We’re gearing up for the International Society for Technology in Education 2014 Conference (ISTE) coming up on June 28th. We have had the opportunity to speak with several exhibitors. Among these exhibitor companies is TiltonTec. TiltonTec’s main offering is Tilton’s Algebra. This is not some run-of-the-mill algebra program. It is hyper-focused on the first year algebra student. We had a chance to ask the founder of TiltonTec, Kenneth Tilton, a few questions about his products. You can check out TiltonTec during ISTE at booth #1260.

What does TiltonTec do?

Development of exceptional educational software using expert-system technology to take interaction beyond straight answer-response.

Who is Tilton’s Algebra for? Who is the target user?

I am focusing on the first year Algebra student, that being the point at which the wheels fall off or not. What is interesting is that this market is bifurcated into young teens taking Algebra for the first time and so-called “developmental math” students ten years (or twenty) older who have finally decided to attend a two-year college only to discover they must still confront Algebra. They must pass the entrance exam or pay for Algebra credits that do not even count towards a degree. Many will fail repeatedly and never get a degree, costing them their dreams, the schools their students, and businesses a better-educated workforce. And the two-year colleges still have no idea what to about this, though a Carnegie-financed program called Statways/Quantways had great results in a pilot program.

What makes Tilton’s Algebra different from other algebra-based software?

Ironically, when I sold a simpler version for the desktop back in the ’90s, teachers mentioned they liked that it did not give students too *much* help (some others even gave solutions). I think this is where my experience as a tutor made me a better software designer: I want kids to sweat! But at the same time I do something I have seen only in Mathspace: I check every step of a problem, not just the answer. That is critical in Algebra where a solution can require four or five steps, and the first is usually the hardest. So kids are just spinning their wheels if we wait until they get the wrong answer before telling them they messed up. So here I am making things easier simply by having them fail faster and making their practice time more efficient. And they do not have to fail: at any step the software offers Socratic hints, video lessons germane to the step at hand (I am just starting to tape those), and in different modes will either finish the problem for them or solve a similar problem. During so-called “missions” they get zero help but unlimited tries at passing — my model here was the Gran Turismo driving game. It took me two weeks to pass the professional license (on the Monte Carlo course) so I must have failed a thousand times but I saw steady improvement and had a blast. And when I succeeded, it was no accident. I think that is a good model for learning anything. btw, One other distinguishing feature: I worked as hard on the WYSIWYG maths editor as anything else because easy keying of complex math is to me essential to drawing kids into the substantial amount of practice required to internalize the many rules of Algebra. Lately I have added “flipped learning” and social elements, all integrated with the practice engine. I have added a lot of features including the integrated video and a forum where one can easily mix math and natural language to ask and answer questions. This I hope will give the math aces a place to be a hero with their peers, something they do not always get. I do not think there is anything else that provides such an integrated, immersive Algebra learning environment. And a final differentiator: I am just starting to add myself to the product. Everyone agrees on one thing in education: a good teacher is the biggest factor determining learner success. The videos you will see published within the application will offer students anywhere a chance to experience my energy and pedagogical style and perhaps get a different feel for mathematics. Sal Khan does a solid job here, but he is never on camera and his videos are only loosely integrated with the practice work. That itself could be stronger, and I understand they are working on that. Am I the best teacher alive? No, but my students and clients always saw their scores jump, so I should be able to help. Either way, I think in the future we will not see on-line educational software that does not come with a teacher or two “inside”. (Actually, I just remembered a good teacher live and on camera, on Udemy I think, or Coursera. There again the practice environment got short shrift.)

Why did you get involved in the Ed-Tech space?

I thought the best way to treat my entrepreneurial bug was to combine my two professional skills of, first, private Algebra tutoring and later advanced software architecture to produce a software simulation of a private Algebra tutor that could work as I did alongside the student offering hints, corrections, solved examples and general encouragement.

Tell us about your team and their backgrounds

I am just now expanding beyond a team of one, with a great graphic designer still as a contractor and a new part-time assistant giving me amazing feedback on the software from features to bug reports, so really it is still just me. I taught and tutored science and Algebra for seven years and have been heads down on sophisticated business software (and my Algebra software!) for 33 years.

What is the next step? What do your current goals look like?

The product is at once mature and ready for its first pilot schools. Algebra I is a problem worth concentrating on and really nailing. In fact i am in contact now with a seminal two-year college developmental math expert interested in getting help adding software to his curriculum. Natural follow-ups would be Pre-Algebra, Algebra II, and Geometry. I would also be interested in finding other good teachers and replicating this teacher-in-a-drum model (combined with assisted activities). I have had very preliminary discussions with a chemistry teacher with many ideas for tasks a computer could learn and then assist with.

Where can people find out more?

On tiltontec.com you can expand each bullet to learn my thinking on various elements of the design, and there you will find a couple of links to the core Algebra learning system, tiltonsalgebra.com. As I said, we are just getting ready for our first pilot users so we are still in beta (I am working on password recovery today!) but overall it is definitely solid enough to explore.