Beyond the Ed-Tech Hype: EDUpreneurs Focusing on Content and Design

Each January, I love parsing through all the “what to expect in the year ahead” lists (and occasionally contributing to them). One forecast that stands out this year was made by Phil Hill, an ed-tech consultant and blogger with MindWires consulting, who predicted a major shift for this coming year: moving beyond ed-tech hype to a greater focus on course design.

One forecast that stands out this year: moving beyond ed-tech hype to a greater focus on course design.

As he puts it, “Online education is not magic dust to be sprinkled on top of traditionally designed courses.” We’ve seen over the past year or so how different models for online education – especially in terms of MOOCs – only work when there is great intentionality about course content, design, and student support.

So who is actually working on course content and design? Surprisingly, the Forbes’ 30 under 30 in Education is one place to look. Sprinkled throughout the list are a few EDUpreneurs (as Forbes calls them) who are leveraging technology to drive innovation in the spaces of content, course design, and student support. What follows is an abridged list – we could call them EDUvations -- that I predict will have a lasting impact on education in the future.

MIT Media Lab

MIT gets a lot of public accolades lately for their foray into MOOC-land, but the MIT Media Lab has been innovating in the early education space for years now. Their Scratch (and forthcoming Scratch Jr.) program represents a fundamentally different kind of learning opportunity for kids. Scratch allows young children to program their own games, animated stories, and art, and share their creations with other users across the country, and world. Their recent work in creating Scratch Jr. will allow children as young as five to start experimenting with code.

While most apps and programs translate traditional learning and content onto new digital platforms, MIT Media Lab is enabling children to be makers, not just consumers, of technology. The impact that apps like Scratch have on students’ digital literacy should inform the next generation of digital content in education.

Rocketship Education

What started as a single K-5 charter school in San Jose, California has grown not just within the city itself, but is also starting to take off around the country. Undoubtedly it has stirred up controversy: the effectiveness of one of their online math programs – DreamBox – was shown to have no discernible effects on student achievement in a recent federal study; the charter network’s rapid expansion has also took a hit, withdrawing their appeal of the charter petition denied by one California school district; and their English-only model for instruction has come under question amid ample research demonstrating the benefits of bilingual instruction for dual-language learners.

On the other hand, the Rocketship model is really the first of its kind to test blended learning with such young learners. And their combination of traditional instruction with technology and individual tutoring initially demonstrated strong academic outcomes for students. The future success and scalability of their model will greatly impact how blended learning is viewed in education, and will influence traditional schools’ approach to technology use in the younger grades.

mSchool

Though PreK-12 education has slowly evolved over the years, the concept of the schoolhouse has not fundamentally been rethought. The idea of mSchool is a new spin on the idea of a one-room schoolhouse: based within community centers, these “micro-schools” provide individualized learning opportunities for students through adaptive online software. They also may provide a different avenue to learning for those who feel disconnected from traditional institutions.

Because they are based in existing community centers they are easily replicable. Over the next year, several pilots are slated to open in Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Florida. Internationally, several additional sites are pending in countries as wide-spread as South Africa, Australia, and Canada. This fundamental rethinking of what schools should look like opens the door for new visions of public education.

Clearly, the lingering question for these young entrepreneurs is whether their EDUvations will be a success.

Clearly, the lingering question for these young entrepreneurs is whether their EDUvations will be a success. They’re facing an uphill battle – not only are three-quarters of new venture-backed firms destined to fail, but education is a particularly challenging marketplace.

Fail or succeed, these three models will start to shed light on whether new approaches to digital literacy, blended learning, and the structure of public education will actually work in real environments with different types of learners. My hope is that in 2014, we will start to see more realistic and evidence-based evaluation of these innovations, dialing back on the hype to find out what really works."