Systemic change is needed in learning
Personalization is key
Empower a thriving ecosystem to accelerate outcomes
NLabs = Equity and Excellence
We are NLabs, a group of school districts and educational institutions doing something audacious to improve students' learning outcomes: building and implementing Navigated Learning (NL). NL allows us to address the challenges we face in a way that is generalizable to all other learning environments.
Why We Need NLabs
To establish equity and excellence in learning, we recognize that any meaningful solution will require changes to the way we think about education and how we measure learning outcomes. This is a complex process. In order to effect real change, our strategy must:
- Be designed for equity
- Enable lifelong learning at scale
- Uphold privacy and keep data secure
- Provide total choice as to why, what, where, and how to learn
- Be interoperable
- Include all types of learning activities
- Work in low-technology environments, and
- Continually improve
In trying to meet these needs, learning providers use many educational tools, from platforms like iStation, Newsela, and Zearn, to state standardized tests, team projects, after-school programs, and so many more. However, data from each of these tools only show pieces of the whole learner. Without aggregating data across tools and programs, learning providers cannot truly understand the whole learner. With a better understanding of our learners, we can:
- Provide personalized instruction for each learner
- Provide real-time actionable insights to stakeholders
- Enable systemic change in learning
What We Have Built
Over the past several years, the NLabs Founding Districts – Val Verde Unified, Lammersville Unified, Galt Elementary, and Leadership Public Schools, together with Gooru have been developing and implementing the Navigated Learning approach.
In the process, we have co-created Gooru Navigator, a set of free and open applications for students, teachers, principals, parents, curriculum designers, and school administrators that leverage the Navigated Learning approach. And then we open-sourced it to make it available for all other Districts in the US and around the world.
Explore the Navigator tools co-developed by NLabs and Gooru
What is an NLabs School?
When joining NLabs, your school becomes a pioneer in the co-creation of the Navigated Learning approach:
- First – You are empowered to aggregate your data. Using an interoperability framework, your tool providers can now share the data your learners generate on their tools, into a Data Lake that YOU own.
- Second – You will more fully understand each learner’s location, in terms of their knowledge, mindsets, and community engagement. Your learners’ identity will now be updated in real-time as data from learning activities flows into your Data Lake, providing you an increasingly comprehensive understanding of each learner’s gaps, needs, and proficiency.
- Third – You are empowered to leverage your data to meet your learning goals.
Through Gooru Navigator for learners, you will be able to leverage your data to provide highly personalized pathways of open resources to your students, and through the Navigator for teachers and leaders tools, you will be able to provide real-time actionable insights to all other stakeholders.
The Benefits of NLabs
Accountability
Administrators use real-time insights to achieve their school accountability plans
Productivity Boost
Teachers increase their productivity by up to 20%
Own Your Data
Aggregate data across activities, adhere to local privacy and global data security norms
Personalization
Students get personalized pathways to accelerate learning by 2X
Dedicated Engineers
Get dedicated engineers to support and help make the tools even better.
Be Recognized for Pioneering Innovation
NLabs schools are at the leading edge of this pioneering innovation and are set to be the exemplar implementers that will be showcased as Navigated Learning goes global.
- Use Gooru Navigator district-wide
- Innovate and lead its evolution
- Showcase your success
Innovations in 2021-2022 School Year
Gooru Navigator for core subjects
- Grades 2-to-HighSchool Math
- Grades 6-8 Science
- Grades 5-8 ELA
Gooru Navigator enhancements
- Mobile app for parents
- Mobile app for teachers
- Learning Registry of all of the district’s premium tools and content
- District Data Lake that dynamically aggregates all data
- Usability improvements
- Additional dashboards and reports for teachers
- Accessibility, Privacy, Security, and Interoperability
Asynchronous and Synchronous Training for Teachers, Admins, and School Leadership
- Gooru Navigator Professional Development for Teachers
- Training for Administrators
Community Forum
- Students and teachers in a class can interact in a discussion forum
- Teachers, Parents, and Administrators have their own channels to share and discuss
Mission Control for Principals
- Dashboards to monitor the progress of ELL, IEP, and Special Need Students as per LCAP
- Dashboard to monitor core content area progress
- Provide a Parent Training Course in Spanish for use with Navigator for Learners in Spanish
- Facilitate “share and discuss” teacher successes
Support
- Engineers on-call, so we can fix things immediately
- 1-3 office hours/week where people can join to ask questions