Teachers then waste precious time and energy on inefficient flows and insufficient functionality, and learning suffers. These actions allow companies to say that they’ve listened to teachers, but they aren’t adequate for truly understanding what would make their products transformative for teachers.īy investing resources in products that constantly need to be redesigned or rebuilt, rather than getting it right for teachers from the start, edtech companies waste time and money.

There are some consistent steps that most edtech companies take to involve users in their product decisions-surveying teachers and students who will use the product and filing feedback into a backlog, for example. As teachers are the main users of our products, and more importantly, the people who hold the brunt of the responsibility for learning outcomes, the only way to create successful products is through close collaboration with them before, during and after product formation. Just because edtech companies work outside of the classroom doesn’t mean they can’t position themselves as a support system inside the classroom however, doing so means taking deliberate measures to involve classroom leaders. Just because edtech companies work outside of the classroom doesn’t mean they can’t position themselves as a support system inside the classroom. Bearing that in mind, unless you've spent years in classrooms full of students, working against the demands of curriculum mandates, IEP or 504 modifications and state testing requirements, I implore you-each of my colleagues in edtech proffering your solutions to schools-to begin conversations by asking teachers what they need.

Unsolicited and ill-informed advice on how experts should do their job rarely lands well.

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