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EdTech Show Daily 1 3 Tuesday, February 6, 2018 Identify At-Risk Students, Apply Interventions with Actionable Dashboards In the age of standardized testing and assessment, many educators continue to search for ways to monitor student suc- cess, but most importantly, they look for ways to reach students before it is too late. Even with standardized testing and assessment tools, districts continue to use a variety of measurements to analyze stu- dent success, including attendance, disci- pline, grades, grade book activity, pro- gram participation and college prepared- ness, just to name a few among many other predictors. While these predictors will demon- strate that a student is on the path to suc- cess, there is a critical need for the ability to reach students before failure. Educators are now looking beyond stan- dardized test scores and focusing on true multiple measures to determine if a stu- dent is at risk. With Aeries Analytics, districts now have a real-time reporting system for data analysis that is fully integrated with the Aeries SIS. Districts will have the ability to track critical academic indicators addressing all aspects of student learning and are able to provide an in-depth assess- ment addressing student needs. Moreover, Aeries Analytics has led to the development of an 'Early Warning System' which provides districts with action- able dashboards to identify stu- dents most at-risk within the student information system. Aeries Analytics Dashboards & Early Warning System creates an environment of making at-risk and achievement data actionable by identifying and dynamical- ly assigning appropriate interventions within the live student data. Ultimately, with Aeries Analytics, educators have the ability of foresight and are able to identify students who are trending towards failure depending on the individual parameters set by the dis- trict. Districts have the ability to set an unlimited number of indicators that are specific to their own needs, including state and local tests with sub- strand support, Gradebook, report card and transcript inte- gration, and attendance per- centages and thresholds, all in customiz- able and dynamic dashboards. With Aeries Analytics, it is now easier than ever to proactively identify those stu- dents who need the most help and put those students on the path to success. Visit Aeries Software at booth #1529. For more information, go to www.aeries.com, call 888.487.7555 or email sales@aeries.com. PEG Writing Increases Student Writing Skills With the advent of new technologies, the world has exploded with online programs designed to help students succeed. However, not all online programs have been proven effective. PEG Writing enjoys a reputation for reliability, validity and effectiveness. PEG Writing uses an automated scoring engine, PEG, to immediately score and give specific feedback on thousands of student essays every year. PEG has won national awards for its ability to match human scoring, and it is the most-researched automated essay scoring engine. As a result, educa- tors can rest assured that students using PEG are receiving valid scores and feed- back. Further, PEG has proven to be a valuable tool to increase teacher effec- tiveness and student skill in writing. One reason for this increase is that students revise in PEG Writing much more than when doing traditional paper- and-pencil writing or even when using Google Docs (Wilson, J., & Andrada, G. N. (2016). Using automated feedback to improve writing quality: Opportunities and challenges; Wilson, J., & Czik, A. (2016). Automated essay evaluation soft- ware in English language arts classrooms: Effects on teacher feedback, student moti- vation, and writing quality). Revision is important, but a study of students from 15 schools and 12 school districts proved just how important revision is. Wilson (2012) found that 67 percent of students initially identified as struggling improved significantly and were no longer consid- ered struggling after independently com- pleting six revisions of their initial draft. These revisions were made using only feedback PEG Writing offered. PEG Writing's automated feedback shows stu- dents how well they are doing in each of six traits of writing as well as descriptive information on how they can improve. In this study, struggling writers improved the most, while all writers saw gains. Other research showed that students with learning disabilities or other high- incidence disabilities (e.g., speech and language impairment) who use PEG appear to close the gap with their non-dis- abled peers. Even though they create rough drafts that are much lower in qual- ity, they are able to use feedback from PEG to produce final drafts of equivalent quality to their non-disabled peers (Wilson, 2017). PEG Writing is engaging. Wilson and Czik's (2016) study found that stu- dents who use PEG Writing demonstrate significant gains in writing motivation. The gaming aspect of PEG Writing, with immediate scores and feedback for each essay, create an atmosphere of competi- tion for students to see how much they can improve their scores. Interactive les- sons that teach and reinforce skills are appealing to students at all grade levels. PEG Writing is an effective partner for teachers. Scores from PEG are able to accurately identify which students may be at risk of failing state writing tests (Wilson, J., Olinghouse, N. G., McCoach, D. B., Andrada, G. N., & Santangelo, T. (2016). Comparing the accuracy of different scoring methods for identifying sixth graders at risk of failing a state writing assessment.). Teachers who use PEG Writing also report that giving students feedback takes about half the time it takes when they are the only source of the feedback, and this timesav- ing does not come with a reduction in the overall amount of feedback given. In addition, these same teachers give signif- icantly more feedback on higher-level writing skills such as idea-generation and organization versus when they are the sole feedback source (Wilson & Czik, 2016). Throughout the writing process, PEG Writing is there to support both teachers and students. For more information, visit PEG Writing at booth #1820. Coming Soon: W3C Standards for Virtual Reality on the Web By Dominique Hazael-Massieux, W3C Community Management Virtual Reality (VR) is the next frontier for immersive entertainment experi- ences that let you physically interact with content on the web. As witnessed by the commercial push during this past year's holiday shopping season, the entertainment industry has been an early adopter of VR, with proprietary solutions offered by a number of lead- ing brands. As the Virtual Reality ecosystem expands, so too does the demand for VR to leverage standard web technologies such as HTML5, and to provide common ways to define, build and interact with 3D content on different devices. In the same way we advanced web standards for the mobile web and web and television, the World Wide Consortium (W3C) – the global stan- dards body for web technologies – con- tinues work to enable Virtual Reality solutions to use the Open Web Platform as a full-fledged development environ- ment. With standards, there will be inter- operability to avoid fragmentation and duplicated effort, which in turn lowers development costs. In order for VR technology to be further defined and integrated into the Open Web Platform, the W3C held a 2017 workshop dedicated to bringing together WebVR stakeholders to identify unexploited opportunities as well as technical gaps in WebVR authoring, and will plan a broad AR workshop in 2018. We will consider the path for formal standardization based on Community Group incubation after our December workshop. For more information about W3C's WebVR activities, email w3t-pr@w3.org. ASHA Raises Concern about Potential Impact of Popular Tech Overuse on Speech & Language Development The American Speech-Language- Hearing Association's (ASHA) Healthy Communication and Popular Technology Initiative focuses upon the potential dan- gers of popular technology overuse. What is the concern in regard to speech and language development? The ages 0 to 3 is a prime period for the development of speech and language skills. It has been proven that human con- versation is the most effective way for a person in that age group to develop strong speech and language skills. However with the advent of digital tech- nology, younger and younger children are given more and more personal digital devices to use at a point in their lives when it is important for them to engage in conversation. What are the consequences for people with impaired speech and language skills? Poor academic perform- ance, poor social skills and a poor-self-image could result. Speech delays have even been linked to mental health issues much later in life, as well as lower employment, according to a recent study in Pediatrics. What are some tips for healthy usage of popular technology? Parents are encouraged to model healthy usage and set usage parameters. A house- hold set of guidelines for popular tech- nology usage is a good start. Families can even go a step further and have everyone sign a pledge to help hold each other account- able. Parents of very young children, especially ages 0 to 3, need to engage in conversation with their children to devel- op their speech and language skills. They can also designate tech-free zones at home, and sponsor tech-free nights and events to keep technology usage reason- able. For more information, go to www.asha.org.