1. DENISE WINIFRED HALL EDU 620: Meeting Individual Student Needs With Technology Dr. Benjamin Kirgan, P.H.D.

2. Carole Robertson

3. Sylvan Sync At the Sylvan Learning Center Sylvan Sync is made for the Sylvan Learning Center. Sylvan Sync is an integrated technology platform that is developed by Sylvan Learning, Inc. (“Sylvan Learning”) to provide digital resources to support teaching and learning in ways that are appropriate for students of today.

4. Sylvan Sync This platform helps teachers motivate, engage, and instruct students in a highly individualized manner. The Sylvan Sync platform helps track student progress and identifies the most appropriate learning resources for each student and removes much of administrative burden associated with more personalized approaches to instruction. Sylvan Sync is designed to support the teacher in a distributed-cognition implementation, with people and technology in an intellectual partnership. This is in line with new trends in the industry. Teachers and students use their strengths and skills to form a partnership for learning. Sylvan Sync supports both the teacher and the student by providing an integrated assessment and learning technology platform that personalizes the experience for each student and provides rich forms of content and feedback.

5. For tutoring services at Sylvan, it is the go-to educational resource because they understand that learning should be tailored to fit a child’s needs. In order to boost engagement and make the learning experience more interactive than ever before, they use digital lessons that employ the newest technologies — including iPads. Sylvan offer students the dynamic education they need to succeed. The two main Assistive Technology is the Sylvan Sync and the iPad.

6. SYLVAN SYNC

7. How is the technology implemented?  The iPads are for the teacher to put information on them with the lessons the student needs to learn and improve on. This all depends on the assessments the student took when they came into the school. The lessons are geared and directed for that individual student. Students are on their own academic schedule, the needs the parents want their student to improve on. IPads are not allowed for students to take home but the Sylvan sync is a software that students could use on their computers at home.  The Sylvan Learning Center has a website for the parents to review their students work every week. How the student are progressing and what areas they are having difficulties.

8. Funding: Sylvan Learning Center is a for profit. It is a company To make money. When a parent comes in to get assistant academically the cost of the needs of the student is included in that students requirements. If that student needs AT then it would Cost more for the student to enroll at Sylvan Learning Center. If a Student does not need AT then it would be cheaper. Remember Sylvan, as the center director reminded me that they are in business to make a profit. Whatever the student needs they have to add the additional cost to the basic cost of the program. Sylvan does not receive grants or other funds for Assistive Technology, the parent pays for any extra technology the student needs.

9. Sylvan Learning Center works with most students who come through the door. If there is a Special Needs student comes in with his parents the school will talk to the parents and hear the concerns of the parents and goals of what the parent wants. The school works with all grades K-12. Sylvan Learning Center has a technology center in Baltimore, Maryland. This is were the school orders the AT devices they need. As I understand from the director there is a large variety of resources they can choose from. The director and AT specialist come together with the parent and assess what device would be best for the students needs. Anyone can come to the school and the school brings in all students, does not matter what disability they have. The learning center will use and buy what AT they may need for that particular student.

10. To every three students there is one teacher. For every twenty-four students there are eight teachers. I do believe that they teach in a UDL Design, to cover all the areas of teaching with all children. Using Representation, Engagement and expression.

11. The Technology: Motivates and engages student. It presents well-designed learning experiences and provides frequent feedback on progress. This can enable students to enter a “flow” state that builds their motivation and focus (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991). Technology can engage students in their learning and, over time, build long-term intrinsic interest in the content they are mastering (Lepper & Henderlong, 2000). Expedites and improves assessment. In the past few years, sophisticated technologies are enhancing our ability to customize instruction through adaptive testing and ongoing formative evaluation. Effective embedded assessment is enabling substantial gains in students’ mastery of material while lowering the amount of time needed to accomplish this level of performance (Feng, Heffernan, & Koedinger, 2009). In addition, the National Science Foundation has recognized the promise of this approach and is funding a Pittsburgh Science of Learning project to realize this opportunity (http://www.learnlab.org). http://www.learnlab.org

12. Teachers are required to have six to ten months of training to learn all the different Devices that could be needed for all the students. There is also the Sylvan Mythology of teaching for this learning center. This training is for all the teacher to be able to teach all the courses in their program.

13. The Sylvan Learning Center keeps extra AT devices on the premises. When a particular device does not function appropriately there is a Tech Support number and another device is sent. A copy is sent to the center that needs it and the broken device is sent to Baltimore, Maryland were there main headquarters are located.

14.  The Sylvan Learning Center likes to work with the iPads with the software of the Sylvan Sync. Students can move around the class with the iPads and be flexible the software of the Sylvan Sync can only be used on the computer.  On the server, progress is tracked every twelve hours and parents can see how their student is progressing with the Sylvan software. The parent is always aware of how their student is doing academically.

15. Carole Robertson. kept reminding me they are a business to make a profit. The school has standards and a reputation of doing an excellent job. The door is opened to all students, with disabilities and students who do not have a disability. The school serves all students with any type of disability and will research and locate a device that will work with any student to make sure there are no barriers to Personalizes learning. Recent developments in technology-supported assessments make it possible to obtain reliable insights into student’s academic needs more accurately, and in less time, than was possible with traditional, paper-based static assessments. These advances also make it possible to ensure that students are engaged with learning experiences designed to address their unique needs, continuously monitor their performance and adaptively challenge students with learning opportunities at the appropriate level. After twelve hours of learning students get an assessment and this is recorded on the computer for parents to review.

16. It is a profit making business. Sylvan has franchises and earns money to teach students, it can be students with disabilities or not. It is a profit making business. Sylvan has franchises and earns money to teach students, it can be students with disabilities or not. In past years, Sylvan reported 1998 revenues of $440- million, only about 14 percent of which came from Sylvan Learning Centers, the franchises that sell tutoring services to the families of academically struggling schoolchildren. Sylvan Learning Center is private and is a franchise so every learning center is managed by a different director. A parent has to be very careful on evaluating the learning centers to make sure they believe it is what they want for their child. And the centers are costly, but an investment for their student’s future.

17. Reference Retrieve from http://tutor-mississauga.com/sylvansync-study/ Blumenstyk, G. (1999). Sylvan Learning Systems moves into the higher- education market. The Chronicle Of Higher Education, (27), 36. Retrieve from http://tutoring.sylvanlearning.com/northdallas/Index.cfm