Colette Coleman had a great piece in EdSurge recently: "5 Reasons Why Great Edtech Products Don’t Succeed." Her argument boils down to edtech companies not fully grasping the realities of life in our schools: overworked teachers, in underfunded classrooms, assaulted by a panoply of demands on their time and attention, are introduced to a dozen new products every day that don’t always align with their instructional style. Products fail because they make life worse, not better.
She’s right. No question about it. But I want expand upon one of her especially salient points: new teachers are growing as resistant to technology in their classes as the veterans. Coleman explains,
First, many worry that their tenuous classroom management will devolve in the new setting of a computer lab or with the excitement of iPads or laptops in their classes. Similarly, they worry that kids will scroll through Instagram instead of actually working on a task online. To avoid these problems, edtech creators are challenged to create a product that’s both educational but also gives students a compelling experience that they won’t want to browse away from.
Fair worries, to be sure. Reading this, I wondered, what is a sufficiently “compelling experience,” and how do we build it?
Only administrators and teachers interact with TeachBoost, not students, so we don’t have to worry about the allure of Instagram quite as much as some of our friends in this industry. Still, we have to be intensely concerned with how TeachBoost is used. Our goal, always, is to provide an easy-to-use platform that serves real needs effectively. We want to provide the best tool for the job.
But what makes tools compelling? When I was still in the classroom, I came across quite a few products that went for style over substance. Cute animations and playful instructions, for example, were supposed to capture students’ attention. Trust me: Instagram wins those battles every time. Substance is far more important than style.
No matter how intriguing a tool is, it will only be used properly if it’s actually useful. I’ve seen students MacGyver the most bizarre workflows to complete assignments using Facebook and email, when we had purchased an app dedicated to the same purpose. The app, however, required more steps, and forced them to do the work in a certain way. It was not the best tool for the job.
As we build a platform to streamline and enhance districts’ teacher effectiveness work, we have to be laser-focused on its utility. We have to ask:
Typically, our customers give us the answers we need, and we build in response.
The most compelling tools are the useful ones, whether for students, teachers, or principals. If the job is worth doing, then the right tools will keep an educator’s attention. Even Instagram can’t win that battle.