The Facebook version of the software developed by Summit was used by more than 2000 students and 100 teachers in 2014.
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Social media giant Facebook announced yesterday that it would be partnering with Silicon Valley-based charter school system Summit Public School to introduce what it calls “a classroom experience that’s centered around students’ ambitions that takes advantage of all the technology and information accessible to a kid growing up today”.
This year, Facebook is supporting Summit, which is partnering with public schools that want to explore the personalized learning tool through a pilot program.
It might not be a great effort, but Facebook said this platform is the beginning of a long-term commitment to education software.
The tool, dubbed the “Personalized Learning Plan”, allows K-12 students to schedule and track their coursework and assignments, helping them see how it fits into their skills and career path. Eventually, the social network plans to make the software available for free to all schools in the United States.
“With Summit, it’s starting to feel like we’ve found the ideal partnership”, Cox said.
“When we first heard about Summit Public Schools a few years ago we, like many others, were impressed by their results”, Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox wrote in an announcement. Nine Summit schools and about 20 other schools are already using the platform.
Zuckerberg said at the time that he envisioned taking steps in Newark that included making broad academic improvements, closing failing schools, and investing in charter schools. Summit subscribes to the White House-endorsed Student Privacy Pledge, which means that the Facebook employees working on this project are required to handle Summit students’ data in accordance with the Pledge. In 2014, the couple also donated $120 million to underserved Bay Area schools.
In the years since, efforts to refashion the city’s schools have come under heavy criticism from those who say the plans put forward by Zuckerberg and New Jersey policymakers have fallen well short of their lofty goals.
The system allows content and tests to be delivered online and classroom time is reserved for “teacher-led real-world projects and collaborations”, it said.
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Facebook and Summit alike stated that the project is in line with student privacy practices recommended by the federal government, meaning that any student data that Facebook collects will be off-limits for its other businesses.
