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I wrote a piece for GOOD, the website for people who give a damn, about the teacher effectiveness debate. Join in on the discussion:
Is Teacher Effectiveness a Myth?

As I discussed in part 1 of this series, Bad Tech, technology has become a common fixture in American schools, but the technology itself is often ineffective. Making technology useful and feasible in schools is a complex but still solvable problem.

Part 2: Feasibility

The barely fictional Mr. Jones just received a beautiful new overhead projector the administration bought using money from Grant XYZ. “Great,” Mr Jones is thinking. “How does this thing work?” “Do I even need it?” He has a decision to make. Spend his own time figuring it out, or put it in the closet?

The presence of technology in classrooms does not ensure its use. Teachers often have various gadgets sitting around but don’t have the means to add them into the briskly paced daily schedule. Given the shortage of support and the poor quality of tools, the challenge facing individual teachers can be insurmountable. Sometimes all that great gear—the subject of countless impassioned speeches and much me too hand waiving—lands in the back corner of the un-air-conditioned oven that is an urban classroom and just melts.

Better Tech

The idea of an interactive whiteboard is incredible! Computers in the classroom! But have you seen all the wires they come with? Have you seen the list of features on software like Infinite Campus or Blackboard?

The simple truth about education technology is that it is hard to use. Educators need better software and hardware. Computers without so many wires to connect. Software that’s intuitive. Improving technology will make a massive impact upon how teachers employ it in classrooms.

You know great technology when you see it. Look at an iPod. There are all kinds of other portable audio players on the market with more features, but when you hold an iPod, it’s exactly what you want. You don’t need to look at the manual or ask for help. Using the iPod is effortless, and that’s why it’s been the undisputed favorite for years.

We need the iPod experience in education technology. We need better products designed with teachers in mind. The right product meets a real need and solves a real problem. It works as soon as you get it in your hands. Great technology doesn’t rely upon a laundry list of features or lofty claims about revolutionizing this or that, but makes you question how you lived without and why no one thought of it sooner.

The Problem with Training

Basic theory of human to computer interaction (bear with me here) and user-centered design says that the computer should adapt to the human. Technology that requires hours upon hours of training does not adapt to the human. This is a problem!

Technology vendors love training packages because they can hide a poor design and provide more opportunities for profit. Educators: treat tools that come bundled with such packages as suspicious.

Of course every user does not have the exact same skill level and aptitude for technology, so, reasonably, some users might require training. Regardless of noble intentions, it tends to devolve into a hideous monster. Not only are most sessions needlessly long and mind-numbingly boring, but they are often irrelevant to the entire group. Attendance is often mandatory regardless of skill or aptitude.

Training can ruin users’ perceptions of tools because it is condescending by default. It presents the assumption that the tool is perfect and the user is ignorant. In reality, how often is this true?

Tech Support Staff

Technical support or Information Technology (IT) staff is critical to implementing technology in schools. Many schools do not have professional, full time, and on site support available. Sometimes a school might designate a teacher as a technology lead or divert a paraprofessional to tech support temporarily. However, these are not qualified or experienced support staff, and there is only so much they can do. Phone support and mobile support staff that travel to multiple schools are not enough.

The people making decisions need to understand that quality support is just as important as the product itself. Leaving teachers to fend for themselves has become too common a management tactic in our schools. Teachers have enough responsibilities, and they’re already experts in one field. Politicians and administrators: you can’t have your cake and eat it too. You cannot purchase technology for schools, omit proper support, and still expect progress.

This is the first post of a series where I will discuss problems and solutions in education technology from my perspective as a designer.

The software and hardware in our schools are improving. For years, grant money and budgets have been placing more emphasis on getting technology into schools, and it’s worked. Studies have concluded that in the past 10-15 years, the vast majority of classrooms have added computer(s) and Internet access. This is the result of lots of hard work by educators who want to craft a modern and relevant education for their students, and we should commend them!

Part 1: Bad Tech

However, as any teacher could tell you, the details of how that technology works and whether it is useful are more difficult to discern. Both software and hardware that land in schools can be loaded with so many features they are difficult to use efficiently. Technology companies paint in broad strokes to make products with as wide an appeal as possible, focusing on making huge profits from grant money and district-wide contracts but sacrificing quality. When it comes down to using those products in the classroom, the reality is they don’t often meet the needs of educators.

The technology industry enjoys a privileged position in that no one on the outside understands how technology products function. Making exciting claims of the cutting edge and the never-before-seen is easy, but often the truth is that the underlying techniques, languages, circuits, and knowledge have been around for a decade or more. Educators: remember that next time you’re listening to a sales pitch. Judge the price by measuring the real life benefits. When evaluating both software and hardware, focus on what you need to do, not on what you can do. It doesn’t matter if a new overhead projector will make you coffee and fix leaks in the roof. What matters is whether you need to run a slide show in class.

Training and tech support can help make bad products more usable, as I will discuss in part 2 of this series, but they definitely cannot make up for the truth that we just have the wrong technology in our classrooms. Educators can only do so much to find the right technology. They trust experts to tell them what will solve their problems best. That’s the right thing to do. Unfortunately, some technology experts aren’t out to help. They’re only after profits. We need new companies to guide our educators in implementing solutions that work. Let’s pay them too, but only if they deliver on their promises.

Up Next

In part 2 of this series, I’ll discuss the feasibility of education tech, including how to get the right products into classrooms and what the right products look like. Subscribe to the RSS feed, follow on Twitter, or like on Facebook to be notified.