From Accents Online January 8, 2015
When the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, confusion and wasted time ensue. A recent report from Digital Promises and the Education Industry Association shows this may be the case between educators and education-technology providers.
Districts are often unclear about their instructional needs, how to find needed products, or how to evaluate product effectiveness. Providers find it difficult to unearth individual district needs and their unique business processes. This frequently leads the district to acquire technology tools that aren’t well matched for teacher or student needs.
How can we make sure the two hands work together? Turns out the answer may begin with procurement processes, the perception of which varies between district administrators and providers. Survey results led to several core findings and recommendations, including the need for:
- Better guidelines for conducting needs assessments that include end users in the process.
- Faster methods of evaluating products and better ways of sharing results.
- Simplified RFP processes to level the playing field and ensure high-quality results.
- Pilot approaches that increase rigor and drive purchasing decisions without putting the burden on teachers.
- Incentives for providers to get results and show evidence, including performance-based contracting and prizes.
- Websites with trusted information about ed-tech tools and district procurement policies as well as improved methods of matching providers and products with educators.
- More research about funding strategies for acquiring ed-tech products.
The report also compares ed-tech procurement differences between smaller and larger districts as well as smaller and larger providers and briefly addresses the fact that funding allotment plays a role in ed-tech purchases since many districts believe education technology items should be purchased with a separate, supplemental budget.
The report’s release last month sparked insightful feedback from educators and ed-tech providers, which led to the creation of two interactive tools that allow those interested to more deeply explore survey responses by sorting through each question asked and/or selecting and comparing responses to different questions.
Click here to read more.