For early adopters of edtech, the silver lining of the Covid-19 cloud is the way it has rocketed education into a new technical dimension. Even the most technology-resistant educators have been forced to come to grips with the tools of remote teaching. But most are singing the praises of the plethora of apps now available in the education space.

It does seem like a blessing in disguise at face value, but IT departments the world over will tell you that a precocious, unplanned “big bang” implementation can have disastrous consequences. Educators may well be adopting technology – but is it the right technology, and will their enthusiasm last?

The Importance Of Open Standards

In “Digital Architecture for Education,” James Hope explains how critical it is for institutes to stick to open standard solutions. Open standards maintain a competitive environment and ensure that content from unsupported solutions can be ported onto new platforms. 

Imagine for a moment how disheartening it is for users to commit to a solution, only to have to redo all of their hard work. This is what happens when solutions grow defunct and intellectual property is locked into proprietary systems that can’t be accessed. (For an explanation of how open standards differs from open source, click here.)

The Need To Involve the Educators Throughout the Implementation Process

In his suggestions to ease the implementation of new technology, Matthew Lynch points out the importance of involving educators throughout the implementation process. He also recommends piggy-backing off the enthusiasm of the early adopters amongst them. 

Here is where a learning management system (LMS) like Pedagogue comes into its own. It’s social media features promote collegial engagement. Whether it is sharing success stories or asking for help, it replaces the water cooler conversations we are all missing.

Reasons To Continue To Inform and Engage End-Users

One thing we are all learning is that implementation never actually ends. At no point in the introduction of edtech within an institute will there ever be a point where it is complete. New technologies appear to deal with new challenges or to deal better with old ones.

It is the educators’ job to educate, and they can’t be expected to sit trolling for new features, apps, and functionality. We can learn much from Netflix’s implementation of AI, which draws users’ attention to items similar to what they have watched and enjoyed. 

The company reckons it saves $1 billion annually in lost subscriptions by reminding its users of the value they continue to provide.

Concluding Thoughts

When we are all longing to return to “normal,” educational institutions have the challenge of ensuring that some elements of our pandemic existence remain. For the good, of course. The democratization of education becomes a reality when the best educators worldwide are available to download anywhere and anytime.

We are increasingly aware of personalized tuition benefits, which is not a viable option without technology. Never has enduring tech adoption been of such critical importance in education.