Drowning in resources

Tech department mission: to solve problems you didn't have before there was technology
                                                                                                      Blue Skunk

Last week I had a conversation with a very earnest, smart, and ambitious young man who has a new educational technology application under development that he would like to bring to market. Its primary function would be to assist educators in their efforts to curate and share digital resources using their GoogleDrive collaboratively. It uses a sophisticated form of tagging assisted by AI. It offers a curriculum planning/project management tool. It looks great and useful and friendly. 

I wish the developer only the best but I hope he understands he is going into a tough sales market. Digital tools for educators are not just plentiful - they are overwhelming.

In our district a teacher wishing to compile a list of resources for a unit already has a very long list of options (supported by the district technology and curriculum departments):

• GoogleDocs personal document
• GoogleDocs Team Drive
• Google Classroom
• Google Sites
• Schoology Learning Management System

Then there a lots and lots of "unauthorized" tools that could provide curated lists of materials. Things like Waklet and Edublogs and Symbaloo and - well you get the drift. I would guess not a day goes by that the classroom teacher who tries to keep current on educational technology trends isn't introduced to a new "must-have" application. And those poor souls who suffer from FOMO probably get sucked into trying many of them out.

This flood of new applications may well drown some of our teaching staff and they will simply give up trying to stay afloat. It may well cause students and parents frustrations in learning to navigate 6 different tools used by 6 different teachers. It may overwhelm our tech support staff trying to evaluate these tools for CIPA compliance and to roster them, etc.

So if I had a magic wand, here is what I would require of all new classroom educational technology applications that come to market: 

• It must solve a real problem - as identified by actual classroom teachers.
• It must provide a unique set of useful features.
• It must be designed to work with current systems like popular learning management systems, GSuite, etc.
• It must have been beta tested extensively.
• It must have a clear statement of CIPA/FERPA compliance.
• It must be designed for easy integration with SSO, rostering programs, etc.
• It must come with good tutorials for those using it - for staff, students, or parents.

I am in no way complaining about those brave souls who want to help better education through the use of new applications. It is, after all, how progress is made.

But please make it easier for us in schools (and increase your chance of success) by thinking hard about why you are creating this program. That is is about solving problems in classroom  - not about problems in your bank account.

Comments

[Kenn Gorman]

I read an article making the claim that most people have apps on their phones that they only use once or twice; apps are only updated when you open them; older phones don't always get updates; some of these apps are huge.

The idea was that people will likely go back to doing everything in a browser - always up to date, one app, use all the time.

[Doug Johnson]

Well, browser-based is the whole idea behind the ChromeOS. I pretty much live in my browser!

Doug

[Doug Johnson]

Well, browser-based is the whole idea behind the ChromeOS. I pretty much live in my browser!

Doug

[jim kelly]

Agree with you that projects need to be simple and easy to use to help anyone “… to help a 7 year old (second grader) to add whole numbers ” . Be they classmates, parents of, teachers of, school content coordinator, reference librarians, materials developer, curriculum designers, undergraduates and graduate students who are preparing to help. In this age of an abundance of information, why can we not find useful information to help that 7 year old quickly so that the learning opportunity will not be lost?

Jim Kelly – Toolmaker
www.k-12math.info (a 5 star Merlot open access [no cost or sign in requirement] educational resource and twice one of 25 globally nominated projects (2016 and in 2018) by United Nations members for the WSIS e-learning award.)