Module 5: III.) Choosing Software

So a lot of schools want to always know, how do I pick the best software for my blended learning model? And the problem with that question is it's just not as simple as just recommending you a Thai restaurant or the best steak joint where I know we have similar tastes and therefore it'll work out. The reality is that in different circumstances, different software works better. And it just depends on what you're trying to do and with what students. So what we thought we would do instead is share with you really the process that, that the blended learning schools that we've observed are using to pick that software. And therefore you won't be at the mercy of just another recommendation when you're trying to pick out software in the future, but instead you can go through this process to navigate your way to something that really works for you.

And then secondly, we're going to refer you to the Yelps or the Consumer Reports of the edtech space, some new companies that are coming along to provide some resources to help you in evaluating software.

When I see teachers getting started, I say, what do you already have? Schools, school districts are notorious for already having subscriptions to all sorts of softwares or web based programs. And so I encourage folks to do some digging, find out what you already have, find out what problem that company says that program solves. What do they say it's supposed to do for you? And if you have that problem, try their solution. Cause you're already probably paying for it anyway. If it doesn't work, that's fine, we can move on to the next thing. But start with what you already have. And most schools are not a blank slate.

I know a teacher who used to really like the leapfrog devices and software. And when he became a principal, he didn't have money to put this into his new school. So this guy was a pretty crafty principal, as most good principals are. He ended up calling the district shipping and receiving yard, which was like in the dark corner of this district, and finding somebody he knew on the other end of the line. And he said, hey, do you guys have any of those boxes with a green frog face on it? And the guy said, yeah, I got pallets of that stuff. Why? He's like, can you bring it over to my school? And literally the next day he had three pallets dropped on his campus, which might have been $50,000 worth of software and devices. And he got it for free because it was already sitting in the district not being used.

So Greg's advice is clearly good advice. Figure out what is free out there. What you already have to Brian's story and you're going to incorporate those things, but you're also likely going to want to do more than that. You're probably going to want to purchase some software to make your program single. And as you do this, our best advice is to create a process first for how you're going to evaluate software. Figure out within that process what are your priorities. And then as you look at software packages, start to evaluate them against each other about how they line up on that rubric.

When we're picking software that's going to be a real learning tool for our students, we take into account primarily the student experience. For us, the student experience is more than just a flashy screen. It actually needs to be something that puts the data immediately back into that hands of the student. Because without that, they can't direct their own learning. When choosing partners, whether it's through software or other technology, the Summit Public Schools Information Team meets with folks to find teams who are aligned with our values. We've been successful in co developing with a number of companies where we can let our students needs drive the development of new software.

So I think the most important thing that we look for in our software programs is that there's actionable data from the program. The second one would be is it adaptive? Are the students able to go as fast as they can or does it back up if they need it? The third thing would be is it efficient with the students time? Are they running into wasting time looking at animations that are not at all educational in value? We also look at how engaging is the software program, is the student engaged the whole time? And, and additionally we look at research. There are some programs out there, have been proven nationwide to work extremely well. Finally, we've gotten to the point now in our world where we want a cloud based option. Students can work at home, students can log into any device on our school and hit their account.

Rocketship Education, which is one of the premier blended learning organizations in this country, has a particular process that they use to evaluate the software choices that they make. The first thing that they're really interested in is whether software is adaptive. It has to be adaptive, meaning that it speeds up or slows down based on the actual performance of the students, such that it's not just some pre canned sequence of content, but it's really adapting to their needs.

The second area they look at is whether the software is aligned to the Common Core. And this is a US specific requirement. And as you may know, in America, we're shifting to, generally a new curriculum that's asking students to go a little deeper and apply their knowledge rather than just doing factual recall. And all of the vendors are in the process of trying to make their software, Common Core aligned. Now, this is where you need to push a little bit, because it's easy to say, oh, we're aligned to the Common Core. And that might mean that we've just drawn a map from the current stuff we have and showing you how it fits. What's really interesting is the vendors who are using Common Core as a chance to really change their software and do go after some of these deeper skills. So just be aware and think about it. But for Rocketship, this is essential, because if it's not aligned to what your state or country asks to be assessed, it's a lot harder to make the software a core part of your teaching program.

And that's an important part, which is, wherever you are, you probably have standards or a curriculum that you want to see taught, so you can make this criteria a key part of your evaluation process. The third thing that they really focus on in Rocketship is whether the content is assignable. What that means is that teachers can go into the software and actually pick out specific modules and assign it to students based on their evaluation of where students need more work. So the Khan Academy, for example, used to just be a big array of videos. What they've been doing is adding these features so that teachers can actually pick and choose what modules they want students to dive deep in on based on what they're seeing out of student performance.

Now, one area to be careful is this is an area where a lot of teachers say they want this assignable feature. And I think it's easy for us to imagine that we're going to be going home every night and looking at all the data and making the next set of recommendations for every student. But the reality of our lives as teachers every day in classrooms doesn't always make this a practical reality. So in my book, I'd rather have the software have a really good internal adaptability, that it can do some of that work for you, rather than banking on the hopes that I could always go in and create a customized playlist for every student every day.

And on the topic of teachers being able to assign content, another feature that Rocketship thinks is really important for its model is the ability to sync what's happening in the online environment with what's happening elsewhere in the classroom in the offline environment. Now, this goes back to one of Our basic definitions behind blended learning, which is that the content online has to sync with other activities that are occurring in class.

And on this point, Rocketship feels like it's really important to integrate whatever software they buy with their existing systems. And we also made this point early on. If the data is coming in many different formats and they don't talk well to each other, it can be overwhelming for a school to use any new piece of software. So being deliberate about what systems you have in place and making sure what you're purchasing integrates well with that is essential. And different companies make it easier or harder for the software to play nice with each other.

So one more point, which is that Rocketship really looks to make sure that the content that they select is actually engaging for students. Now, this may seem obvious, but there's a lot of content out there that's not all that engaging. And what Rocketship has found is that if students aren't into that, then they're not going to do their work. Now, we also can't mistake engagement and making it fun for actual real learning. And sometimes those things aren't in concert with each other. But if it's not actually motivating, you're probably not going to get to learning either.

I ask the kids, what do you like and what you don't like? In my class, and I've told you this story before, I had testers of online programs and I would kind of stagger them. Every other kid and I had be like, okay, time to go to your testing. We're piloting this program. Go ahead, log in. And so the first, third, fifth, seventh and ninth kid would log into program A. And the second, fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth kids would log into program B. Except all the A kids were sitting there watching the B kids do the program. And to me, that's like a clear winner. The kids speak, obviously that one program's better than the other. Now, kids don't always know what's right for them. They don't always want to eat their vegetables. So, you know, I didn't just give up right there. But it's a pretty clear indicator from JUMP which programs are going to work for kids. The last thing I want to do in a blended classroom is force kids to use a tool that they're not excited about. Because generally speaking, particularly if you're using web based software, you've got a lot of options. And there's no reason why kids can't find something that works for them.

What I liked about the iPad minis is that you get to play a game called GG and kids play and it's really fun. And they don't even know that they're learning about it, that they're learning new things. My favorite site to go on is called brainpop. It's a link that some of the pop playlists go to. And it has like educational videos, educational games, and there's a lot of information, but it makes learning fun. That's why I like it.

So with these considerations in mind, Brian and I have a few pieces of advice as you navigate this world. The first is that as you start to select your software things, a lot of the software providers are still not really integrating with other software providers and they're still trying to own their own data. And we think that schools actually ought to own their own data and not relinquish this control. So as you're picking your software, be ruthless about asking that question and make sure that you can get the data that you need from these programs to operate your model successfully.

And one piece of that is what we would call having open APIs. But even that doesn't solve it. And while we're talking about technical things, we think it'd be great to have all your software allow you to easily create new student logins and passwords kind of seamlessly. The jargon for this would be called provisioning. But the big idea is that when a student arrives and you enter them once into your student information system, the hope is that that then automatically creates all the logins for each of the subsequent classes and software that they're going to use across your system.

If this isn't the case, imagine the headache when a student simply switches a class period or a teacher. Imagine the poor administrator that has to go through and basically re roster every single software program that that student is using. Pick your software based on it, actually making this process far more seamless to avoid those headaches so you don't have to do all that manual effort if a student just simply switches a class period or a teacher.

And when you're thinking about software, think about software that allows you to do single sign on, meaning kids can enter one password that logs them into all their software versus asking poor little seven year olds to remember five different passwords and five different processes to log in to each of the pieces of software that they're using.

A few other questions to ask in this vein. One is know how many hours of instructional content these programs actually have. If you're running a program where you need a full year of content and lots of hours. If you could jump in with an app that only has an hour or two of content, you're going to be disappointed. The second thing is that some of these programs, while they have lots of content, they also require you to use the program for a certain number of hours to actually see the efficacy bumps. Make sure that your model, that your program model is able to accommodate that number of hours. Otherwise it may not be a good fit, which is really the overriding point. At the end of the day, understand your model and make sure you're matching those needs to the software that's out there. Don't assume that there's a one size fits all software because it just isn't true.

And it's okay to use a suite of options. No one piece of software will accomplish all your things. And if you put this really rigorous analysis on every piece of software, they're all going to fail at some point. So use these pieces of advice as guiding principles and then really have a system on your end to make the evaluation and choose the best option amongst your choices.