How Technology Helps Address the Long Tail Problem

Today’s education system is designed to teach to the bell curve, to the middle (to the mediocre?).

Source: wikipedia bell curve definition

But the bell curve leaves students at either end of the curve out of the learning process. If we aggregate the number of students being left behind from a classroom to a school to a district, we start to see how many students we are leaving behind. A better strategy for a 21st Century School is to teach to the long tail of a power law.

Source: Wikipedia long tail definition

Millions of students are not satisfied by instruction to the middle. They drop out or stay in, unchallenged, seeking their learning else where. At the CoSN Conference on March 11, I presented these ideas as part of a panel: How Technology Helps Address the Long Tail Problem . I was joined by Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow who presented Speak Up Student Data in her presentation: Addressing Our Long Tail Learnersand Holly Sagues, CTO of Florida Virtual School, who showed us how the serve the needs of Long Tail Learners and the Florida Virtual School everyday.

If you attended our session, please comment and share your thoughts on the topic. We are eager to keep the conversation going!