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Can EdTech tools actually help students to learn better? Can they prove effective without investing excessive time and money? If yes, then the Request for Proposal (RFP), which consists of a total 36 pages, issued by the Office of Educational Technology under the US Department of Education sounds logical.
The RFP aims “to find support services to evaluate educational software applications purchased with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) program funds.”
EdTech for better education
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The mission of the initiative is to develop a set of tools to carry out “rapid-cycle technology evaluations” that comprise of building guidelines, evaluations strategies and methods, protocols for establishing the experiments & documenting results. The proposal is set to close on 3rd September, 2015.
@tonywan ,Managing Editor at educational technology information resource EdSurge, recently wrote “Eliminating tools that are unproductive is important. Given how the US has drilled into trying to evaluate and assess teacher performance over the past five years, it seems like more than poetic justice that edtech tools should be put under the same kind of scrutiny.”
He added “That said, products face a challenge similar to evaluations of teacher performance: What makes a tool or a process “work” in education - particularly in K-12—is subject to a host of factors, some of which are entirely outside the realm of the design of the tool.”
EdTech analyst Phil Hill believes that the RFP is “almost a good idea.” He thinks that every effective assessment of education tools needs to consider the importance of the support structures and the staff and within the institutes.
He said “Edtech apps by themselves do not ‘work’ in terms of improving academic performance.”
Value of motivation
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However, the analysis of educators and technology tools somehow ignore the need for motivation. When a teacher is motivated, he can teach and inspire students in a way that goes beyond the chalkboard and the classroom. Still there are some teachers and parents who are satisfied simply by putting the kids before a computer or even a tablet and allow software programmes do all the work.
Director of the Office of Educational Technology, Richard Culatta, says that the conventional way to EdTech effectiveness “does not work well in the rapidly changing world of educational technology.”
He believes that conducting research is a time consuming practice, while businesses, particularly, startups, are keen on moving at a rapid pace.
Wan wrote “The idea of doing short-cycle efficacy studies is by no means new. The iZone, a unit within the New York City Department of Education, hosts its own “Short-Cycle Evaluation Challenge” to bring teachers and developers together to pilot edtech tools for one semester. In California, two nonprofits- the Silicon Valley Education Foundation and New Schools Venture Fund- have teamed up to run three-month efficacy trials involving educators and entrepreneurs. And this summer, Chicago-based LEAP Innovations received a $5.1 million Gates Foundation grant for similar efforts.”
Need for alignment
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Wan concluded that research projects should keep pace with how businesses operate. Aligning these processes will surely be a major challenge for this project. Devising a feasible medium is critical not just for the industry, but also for the millions of students and teachers who shouldn’t have to wait years before finding out what works.
A recent report published , confirms a huge investment had been made for promoting education technology. This would surely be a boost for the research process to bring up new educational softwares.
A recent report published , confirms a huge investment had been made for promoting education technology. This would surely be a boost for the research process to bring up new educational softwares.
Education Technology Deals Reach $1.6 Billion in First Half of 2015 https://t.co/RWhjzqNd8k pic.twitter.com/PAweEDa79i
— Tony Wan (@tonywan) August 12, 2015
What do you think? Feel free to add to the discussion by sharing your personal opinions and views with us. We would like to hear from you.
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