What the Knewton System Does

It was a crude approximation of Knewton's system, but the protocol was basically the same: establish a learning goal, figure out what I already know, figure out how I best learn, and intervene when I get stuck all within the constraints of time and ability.

The whole point of the movie is you can't measure heart, says Ferreira. You can only do so much with data. We'll be able to measure what you know. We'll be able to measure how well you know it. We'll be able to measure how fast you learned it. But there are things that we can't measure. What Knewton doesn't have is higher-order thinking skills, passion, imagination, drive. I didn't build Knewton as a way to measure people. I built it as a way to help make their homework better and their classes better.

In the end, Ferreira says, adaptive software and the psychometric data they accrue are only tools for teachers to help students, and for students to help themselves. It cannot make turn lousy teachers into good teachers. It does not necessarily cure fear, it does not necessarily fix apathy, and it cannot measure heart. But in the complex human systems of the new American university and its other school officials, where many try hard and some get by, it might help make everyone's best a little better.