How Colleges Can Keep away from Losing Cash on Know-how

Early in Brian Seymour’s know-how director profession within the Pickerington colleges in Ohio, the district determined to spend $50,000 on a product. As quickly because the district received the product, it didn’t work, and the corporate didn’t wish to give any a reimbursement.

Loads of different Okay-12 district know-how leaders have had that downside, too. The common variety of know-how merchandise that districts entry in a given month has virtually tripled over the past a number of years, and faculty programs collectively spend billions of {dollars} a yr on ed tech. However oftentimes, the effectiveness of these merchandise isn’t clear.

In a June 28 presentation in the course of the Worldwide Society for Know-how in Schooling convention right here, Seymour—who’s now the assistant superintendent of lecturers and innovation for the Whitehall Metropolis colleges in Ohio—mentioned methods to make sure different districts don’t make the identical $50,000 (or costlier) mistake that he made.

Probably the most crucial technique is making a plan to judge any digital software that districts are utilizing or desirous about utilizing, Seymour mentioned.

For his district, he created two flowcharts—one for evaluating digital instruments the district is at the moment utilizing and one other for evaluating any new digital instruments being thought-about. For every flowchart, there are questions for the curriculum division and for the know-how division.

As an illustration, when evaluating present instruments, the curriculum division must reply questions on whether or not the software is aligned to the district’s educating and studying priorities and if it offers applicable and usable proof of that studying. The know-how division solutions questions on whether or not it really works successfully with present units and contains a good, robust scholar data-privacy coverage.

“The largest factor that has made this [process] profitable is there was alignment between the tech division and the curriculum division,” Seymour mentioned. “Your tech director and your curriculum director ought to be greatest pals. In the event that they’re not, you’re going to have some issues with [this process].”

Districts ought to have a information for inspecting totally different parts of an ed-tech product, akin to its data-privacy coverage, whether or not it has commercials, how a lot it prices, and the way a lot customization it permits, Seymour mentioned. Together with inspecting these parts, districts ought to guarantee that there’s impartial analysis that exhibits the software works.

There also needs to be pilot applications and a committee of stakeholders, together with academics and college students who will probably be utilizing the digital instruments, who present suggestions on whether or not the know-how is working for its supposed objective.

The message: Choices about what know-how merchandise to make use of in colleges shouldn’t be made in isolation, Seymour mentioned.

“I’m not within the classroom,” he mentioned. “I don’t understand how this program works when it’s truly put within the classroom. So I would like suggestions from academics. I would like suggestions from youngsters.”

With regards to working with ed-tech corporations, ensure that it’s a partnership, Seymour mentioned. Distributors shouldn’t simply promote you their product after which disappear till it’s time to resume the contract.

He added that his district doesn’t signal multiyear contracts with distributors, as a result of he doesn’t wish to be “locked into one thing” and “dread having that program” that doesn’t work.

And lastly, districts ought to begin this analysis course of early. Seymour mentioned he begins in February as a result of he needs to make sure that academics know earlier than the summer season what merchandise they’ll have the next college yr in order that they have time to organize.