A portable feast.IF YOU COULD DESIGN AN EDUCATIONAL COMPUTER FOR THE CLASSROOM that was engaging rather than distracting dis·tract tr.v. dis·tract·ed, dis·tract·ing, dis·tracts 1. To cause to turn away from the original focus of attention or interest; divert. 2. To pull in conflicting emotional directions; unsettle. , that was portable rather than deskbound, that was infinitely interactive and, not least, was available for under $100, you'd be on the same track as providers of an entirely new educational technology category: portable, cost-efficient, multisensory multisensory /mul·ti·sen·so·ry/ (mul?te-sen´sah-re) capable of responding to more than one kind of sensory input, as certain neurons in the central nervous system. learning products, also known as personal learning tools (PLTs). The definition of a PLT PLT psittacosis-lymphogranuloma venereum-trachoma (group); see Chlamydia. PLT psittacosis-lymphogranuloma venereum-trachoma (group). is fairly broad, but two constants are its portability--the student can move it from place to place--and its one-to-one interactivity. LeapFrog SchoolHouse (LFSH), the educational software and hardware arm of the well-known LeapFrog brand, is one of the pioneers in this category and, with the FLY pentop computer, is taking it to another level. This is the next-generation tool from LFSH and builds on the Quantum Pad and LeapPad platforms. The PLT category has arrived just in time. The basic desktop computer, despite being a wonderfully versatile tool for teaching and learning, has limits. As everyone in the teaching profession knows, students learn in very different ways and educators need a wide range of tools to meet those needs. PLTs will find their place, all the more so since these electronic tools are going a long way toward raising student achievement levels. For example, a five-month experimental study investigated the effectiveness of the LeapTrack Assessment & Instruction System among 533 students from across 42 grade 1-4 classrooms in Oakland, California “Oakland” redirects here. For other uses, see Oakland (disambiguation). Oakland (IPA: /ˈoʊklənd/), founded in 1852, is the eighth-largest city in the U.S. . Students in this high-poverty district who regularly used the LeapTrack system significantly outperformed their control counterparts by 13 points in reading and 24 points in math at the end of the study. These results suggest that the LeapTrack system is a powerful supplement to a core basal basal /ba·sal/ (ba´s'l) pertaining to or situated near a base; in physiology, pertaining to the lowest possible level. ba·sal adj. 1. program in both reading and math, helping to remediate re·me·di·a·tion n. The act or process of correcting a fault or deficiency: remediation of a learning disability. re·me skills among lower-achieving students while challenging higher-achieving students in ways otherwise not possible. What studies don't show, however, is how engaging PLTs can be and how the products are helping teachers work productively with students. In this District Administration Special Supplement, sponsored by LFSH, we take a closer look at the new category of PLTs and what some districts--see the article on Clark County Clark County is the name of twelve counties in the United States of America:
n. One that enters, especially one that enters a competition. [French, from present participle of entrer, to enter, from Old French; see enter. into the PLT category, the under-$100 FLY pentop computer that will be rolling out this fall. Dan Kinnaman, Publisher District Administration Magazine dkinnaman@districtadministration.com |
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