1. NESI (New Era School Initiative) educators use learning efficiency to increase learning rates and fight ignorance faster. They use the motto, "Decrease ignorance to increase choices." That means, less ignorance is best. School educators accept this commitment over other reasons and practices for schooling.
2. NESI shows how to increase learning rates through lessons based on existing empirical, experimental, behavioral research descriptions of how people learn, including with Tablet and other mobile PCs. NESI is a proof-of-concept description of what’s possible in schools today. This concept is set in a fictionalized school with students and educators in Normsville, California. NESI identifies necessary parameters that educators as well as Tablet and other mobile PC education software developers may use to offer programs that increase learning rates.
3. Educators and mobile PC education software developers use empirical, experimental, behavioral research findings to know how people learn. Behavioral researchers have expanded this body of principles for over a century. Students use fewer resources to learn faster with fewer errors when educators, instructional procedures and material follow these principles.
4. Board of education policies prescribe acceptable minimum learning rates for students to exceed minimum state academic standards. This policy establishes an external validity check teachers may use to refine instruction intended to meet standards. The board accepts educator recommendations of how many minutes on average teachers have and how many steps learners must take on average to meet and then to exceed each standard.
5. School board budgets distribute necessary resources, without revenue increases, for students to exceed state standard. Budgets include contracts with a research university to provide real-time feedback to educators of student learning progress. The board accepts NESI as a core, not an add-on approach to learning. It distributes resources accordingly to insure that all students increase learning rates promptly and dramatically.
6. Teachers count and record lessons at least in seconds and trial-blocks to calculate learning rates. Teachers count, for example, elapsed clock time and number of student response errors as they meet each lesson’s learning criterion. Teachers select new instructional software to use that monitors such counts in real time.
7. Developers refine descriptions of experienced teachers’ instructional patterns to increase learning efficiency with Tablet and other mobile PC software. These descriptions exist in reports of empirical studies ranging from direct instruction to leading Harkness table discussions.
8. Teachers work with software developers and learning analysts to decrease lesson preparation and increase instruction time within the normal school day. This time balance occurs through sequential revisions in instructional software that refine the fit between learning principles and lesson content.
9. Educators and education software developers decide how much and how fast learners will exceed each learning criterion. They choose instructional procedures, material, and manual as well as electronic communication technologies for learners to meet and exceed those rates for each student. Teachers make these selections from a large library of databased options for each lesson. These data indicate which options will likely result in prompt learning.
10. Teachers report fewer classroom distractions from students as learning rates increase. The more focused the lessons, the more students attend to lessons and meet learning criteria.
For more information about NESI, check under key words New Era School Initiative
Accelerated K12 Mobile Learning: Press Release
