IBM will help teachers improve student learning

Hundreds of teachers are now testing the service of the Teacher Advisor . This is a tool that allows teachers to quickly improve the quality of training of their students, as well as to obtain useful information for themselves in terms of preparing effective classes. Teacher Advisor is based on the IBM Watson cognitive service. In addition to our company, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) also participates in the project. Teacher Advisor is a personalized online source of information for teachers. It helps them to better prepare for the lessons, gaining more data on the modern view of key mathematical concepts.

In addition, the Teacher Advisor provides access to examples of math lessons prepared according to modern standards with the latest changes in the school education model. Teachers also have access to a list of documents describing educational standards and teaching methods for schoolchildren. Teachers can adapt these materials, given the characteristics of their students. Work on the service was carried out for about two years, AFT specialists took part in the development.

Teachers, working in the environment of the Teacher Advisor, can give a request on a topic and get a personalized answer, help and recommendations. For example, this might be a lesson planning advice, an understanding of the learning process or lesson planning. IBM Watson may ask leading questions to clarify a person’s request. After the system identifies the request, the teacher receives a detailed answer on the topic of interest.
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“Students need a qualified teacher. But to become a good teacher is not so easy. Often, young teachers are left to themselves, without any help, ”says Stanley S. Litou, President of the IBM Foundation. “We enable teachers to get help from specialists in the educational process, provide first-hand information on the most modern teaching methods. There is also a database of high-quality lessons, prepared in accordance with the latest rules and requirements. We hope one day to give all the teachers the support they need, which will improve the quality of the educational process. ”



According to IBM's plan, all primary school teachers should get access to the Teacher Advisor by the end of this year. The first stage is to help teachers in the preparation of methods of classes in mathematics for elementary school students. In general, after the platform is fully prepared, millions of teachers will have access to hundreds of thousands of educational and teaching materials. Already, any user of the service can access the database of high-quality videos, which tells about different methods of training.

Contrary to popular belief, elementary school teachers sometimes have to be even more difficult than teachers at the university. The latter receive a large amount of information about the learning process, and they work with practically adults. Working with schoolchildren is another. The situation is aggravated by the fact that there are not so many effective methodological manuals for primary school teachers. And even more, there are practically no materials that help teachers personalize learning.



The current version of the Teacher Advisor will be gradually improved. The content base is gradually filled with new materials that provide organizations such as UnboundEd, Student Achievement Partners, Illustrative Mathematics and others. IBM Watson catalogs all this, making it easier to access the right material. This service is free.