Sesame Workshop and IBM Team Up to Create Tailored Learning Tools

The new alliance aims to bring educational platforms and products that adapt to individual learning preferences for preschoolers.

Tickle Me Elmo may be able to help children spell and improve their literacy skills in the future, thanks to a new partnership between Sesame Workshop and IBM.

Sesame Workshop, the producers of Sesame Street, announced today a collaboration to use IBM Watson’s cognitive computing technology to bring personalized educational experiences to preschoolers. Entering a three-year partnership now, the Sesame-IBM team will create educational platforms and products that adapt to the learning preferences and aptitude levels of individual preschoolers.

Sesame Workshop will bring its expertise on early childhood education gathered over the course of 45 years of research and more than 1,000 studies on best-practices for early education.

"A generation ago, Sesame Street used the ubiquitous presence of television to reach vulnerable children who did not have access to the learning opportunities that affluent and middle-class kids did. It worked very well,” said Jeffrey Dunn, CEO of Sesame Workshop, in a prepared statement. “Now, through this collaboration with IBM and Watson, we expect to develop the next generation of tailored learning tools.”

Additionally, Watson’s language processing and other cognitive technologies will be used to invent highly personalized learning experiences that can complement instruction from parents and teachers.

Todd Rose, one of the project’s independent advisors and the director of Mind, Brain, and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, noted that not all children learn the same way and plans to develop unique platforms that reflect this fact. "This partnership has the potential to meet the unique educational needs of every child, whether it's through customized content or kid-friendly tools that empower each child to find his or her own path to learning,” he said in a prepared statement.

Currently, Sesame and IBM are in the brainstorming stages of the partnership, “exploring and iterating on a wide variety of interactive platforms and interfaces for use in home and school,” according to a news release. They plan to bring prototypes to educational technology leaders for feedback and domain expertise.  

More information on the partnership can be found on the IBM site.

About the Author

Sri Ravipati is Web producer for THE Journal and Campus Technology. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  •  classroom scene with students gathered around a laptop showing a virtual tour interface

    Discovery Education Announces Spring Lineup of Free Virtual Field Trips

    This Spring, Discovery Education is collaborating with partners such as Warner Bros., DC Comics, National Science Foundation, NBA, and more to present a series of free virtual field trips for K-12 students.

  • glowing padlock shape integrated into a network of interconnected neon-blue lines and digital nodes, set against a soft, blurred geometric background

    3 in 4 Administrators Expect a Security Incident to Impact Their School This Year

    In an annual survey from education identity platform Clever, 74% of administrators admitted that they believe a security incident is likely to impact their school system in the coming year. That's up from 71% who said the same last year.

  • horizontal stack of U.S. dollar bills breaking in half

    ED Abruptly Cancels ESSER Funding Extensions

    The Department of Education has moved to close the door on COVID relief funding for schools, declaring that "extending deadlines for COVID-related grants, which are in fact taxpayer funds, years after the COVID pandemic ended is not consistent with the Department’s priorities and thus not a worthwhile exercise of its discretion."

  • pattern of icons for math and reading, including a pi symbol, calculator, and open book

    HMH Launches Personalized Path Solution

    Adaptive learning company HMH has introduced HMH Personalized Path, a K-8 ELA and math product that combines intervention curriculum, adaptive practice, and assessment for students of all achievement levels.