Tell Me What You Want, What You Really Really Want

Last week I attended the SIIA Ed Tech Business Forum with hundreds of education technology & services providers, funders, marketers, biz-dev people and press. In a keynote speech, Dr. Thomas Houlihan from the Institute for Breakthrough Performance described problems in education as “systems” problems that can’t be solved with a band-aid or one-dimensional change. He also invoked the attendees to take a leadership role.

In another session a panelist remarked that education products and services providers need to ask school administrators and teachers for direction – what do they want? He suggested we build what people ask for…that they know best.

Like “It takes a village to raise a child,” I believe it takes a system to teach a child. Problems with school program implementation are often systems problems. This system includes teachers, books, assessments, policy, administration – all pieces working in concert together. Changing one part of the mix almost never significantly changes the system.

So back to the panelist’s recommendation – should we defer and ask teachers and administrators what they want? Do they know best?

I don’t think so. If you look at all the money that is spent on education, the value ascribed to it, and the tremendous number of vendors who are all too happy to create the products people have asked for, we would certainly by now have the products and services the industry really need if customers could describe what they wanted.

But innovation and major system change hasn’t happened yet. Not even from listening to what administrators and teachers want. We need to be guided by their dreams and the realities of today’s classroom and school and all the components that make up that system, but then we need to be leaders and invent something -- something exciting, fresh and better than what we have been using to date…what we “really, really want.” That’s the job for true industry leaders.
John Stuppy, john@tutorvista.com