Vision for Education Project Technology as a tool to help reduce the cost of SAT and college entrance exam prep. With technology and training access to students of all economic backgrounds the SAT can become a level playing field again.

College Board History Non-profit group made up of more than 600 universities, colleges, high schools, secondary schools non-profit and government agencies. SAT used to help colleges chose and sort through students

College Board History, cont. Founded 1900 entrance exam for multiple colleges at once (college board). Base off of the Army’s IQ test, as a way to test a students potential based on their own intelligence not where they gained their education. (Sass and Frontline).

College Board New Changes 2005: addition of writing portion of tests to encourage schools to expose students to more writing experiences (College Board). According to Kaplan Test Prep next round of changes in 2016 possibly an online version.

SAT: Aptitude or Financial Comparison SAT while originally designed to test a students aptitude regardless of type or caliber schooling currently there are concerns over whether or not students with expensive tutoring, coaching or SAT prep courses are receiving an added advantage over those from low or middle income backgrounds. Students who have training, tutoring and direct on-one-on coaching do perform better on the very competitive SAT (Briggs p.11). Can technology and tools available now or in the future offer low cost ways for students from all backgrounds access to SAT and college entrance exam preparation?

How to get the SAT back to its original goal? Use the Future. The college board and all institutions aligned with it need to be open minded and think about the future of the SAT. How can an entrance exam be used to create a level playing field and see true potential of a student if having money to spend pn coaching or training would give you a better score? Use Futuring: All organizations need people within them that can see out into the future. These futurists must be able to make predictions on the direction and changes that an organization should take based on the needs of today and the tools available now and more importantly what tools will be available in the future.

Open to futurists ideas? The futurists needs to be able to “think about the future and help facilitate” the changes and push new ideas (Houle 2008). Any futurist that is developing ideas must be prepared to combat one of the following types of aversions to their new and trending ideas. They must be prepared to combat the following negative thinkers: How will this affect me? Technology is negative. I don’t want to look into the future (Houle 2008).

A futurist tool: Scenarios Scenarios: Free SAT Prep available to all students Interactive Tutoring MOOCs Gamification The futurist develops scenarios: “a description of a future situation and the course of events which allows one to move forward from the original situation to the future” (Mietzner p.223). “aid in decision making in the face of uncertainty” (Mietzner p. 221).

Free SAT Prep If students have access to quality free SAT preparation then any differences that exist between those students who can afford SAT prep and those who can goes away. Also and differential in the scores will fade away as well. Free college entrance exam preparation leads to an open environment where students from all socioeconomic backgrounds can push themselves to their potential and prove their ability and intellect.

MOOCs, Gamification, Online Interactive Tutoring Current MOOC: University of Miami is offereing a MOOC to help students prepare for SAT BIO exams. (McGuire). Online interactive tutoring has proven to help students as these programs are developed to adjust to students weak areas of knowledge. If offered these free tutroing programs would adjust based on each students strengths and weaker areas (Beal 2007). MOOCs: free online lecture type courses run through university with professors teaching large numbers of students. Real professors teaching students online (Johnson). - Free education and training Gaming or Gamification: Educational low cost, or free games downloadable to smartphones or perhaps ipad type technology where students would “accumulate points or other rewards by accepting different challenges” (Johnson p.5) - Free, fun educational tools to help motivate students

Five Years from now: Numerous free college entrance exam MOOCs. Gamification SAT downloadable apps. Online interactive tutoring developed by the college board SAT truly becomes a test of ones ability and aptitude not based on their knowledge gained through their specific education experience

Challenges ahead: College prep is a huge profitable business, offering free tutoring and preparation will effect this business model Cost to develop technology for Gamification. Cost to develop and staff MOOCs Digital Divide that exists There still exists a significant digital divide between students of lower incomes as students of lower incomes have less access to computer and technology in the home (Eamon p. 91) Who decides what is the content of the courses and training.

Preparing for the changes: Collecting funds and spreading the word to investors that might want to help philanthropically. Conduct studies to figure out how to remove the low income digital divide. Tap into what is the most popular forms of technology used by students and have developers begin thinking of ways to integrate software and applications in support of SAT preparation. Move SAT into an online version, so test prep helps familiarize students with the use of computers and the SAT format.

Immediate Changes: Develop a matrix or statistical analysis tool to monitor the current situation for tracking and evaluating the success or changes that may be needed. The parameters within the data to be collected should include income level, hours of SAT test prep, cost of SAT Prep, SAT scores, access to computers and technology. Immediately develop and offer a free online SAT Prep MOOC.

Summary My Vision for Education in 2017 is one where all students have free access to SAT or college entrance exam test preparation through technology regardless of ones income level. This will hopefully remove any special advantage or disadvantage to those of differing family income levels so that the SAT can go back to its roots, an entrance exam designed to show a students aptitude and potential regardless of what type of education they have received.

References: Images: Slide 3: Slide 4: Slide 8: graphic.jpghttp:// graphic.jpg Text: Briggs, Derek C., (2009). Preparation for college admissions exams., NACAC discussion paper. National Association for College Admissions Counseling. Retrieved from: ED505529http://eric.ed.gov/?id= ED Beal, Carole R., Walles, Rena; Arroyo, Ivon; Woolf, Beverly P., (Spring 2007) Online tutoring for math achievement testing: a controlled evaluation. Journal of Interactive Online Learning. Vol 6, Number 1, Spring Retrieved from: College Board (2013): retrieve from: Houle, David. (2008/05/10). What is a Futurist? [Video file]. Retrieved from: Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Estrada, V., Freeman, A., and Ludgate, H (2013). NMC Horizon Report: 2013 higher Education Edition Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. McGuire, Robert (5/13/2013). Two MOOCs make a track record - Q & A with University of Miami Global Academy. MOOC News and Reviews. Retrieved from: global-academy/ global-academy/ Mietzner, Dana and Reger, Guido. (2005). Advantages and disadvantages of scenario approaches for strategic foresight. Int. J. Technology Intelligence and Planning. Vol. 1, No. 2. P Sass, Edmund., American Educational History: Hypertext Timeline., Retrieved from Secrets of the SAT. Frontline., Retrieved from