curriculum that is incredibly effective, fun, and highly individualized to a student’s particular learning needs. Our product will first be offered in the homes of some students, later in the schools for all students. In order to achieve that latter goal, we need your help. By ensuring that every student has access to a quality computer, thick broadband connectivity, a teacher that is trained to use technology, and a school system that embraces the power of software both in spirit and in budget, we are certain a difference can be made. In short Mr. President, if you provide the infrastructure and access, we will do our level best to bring innovation and entrepreneurship to meet the “demands of the new age.”

Mr. President, you also stated:

“In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted – for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things – some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.”

Again, those words resonated for the DreamBox team. Today we celebrate the inaugural launch of our first product – DreamBox Learning K-2 Math. After three demanding and determined years, we stand ready to take our first step, not our last, in delivering on our promise so that children can take hold of theirs. We were humbled by the challenge but no less deterred. It was a simple recognition that someone had to; why not us? But as the hard charging and willful team here knows, any far-reaching goal needs to be grounded in bare-knuckled execution and a united ethos. We hope that these are the hallmarks of yours and our journey to success.

Lou Gray
CEO, DreamBox Learning, Inc.

1) Bit By Bit. Our first Ed-techer is Bob Sprankle, the author of the “Bit By Bit” blog. Sprankle is the Technology Integrator for K-4 in Wells Elementary School in Wells, Maine, and all we can say is-wow! With his own social network, podcast series, and a school website that rivals some of the finest web interfaces out there, Sprankle is a prime example of using technology to positively impact his students’ educational experience. Just as important, his efforts provide a great community resource for teachers and academics. To get a feel for Sprankle’s accessible writing style, check out a truly genius post, “An Ed-Tech Carol.”

2) Teach42. Blogger Steve Dembo writes about 21st century learning with clarity and charisma. An Ed-techer after our own heart, Dembo is passionate about combining technology and play for a more authentic educational experience. Check out his priceless posts on turning students into Technology Ninjas or how to be a rockstar education blogger. Overall, Dembo brings a heightened level of active critical thinking to the issue of EdTech , which results in frequently inspired posts, and a more enlightened discussion overall.

3) 2 Cents Worth. This blog is written by David Warlick, a passionate advocate, published author, and regular conference presenter on the subject of EdTech. As an “embedded Ed-techer” he blogs from the front lines of the EdTech movement, bringing us up to date on the divide between old-school education and 21st century learning. Whether discussing how children interact with technology or giving a book review, his writing is fast-paced, friendly, and knowledgeable. We’ll conclude with Warlick’s own description of his EdTech experience, as “a non-traditional educator who is grappling with an intensely exciting world he had no reason to expect.” Best summary of the EdTech advent we’ve heard yet!

4) A Difference. Need a little chicken soup for the EdTecher’s soul? Check out the inspiration behind Darren Kuropatwa’s blog moniker. Then begin forwarding furiously to every educator you know. When you’re done, come back for a myriad of appropriately multimedia interviews, clips, and posts on the pulse of EdTech today. We’re particularly partial to this post about using games as innovative teaching:) Another great resource is his wiki on an Extreme Web 2.0 Lesson Makeover. Very cool stuff! By combining thoughtful reflection with hands-on application, A Difference is an altogether useful EdTech blog, and an enjoyable one.

5) CoolCatTeacher. EdTech blogger Vicki Davis is a teacher, IT director, and curator of the award-winning class wiki The Flat Classroom Project. Her blog is a round-up of relevant education links and trivia, clever Youtube Videos, and other odds and ends. For example, in addition to a very thoughtful explanation of Web 2.0, and how to dip a toe into the “read/write web,” we also learned that the word “hot dog” was introduced into the lexicon in 1900. In other words, go check out CoolCatTeacher, where you can read about education, while being educated yourself. What could be more “web 2.0″ than that?

6) Ideas and Thoughts. One of our most decorated EdTech bloggers, author Dean Shareski is a professional Digital Learning Consultant with a Masters in Education and Technology. His posts range from amusing, to informative, to downright avant-garde. For example, his blog includes an interview with an educator who live streams his elementary school classroom 24/7. (Yes, really!) Shareski is amazingly knowledgeable in the area of EdTech, but what comes across most about this blog is the author’s desire not to bring technology into the classroom, but to bring active, alert, delighted learners into the classroom. Perhaps the post that most clearly articulates that intent is this one on bringing joy into teaching. Really though, this maxim resonates through everything Sharesk writes, and this refreshing mentality is what puts Ideas and Thoughts in a class of its own.

7) Moving at the Speed of Creativity. This blog is a host of handy tools, applications and ideas, all working together to fuel a fairly revolutionary approach to teaching. For example, check out this post on how to use Google Video Conferencing to bring a virtual guest speaker into the classroom, or this one on how to use Iphone apps to add/drop college courses (then have Rosie the Robot make you breakfast, and hop into your aerocar.) But as technologically fearless as blogger Wesley Fryer may be, he also advocates creating standards of safety for EdTech, as evidenced by this post on preventing cyberbullying and this great post about knowing what your kids are up to online. This combination of revolutionary ideas with responsible constraints earns Moving at the Speed of Creativity massive EdTech cred, here at DreamBox and beyond.

Always Learning. Our last blog on our round-up is also our most far-flung. Kim Cofino is a 21st Century Learning Specialist at the International School in Bangkok, Thailand. We love to learn what educators are doing around the world so this blog couldn’t help but be interesting, but Kim’s posts truly are top-notch. In the brilliantly-titled “Coming to Terms,” Cofino treats us to a pop quiz on modern slang terms for technology (how many do you know?) which leads into a thoughtful reflection on how language affects e-learning integration. Another gem is a great post on the importance of teamwork between teachers and technology integrators when implementing e-learning solutions in the classroom. As you can probably tell, what distinguishes this excellent EdTech blog, besides its exotic locale, is the focus on making e-learning an effective, communal experience.

That’s when she said it. “Individualized?! That’s what they all say!”

You can’t really blame her. Lots of companies (past and present) state that they offer individualized instruction through adaptations. But it’s not entirely clear that they are offering individualization in the most rigorous interpretation of the word. Put another way, the concept of individualization encompasses a lot of territory, from the slightest customization to a highly personalized experience. Add to this the fact that individualization is a hard thing to see and experience firsthand (especially with a single student playing), and you can understand her perspective.

Individualized Math Learning Paths

When most eLearning companies claim individualization, what they usually mean is that they have fixed lesson pathways, simple “right or wrong” scoring of answers, basic audio/visual hints, and preset questions. In the end, however, it’s all very linear and predetermined much like an interstate highway. When we talk about individualization, it means we dynamically adapt lessons, hints, difficulty, lesson pathways, pace, motivational elements, and more. That means our product is non-linear and flexible much like, say, space travel. Here’s another easy way to visualize all of this – it’s an example of how we handle lesson pathways (aka “sequencing”) for students:

Lesson Pathways: DreamBox vs. Competition

As you can see, most companies merely advance a student to the next lesson group whether they struggled or got there with ease. This generally means that all children advance the same way and usually in the same manner. DreamBox, on the other hand, provides many ways to traverse the lessons including offering the student a range of choices within a particular lesson group (i.e., you’ll note all the #3 choices).

Why are we able to do so much? The simple answer is that our team understands and is able to harness the full sophistication and complexity of the Web — such that we can analyze everything from clickstreams to session information. This means we have more tools at our disposal, which in turn allows us to take a more refined approach to adaptations. When you couple this with our intense desire to test what we’ve built again and again, it means that we can deliver a truly individualized experience, which is at the heart of effective learning.

Mathrack Lesson

I’ve had variations of the following conversation with relatives a couple of times in recent months. Has something similar happened to you?

“She loves playing DreamBox and was doing fine. But now the questions are too hard and she’s getting frustrated.”

“Hmm… Have you perhaps been helping her with her answers?”

“Well… not… really. She hates getting questions wrong. So when she didn’t seem to understand what to do, I answered a few of the questions for her so she would get the idea.”

When Math Problems Become Problematic

As parents of young children we are all too likely to have encountered so-called educational games where the difficulty of questions appears to vary somewhat randomly. For example, I was sitting next to my four year old son while he was playing with a handheld game. I was quite happy to hear him get “7 plus 3” correct. This was followed by “1+1”, “1+2” and “17-11”. Whoa! Where did that last one come from? (He didn’t get it right).

Sometimes, in order to help our little ones progress past some of these overly difficult questions, we help them for bit and then breathe a sigh of relief as the questions get back to being more appropriate (at least for a while). Our help is often required for a few minutes in non-educational video games as well. So in a sense, we adults are being trained to help our loved ones when a program appears to get too difficult for them.

DreamBox Learning’s Approach

With DreamBox things are a little different. As one of the developers in charge of our GuideRight™ technology I consider it my responsibility to make certain we assess and adapt to each child as accurately as possible. That means ensuring that we optimally level right down to the individual question level. And that we adapt as necessary immediately based upon how the student responds to those questions. Ideally the questions are just challenging enough that they get the occasional one incorrect as they learn.

In fact, DreamBox continuously assesses and adapts to your child not only within a problem, but between problems, between lessons and between groups of lessons.

Frog Race Level 2

Part of that process of recalibrating for each student between groups of lessons involves occasionally giving them a series of questions that might be a little too difficult for them. If they do well, we move them on to something that might rely upon the understanding they just demonstrated. If they don’t do so well, we then provide the comprehensive set of lessons they likely need to develop that understanding.

So with DreamBox, if you provide too much overt assistance, answer for your child, or let a sibling or friend play on their account, it is quite possible that the system will temporarily attribute levels of understanding – or misunderstanding – that do not accurately reflect that of your child.

What to Do When the Math Game Gets Tough

What should you do, when they turn to you for assistance? Try some of these approaches:

• Encourage your child to make his or her best guess. Remind them it’s OK to make some mistakes. We learn a lot from the types of mistakes they make and will respond accordingly. (Really!)
• Answer a question with a question. “What do you think?”
• Click help.
• Click help again. The second help is more explicit that the first help.
• Ask your child to explain the game to you. Sometimes talking it through like this will give them the answer.

If all that doesn’t work, perhaps it’s time for a snack or a break.

Finally, remember that playing DreamBox is meant to be fun. If they are still having trouble with one or more lessons, don’t hesitate to click the feedback button and let us know.

Counting Placement

And yes, we ALL agreed that children should spend most of their time playing with other children and adults, using real things, and going outside! And we also agreed that many — perhaps the majority? — of technology toys and online media are “dust”. But, and this is an important but, many products use technology in ways that open up new opportunities for children, and let them learn and explore and play in wonderful new ways. These are the products that are “magic”!

What Makes Up a Good Children’s Learning Product?

How can we make interactive media products — like DreamBox — “magic”? Here are some of the key ideas I walked away with:

1. Let the child be the actor. Whenever possible, give the child control of what to do and create. Examples of this range from providing multiple choices for what to do next, to waiting for the child to indicate when its time to move ahead.
2. Keep it simple. ‘Nuf said.
3. Make it as open-ended as possible. Just as a blank piece of paper or a box of plain LEGOS inspires open-ended imaginative and creative play, make games that use technology as yet another open-ended tool. For example, in the world of math learning, we can create virtual manipulatives that children use and move to build numbers.