
Apple’s digital textbook announcement has barely had time to sink in and publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is already touting the results of a year-long iPad algebra I textbook program.
The program entitled “HMC Fuse: Algebra I” was conducted at Ameila Earhart Middle School in California’s Riverside Unified School District. HMF is claiming the digital textbook is the first full-curriculum algebra application developed in the world, and it's exclusive to the iPad. Huh, who knew learning could be an iPad exclusive app?
The results from the pilot program showed that HMC Fuse helped 78 percent of students score “Proficient” or “Advanced” on the spring 2011 California Standards Test. This is nearly 20% higher than the 59% of students who scored in the above categories using only traditional textbooks. These scores are also 10% higher than the first semester the HMC FUSE program was used back during the second trimester of the 2010-2011 school year.
"By engineering a comprehensive platform that combines the best learning material with technology that embraces students' strengths and addresses their weaknesses, we've gone far beyond the capabilities of an e-book to turn a one-way math lesson into an engaging, interactive, supportive learning experience. With HMH Fuse, teachers can assess student progress in real time and tailor instruction as needed.” — Bethlam Forsa, executive vice president of Global Content and Product Development at HMH.
"Students' interaction with the device was more personal. You could tell the students were more engaged. Using the iPad was more normal, more understandable for them." — Earhart Principal Coleman Kells.
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