A Democratic Vision for Education Technology

Education technology has exploded over the last year and the result is an increasingly fragmented system of applications and platforms. It’s a lot easier to do specific things, but the holistic relationship between students, teachers, and technology has become overwhelming.  

Some curriculum companies have begun to rise to the challenge. The CEO of Amplify recently published an article in EdWeek about the future of EdTech where he argued that the curriculum itself should begin to incorporate the functionalities of LMSs and learning applications into a coherent learning experience. Renaissance learning purchased NearPod for hundreds of millions of dollars - potentially a step in that direction. 

I think that this is an astute and important vision for curriculum companies. It really is imperative that EdTech platforms begin to combine the organizational systems of LMSs with the engagement tools of learning apps. Curriculum companies leading this effort would provide an efficient solution to present pain points. But the standardization implicit in this design can also limit teacher agency and diminish the importance of local context and classroom community. 

Research backed curriculum is important but when we move too far in this direction we also look past one of the most powerful strengths present in our existing system: the collaborative power of educators. 

I believe this new wave of digital curriculums should be complemented by a more democratic vision for how education technology can enhance teaching and learning - one that can also help make teaching a more desirable and rewarding profession.

What if any state, district, school, teacher or education organization could be their own curriculum publisher? What if we had a technology that would allow these various actors to share or monetize their curriculum materials in public and private communities? 

What if the technology to make this possible contained all of the dynamic features available to a company like Amplify but provided teachers and administrators the ability to edit or supplement the materials from within the platform itself?  

This is the vision that has driven the development of Canopy. 

Imagine the power of this type of technology and how it can enhance existing systems:

Local curriculum alignment: A district could identify a team of curriculum developers to create a curriculum for that community focused on some local priority. Maybe this is a local workforce program developed with an industry partner, an SEL curriculum, or a course for core content subjects. The state could provide an initial framework to start from or the local group could build from scratch. 

This team could work in a private community where they make their materials available to only the teachers in their district. Teachers would ‘borrow’ the materials in an instruction-ready format so that students could begin engaging in just minutes. 

Because it’s local, they could emphasize relevance by infusing this curriculum with references to local events and culture (an approach with mountains of research behind it).

They could even build the curriculum over the course of the year. By monitoring local data at the lesson and item level they could strategically build the remediation and enrichment opportunities needed by groups of students. This would also help them to quickly edit ineffective lessons to improve them for the following year.

State level professional development coordination: State departments of education often have professional development priorities but the systems for executing these priorities are historically inefficient in their use of resources and ineffective in their outcomes - often due to struggles with adequate financing and the limits of their technology.

In this new vision, a state department of education could create dynamic PD courses, and then share these resources with districts to be facilitated locally. The state could then sit back, analyze the data coming in, and provide strategic follow up support. 

Networks of educators: Distributed education networks like unions and charter schools could use private communities to collect and amplify the amazing PD and instructional resources developed at local sites. These resources could then be borrowed and customized across their networks. 

These 3 applications are just the beginning.

____

Canopy is a different kind of platform because we believe in taking a first principles approach to describing a holistic vision for what the relationship between education and technology can look like.

We started developing Canopy with a first principles approach. We began with the goal of using technology to enhance education and then asked: How does the education system, at large, currently pursue its goals? What strengths exist in the current system? How can technology build on these strengths to create efficiencies? How does a focus on education influence how we normally think about software development?

Because we are all educators we also understand the importance of contextualizing these questions in a broader value system that prioritizes cultural relevance for students and believes in amplifying the brilliance of local educators.

_____

There should always be a balance between the standardized resources of curriculum companies and the local customization of local educators. But the new surge in digital materials has left local educators outgunned. Curriculum companies like Amplify have the resources to build the tech for dynamic digital learning experiences while local educators are left to juggle, app-smash, and generally struggle to design the customized learning their students needed. 

But now Canopy has balanced the scales. The consolidation of LMS organization with learning app engagement does not need to be limited to the purview of curriculum companies. Now anyone can collaborate to build courses like this and share or sell them in public and private communities.

In time, these opportunities to easily collaborate and engage creatively with other professional educators may even make teaching a more rewarding and desirable profession. And that, more than any technology, is the real key to a stronger education system for all of us. 

_____

William Minton is a lifelong educator and the founder of Canopy

Learn more about Canopy at www.CanopyEducation.com