[zackzackzack]

I suppose the core of my objection is the focus on technology being the solution to the problem of students not learning. It feels like it is really easy to fall into the trap of "Students who clicked 5 times instead of 4 when navigating to the back button were found to have performed marginally better within the 5th percentile, but significantly better overall."

The tools are all there and I agree that some good will come out of it. But without a motivation to learn something, I don't see these technologies as being a solution. More of an amplifier of a solution than anything else. Start ups focused around creating technology to measure students seem like a good way to make the above "quadruple click back button for success" scenario play out somehow.

[scott_s]

Look at it this way: colleges can't control a student's internal motivation. But they can control how they structure class time, and how they intervene with troubled students. So they're focusing on what they can control instead of what they can't.

Although, I think that well-timed intervention can help students with motivation problems. Students tend to lose motivation when they're struggling and don't know how to improve.

[teyc]

Very true. Much is already known about the rites/rituals/practices of successful students. It is a matter of giving timely feedback to encourage students to stay on course.