IDEAL (Integrated Data to Enhance Arizona’s Learning) is an online, personalized, lifelong learning environment available to every Arizona K-12 student and certified teacher. Through a partnership between the Arizona Department of Education and alt^I, The Applied Learning Technologies Institute at Arizona State University, over 1 million K-12 students and 58,000 teachers receive IDEAL accounts, providing customized access to education and information–forever.
CURRICULUM & INSTRUCTION
Resources offered by IDEAL include:
- An on-demand library of over 3,000 educational video titles, streamed to the user’s computer desktop
- Interactive multimedia, standards-based math lessons
- Downloadable lessons from across the curriculum, including Fine Arts, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, and PE/Health
- Links to educator-reviewed web sites indexed by subject
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
IDEAL connects teachers with development courses and materials for career advancement.
- How-To Center ~ Teacher development materials covering everything from how to use popular software applications in the classroom, to creating lessons with primary sources, to using digital cameras and troubleshooting computer problems.
- ADE Reference Library ~ Searchable online database of trade books aligned to the Arizona Academic Standards by grade level, subject area, strand, concept, and/or students’ reading levels.
- Recipes4Success ~ Interactive lessons to help you learn software applications such as PowerPoint, iMovie, and Photoshop
- Course Catalog ~ Online professional development courses from ASSET, the George Lucas Educational Foundation, Intel Foundation, PBS TeacherLine, TEAMS, and Thirteen Ed Online. Graduate credit is available for specific courses.
ASSESSMENT
IDEAL gives teachers access to the Formative Assessment Test Item Bank, to provide:
- Insight on students’ strengths and conceptual errors in relation to specific course concepts
- Guidance to improve student understanding
- A means of monitoring progress in learning
- Diagnostic information concerning students’ understanding of concepts
- Feedback to the instructor about the effectiveness of instructional activities
Arizona Schools Improvement Plans ~ IDEAL streamlines the implementation of state-required assessment and accountability with intuitive online tools for composing and submitting Arizona Schools Improvement Plans (ASIP).
Among the features planned for future roll-out is parental access to student performance data, helping parents be active partners in their child’s education. IDEAL recognizes that participation from every member of the Arizona educational enterprise — administrator, teacher, student, and parent — is necessary to give our students the best educations possible, and IDEAL will continue to build on its current offerings to achieve this goal.