Integrating classes from different schools using intelligent teacher support systems

Abstract

We present a teacher support system to enable inter-class integration with Cross-Border Public Classes. These are lessons where students from classes in two different countries participate in the same lesson synchronously, while tens or hundreds of other teachers actively observe and record their observations. Later, a panel analyzes the lesson and the teacher reviews the observations. The system presented is a cloud-based teacher support system that allows the teacher to ask open-ended questions, with peer review between students. It also summarizes the students’ answers using automatically generated concept maps, as well as recording and analyzing the teacher’s discourse. Furthermore, the system also receives annotations from the observers. We describe our experience of using this system with Cross-Border Public Classes while teaching a lesson in STEM focusing on energy. The lesson involved two eighth-grade classes from two different countries. We found that Cross-Border Public Classes are an innovative alternative made possible by an Intelligent Teacher Support System.