Combining the “Best Instructional Materials”1 with the highest rated2 Video-on-Demand System from SAFARI Montage is giving middle and high school math teachers an opportunity to reach their 21st century students in a manner that speaks the students’ language.
At BestQuest Teaching Systems we have touted our Math’scool and Algebra’scool programs as having been “developed for teachers, by teachers.” BestQuest was formed when five math educators, with over 115 years of combined classroom experience, came together to create a program that would serve to support and not supplant the classroom teacher. Every decision regarding pedagogy, technology, content, and media format was focused on empowering the teacher to be more effective in reaching the 21st century learner while recognizing that technology should not attempt to be a substitute for the instructor.
Feedback from numerous students made it apparent that the production quality of the media had to be comparable to what the students were exposed to in commercial film and television. At the same time, teacher feedback emphasized that the program had to be easy to implement in the classroom and flexible enough to be adapted for a wide-range of instructional challenges. The decision was made at the outset that if the many millions of dollars of investment capital needed to engage some of the top talent in the film and television industry could not be raised, the project would not go forward.
Although the project was led and directed by this team of educators, award-winning talent from the film and television industry was engaged for the audio/video production. We soon realized how much could be gained from the substantial research done in film and television to ensure that the audience is engaged and that the desired message is retained. Bringing the entertainment industry to the table in the program design resulted in many heated discussions and late night conference calls throughout the program development , but the end result was a program that was not only built on sound educational research but also employed many of the techniques used by Hollywood to make sure that kids “don’t change channels.” A quantitative, longitudinal research project performed by The Princeton Review concluded that the use of BestQuest programs produced a statistically significant improvement in achievement.
BestQuest programs have always given the teacher access to engaging audio/video, real-life applications videos, imbedded formative assessments, easy navigation, extensive use of models and manipulatives, and opportunities to differentiate instruction. Now, through the SAFARI Montage system, each lesson can be customized to ideally fit both the instructional objective and the needs of a particular class. Through on-site professional development and free instructional support by phone or email, BestQuest is committed to ensuring that teachers in schools with BestQuest programs on SAFARI Montage are fully equipped to make these programs work for them and for their students.
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1 Association of Educational Publishers Golden Lamp Award for “Best Instructional Materials”-2004
2 The only A+ rating given by The School Library Journal in their January 2007 review of Video-on-Demand systems
Links:
[1] http://www.safarimontagehdnetwork.com/forum/21