{"id":5205,"date":"2020-06-17T12:15:27","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T10:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/?p=5205"},"modified":"2020-06-25T08:09:40","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T06:09:40","slug":"using-data-to-improve-outcomes-in-early-childhood-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/news\/using-data-to-improve-outcomes-in-early-childhood-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Data to Improve Outcomes in Early Childhood Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

A significant change in the practices of most industries is the availability of data. Using data driven insights to guide practices has influenced sectors and businesses across the globe. Education is no different. Like most sectors, education is adjusting to how best to collect and use data to improve student outcomes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cUltimately, the future generation of leaders \u2013 the ones that are currently going through our early education system, will be the global citizens of tomorrow. They will help solve our most pressing problems. It is therefore key that they are prepared for the future that they will help create.\u201d Adventurers Education cofounder Matthew Gillet has said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At Adventurers, we provide early education services to children from 6 weeks to 6 years of age. This means that we want all our children to be ready to thrive in a school environment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Research has shown that brains are \u2018built from the ground up\u2019. This means, that unlike organs such as the heart or lungs, that function from birth in much the same way that they will for the rest of a person\u2019s life, the brain is different. The brain\u2019s development depends on what it encounters, particularly in those valuable early years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Language \u2013 and conversation with children \u2013 is like fertiliser for the brain. Growing brains need \u2018language nutrition\u2019 in order to help them grow, so that they can reach their potential.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Early talk is one of the most significant factors that influence school readiness. However, how do we know if we\u2019re talking enough?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The amount we talk is different to, estimating the temperature outside, where we can naturally estimate how warm or cold it is. We have difficult estimating how much we talk. The talk equation is further complicated by the fact that that adults <\/span>overestimate<\/span><\/i> how much they talk. This is where technology can provide useful feedback.<\/span><\/p>\n

The LENA foundation has developed small wearable technology \u2013 known as talk pedometers \u2013 that measure different metrics related to talk with children.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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On \u2018LENA days\u2019 each child in a classroom will wear a child-safe recorder, which records audio information for that day. The data will then be processed in LENA\u2019s secure, cloud-based software to provide key information about the language environment. This lots of different data, including how many adult words were used, how many child vocalisations there were, the level of background noise, and how many back and forth interactions there were between adults and children.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"LENA has different coaching programs that work with families at home, as well as early education teachers that are interacting with children. These provide a framework for using the data to improve key metrics. There\u2019s no point having cutting edge technology if you can\u2019t then use those insights in order to change practices.<\/span><\/p>\n

LENA is used in over 200 sites around the world, with Adventurers being the only early childhood service in Australia to use the technology to coach staff. \u201cUsing LENA\u2019s technology provides actionable data that has helped our teachers become more aware of the importance of language in their classroom, and helps them to provide a language rich environment that will ensure their children are ready for school\u201d Adventurers cofounder Matthew Gillet said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Learn more about <\/span>LENA<\/span><\/a> or <\/span>Adventurers Education<\/span><\/a> by clicking the links.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A significant change in the practices of most industries is the availability of data. Using data driven insights to guide practices has influenced sectors and businesses across the globe. Education is no different. Like most sectors, education is adjusting to how best to collect and use data to improve student outcomes.\u00a0 \u201cUltimately, the future generation …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1181,"featured_media":5211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,165],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5205"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}