Two recent articles, one in EdSurge by Harold Levy and one in The Wall Street Journal by Stephanie Banchero and Erica Philips, illustrate yet again the problem of putting technology ahead of learning for students and schools.
Someone oughta write a book about how to get this right. . . Ah, it looks like Rick Hess and I have taken a shot!
- Schools lack the critical judgment to discern quality.
- Districts have no awareness of what's "cutting edge."
- "Brand" all too often has been a substitute for quality
- There's nothing like a "Gartner" report to guide schools.
- There are no inexpensive experts to level the playing field.
- Buying consortiums haven't worked.
- The lower the level of decision making, the higher the price
- Uneven quality.
- Buying the wrong tech means bad tech wins
- Big salesforces win.
These are very insightful (and experience-based – Harold Levy ran the New York City public school system for three years) observations about how difficult it seems to be for our schools to do good purchasing – and the consequences of this.
If you think about it, a fundamental problem with educational buying (at many levels) is a lack of understanding of what really drives learning. If buyers knew more about the underpinnings of how learning really works (e.g., as summarized in Why Don’t Students Like School by Daniel Willingham, or E-Learning and the Science of Instruction, by Ruth Clark and Richard Mayer, or, hey, at least introduced in that new book by Hess and Saxberg), they’d be in a much better position to evaluate offerings – and to be clear about what they really wanted, regardless of what they are offered.
As Harold wisely points out in points 9 and 10, the signals sent by poor buying habits are readily picked up by sellers: marketplaces are creatures created by buyers, not sellers, so if the buyers buy for the “wrong” reasons (i.e., not about what empirically lifts student learning), the market will adapt to whatever reasons there might be for buying, no matter how unconnected to learning.
The Wall Street Journal article drills down on one specific technology buying issue, the 1:1 tablet buying programs out there.
The issues are not dissimilar – whether it’s LA’s purchase, or Fort Bend’s in Texas, districts seem to be stumbling into technology purchases, trying to do right by students, but unclear on what, exactly, the devices actually should be doing, or can do, in detail to lift learning.
There’s a great quote in the article from Nichole Carter, an eighth-grade English teacher that captures this. She says:
"A tablet is a tool that can enhance a lesson and engage kids," she said. "But you really have to know your content and understand how to teach for it to be effective in helping children learn."
Well, darn it, just so! So who’s gonna lay it down, explain what should be happening, give some guidance about all this? Someone oughta do it. . . Anyone?
In the absence of other evidence-based volunteers, Rick Hess and I have taken a stab at a book on this topic – how you can integrate learning science and technology into better decisions and policies about learning.
Rick was originally asked to pen a book about technology, learning, and education policy, and was nice enough to ask me to help out. (All the good people were taken – he had to go all the way down to the “S's” in his Rolodex. . .) You couldn’t ask for a better lead author on something like this than Rick – he's authored more than 20 books about education, policy, innovation in schools, and more.
This, however, is my first effort at book writing (all the problems are mine, all the good parts are his, just to get that out of the way), so I approached the project with some trepiation. However, when we got together that first day for a long lunch (with his extremely able editorial assistant, Taryn Hochleitner, without whom this book would not exist), we realized the crucial missing element: “learning engineering” – the application of results from learning science at scale to students. (Think about how chemical engineers work from chemistry, but are not chemists – they have other problems to solve, but never lose touch with what chemistry scientists keep evolving about the evidence on how chemistry works. Now replace “chemistry” with “learning.”)
Essentially, the book is a description of what “learning engineering” is, and how the mindset of a learning engineer helps cut through many of the technical, education, and policy decision-making hurdles that our educational system faces these days – and that currently make purchasing technology for learning a minefield.
We start by talking about the nature of the problem today. We then tackle the fundamentals of what learning science says about how learning works – and doesn't work. We talk about how learning engineering is what teachers, principles, district personnel, and state personnel are getting called on over and over to do, without being aware of it. We discuss how technology can help implement the best learning solutions – making them more affordable, reliable, available, personalizable, and data-rich – but the key is to focus on the right learning solutions first, since technology does the same thing to bad learning solutions as good ones. (Your worst ever college professor, now with videos available 24/7, damaging a million students in Kazakhstan instead of just a few thousand a year at your old college. “We are learning with technology now!!” Sigh. . .) From there, we talk about how teachers and schools should think about solving learning problems, how policy matters benefit from this perspective, and how problems and roadblocks can be overcome.
As we note in the book, there are many other good books about technology and schools out there already. What we think we've added to the conversation is the integration of learning science into technology (and other) decision-making – trying to get learning leaders to think deeply about learning first, and then draw on technologies (as old as the book and chalkboard) to bring the best learning solutions to life at scale.
We've gotten some pretty good reviews on the book. A few excerpts (I know, I know, shameless plug alert):
Everyone touching education—from educators to school leaders and from investors and philanthropists to entrepreneurs—needs to understand how to think like a learning engineer and read this book.
Michael Horn, Innosight Institute
“Learning engineering,” the application of learning science to learning at scale, is likely to be a critical ingredient to make progress in online and on-the-ground education in the years to come.
Salman Khan, Khan Academy
This is a “must-read” book for educational leaders, policymakers, educational product developers and those of us who have a stake in our education system. . . . Hess and Saxberg combine a realistic view of technology with an engaging and accurate description of what we know about learning sciences and a discussion about how to combine the two.
Richard E. Clark, University of Southern California
Hess and Saxberg are spot-on about the right future for the role of science and technology in education. They wonderfully combine an enthusiasm for new and creative approaches with a clear-minded “does it really work?” skepticism. This book presents the most clear argument I have seen that learning science can make a huge difference in improving student learning and lowering costs.
Ken Koedinger, Carnegie Mellon University
It’s not the tools, as Rick and Bror point out; it’s the new potential to engineer engaging pathways to mastery, to leveraging great technology and buying time for teachers to build powerful sustained relationships with young people. Rick’s attention to “cage-busting leadership” and Bror’s relentless demand for learning R&D make them great coauthors—and make this a must read.
Tom Vander Ark, Getting Smart
(Thanks to all for these very kind words!)
I'd welcome your own thoughts on the book if you get a chance to dig in!
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