Squirrel AI Learning by Yixue Group attends US iLC Conference on Technology-driven Individualized Teaching

DENVER, June 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --The sixth iLearn Collaborative (iLC) Annual Conference was held this year in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 2009, the iLC became an independent non-profit organization in 2016, committed to facilitating communication between schools and regional projects, and based on technology, promoting learner-centered individualized learning practice, educational talent development and knowledge innovation. 

The conference was attended by representatives of 13 education providers, including Odysseyware, Squirrel AI Learning, Edgenuity, Dreambox Learning and ClassLink, as well as first-line teachers from regional schools. One of the topics discussed at this conference was how teachers gave a student-centered lesson in class when blended learning was adopted, and how they discussed with students on the blended learning experience. During the period, they shared success stories of technology integration and blended teaching, as well as challenges.

Erika Twani, one of the keynote speakers, is the CEO of Learning One to One Foundation. As a non-profit organization founded in 2011, Learning One to One Foundation uses the method of FRE (Fontan Relational Education) to develop people's intellectual, individual, social and affective cognitive abilities. FRE is a teaching mode in which the learning paths are formulated for learners at different levels according to their ability and interest, linking what they learn with their actual conditions. Besides, technology is used as a tool platform for individualized learning. Supported by one-to-one academic guidance and a cloud-based (online) one-to-one computer system, this technology can effectively coordinate and attract students.

Erika Twani explained the effectiveness of individualized learning from the perspective of neuroscience. She said, "Whenever we provide useful feedback to our students, we make dopamine released in their brains. If this becomes a habit, they will develop a habit of self-regulated learning. Therefore, a good learning system should offer individualized experience, rather than individualized content."

Besides, she argued that there are four important points about learning. The first is individualized learning experience. During individualized learning, the right side of your frontal lobe studies something new, and thus individualized learning experience can cause adrenaline released in your brain; the second is reality-associated learning; the third is some exercise and repetition. Continuous feedback will ensure that students don't have spare time, and they will be able to understand what is presented and then newly created neurons can be connected; the final is development of a learning method, which embraces the above three characteristics.

Squirrel AI Learning was the only Chinese company to attend the iLC conference. Formerly known as Yixue Education founded in Shanghai in 2014, Squirrel AI Learning is striving to develop an AI system using advanced algorithms to provide students a one-to-one individualized education program and implement a one-to-one teaching process. 

At the conference, Dr. KP Thai, a senior scientist on data and learning of Squirrel AI Learning, took part in a discussion about "Providing Every Student with an AI Expert Teacher", briefing the other participants on Squirrel AI Learning's product characteristics: students are put at the core and provided with an AI-based education solution to make individualized learning on a large scale possible. On the premise of providing students with one-to-one individualized guidance based on AI teaching, real teachers can offer on-site or after-class specific support with sociable and inspirational function.

Dr. KP Thai particularly emphasized, "In a student-centered classroom, our AI teacher can work with real teachers to develop lifelong learners. Our method is different from the traditional education mode, in which teachers teach students the same content on the platform in hopes that all students can master all knowledge at the same speed within the same period of time. In this rigid teaching mode, students usually feel bored and thus fall behind in study. However, when a student-centered blended learning environment is integrated with AI adaptive learning, paradigm education can be turned into a deeper conceptual understanding and more advanced thinking skills. Moreover, this new mode can promote the development of the social and metacognitive skills that have drawn much attention in the 21^st century."

Squirrel AI Learning judges and analyzes students' learning advantages and disadvantages through data subdivision, providing teachers with a feasible and immediate suggestion and helping them conduct a continuous formative assessment in real time, thus reducing or eliminating the evaluation management time and scoring time. This will form a positive feedback loop and provide every student with proper guidance, practice, feedback and level positioning, so as to provide students with fresh, interesting learning content to improve their engagement. In addition, AI teaching can help to develop students' skills for the 21^st century, enable them to master critical thinking, fluent communication skills, innovation design and extensive cooperation skills, determine resources and enhance their knowledge and understanding of the world. AI-based adaptive learning technology improves the learning efficiency, provides teachers with feasible solutions, and offers students a good learning environment, enabling teachers to make full use of students' curiosity to engage them in challenging collaborative activities and help them complete their study independently.

Besides, at the conference, Dr. Tim Hudson, the Chief Learning Officer of DreamBox Learning, made a speech on "Helping Students with Individualized Blended Learning". Founded in 2006, DreamBox Learning is an online learning platform for secondary school mathematics based in the USA, providing adaptive courses for students at grades 6-8. Dr. Tim Hudson believes that individualized learning will be a real solution to the problem of education and learning in the future. He said, "Especially in terms of mathematics, it is boring to most students. For classroom instructions, class exercise and various tests, teachers cannot evaluate students' understanding and mastery of knowledge one by one. In addition, some analysis shows that of thousands of middle school mathematics assignments, only 9% enables students to think at a higher level, while 2% has something to do with experience of life. Therefore, individualized learning must be able to guide and motivate students to ask questions and think so that they can learn knowledge actively in an effective way. In the future, individualized learning will depend on the design and operation of teaching methods and innovative learning experiences. "

According to relevant statistical surveys, 25% American students have adopted adaptive learning products, which have helped them improve the learning efficiency; nearly 70% people think that individualized learning is very important; 52% people think that the intervention of technical means is the most effective approach. Today, technology-centered and student-centered professional development programs are helping educators give full play to students' potential, and technology-driven differentiated teaching is helping achieve real educational fairness and efficiency faster and better. This has become the striving direction and key topic in the development of educational technology.

SOURCE Squirrel AI Learning