At ISTELive 2024 I had the distinct privilege of speaking with Edmentum CPO Todd Mahler. He was kind enough to show me around the Edmentum booth as well as discuss the direction the company is going in and how technology can help students by expanding how educators interact with them.
Making Students the Mission
In speaking with Mahler, it was apparent that the Edmentum’s current focus is on creating and maintaining a student-centered pathway throughout their educational careers.
“Edmentum is a learning acceleration company,” said Mahler. “Everything we do is evidence-backed, research-backed. We use that research to help kids stay on track, help them catch up, help them track their own path. All the solutions that we offer, from digital curriculum to assessments to instructional services are all designed around that learning acceleration paradigm.”
ISTELive 2024 presented a unique opportunity for Edmentum to reinforce their values while making clear how they intend to serve students and educators.
“We are focused on a couple key areas, one being how do we help schools design system-wide intervention from elementary through high school,” Mahler said. “Our secondary key focus this year is very much around career and technical learning, or CTE. We’ve unveiled a brand new CTE catalog. We know there’s a big push across the country for CTE programming to want to help our district partners with the courses they need.”
Preparing Students for an AI-Laden Future
Mahler was adamant about being able to prepare students for a future in technology and AI while emphasizing ethical use and safety practices.
“It’s important for us to prepare kids for a technology-enabled future,” he said. “We must continue partnering with our districts to help them understand how to embrace technology. How do you use it ethically? How do you use it safely? How do you integrate it into the classroom? There is no future where that does not happen.”
Mahler suggested that AI has already been part of edtech for 20 plus years, helping to drive personalized learning. “Now it’s in the hands of everyone,” he said. “It’s become a consumer product. But the same challenges remain. The [AI] tool has to be something that you can put in front of a student with the confidence that it will be accurate, unbiased, and that students will actually be engaged and learn from the tool.”
While AI tools need to help students achieve their goals, Mahler made it clear that teachers must also benefit from AI in the classroom as well.
“On the teacher’s side, it has to be something that will save them time,” he said. “So anything that we do, and we are continuing to explore a number of different applications for technology, is around saving teachers time and ensuring that students can actually engage in a way that is evidence-backed.”