Why Students Don’t use Ed-Tech

I was recently asked why the Ed-Tech industry has not made long-term gains in student engagement. The answer is really simple; every educator who reads this article will get it right away. Unfortunately, most developers will say “can’t be – let’s spend more money on making it look like World of Warcraft.” Are you kidding me? Do you think that your piece of Ed-Tech is ever going to win a head-to-head battle for adolescent interest with video games? If so, please stop reading now and continue to medicate appropriately.

Below is the key to student engagement that our team at MHS has used to develop the platform with the highest engagement rates in the industry… and they can easily be replicated.

Who is it designed for?

Ed-Tech normally fails because it is designed for two students in the room, rather than all of them. What do I mean by that?

Years ago, I was tutoring a student who had this traditional, boring worksheet to complete (the kind that looked like it had originally been carved on a stone tablet before being updated for a ditto machine). And, he was missing a ton of the background concepts he needed to be able to do it. His parents had just purchased this pretty cool educational software, so we started playing with it. The software had great graphics, was really dynamic and was walking us through the concepts he needed. A few minutes later he said, “can we do the worksheet instead? My teacher assigned it.”

Most teachers reading this article just said to themselves, “makes sense, if it isn’t tied to classroom learning, students won’t use it.” Most of the Ed-Tech developers said, “let’s give the students avatars; what if there was a magical dragon pooping the numbers on to the screen?”

The “wow factor” has nothing to do with it; if a tool is used exclusively at home it will become a tool for the diligent (or possibly the drowning). If you want it to be able to affect positive change for every student, it needs to be used in classrooms and at home.

If you’re a developer who just did the math you might be thinking: 2 students per class times every class out there – Hey! That’s a good market. Well, stop reading now and go build your pooping dragon. If you’re an educator interested in a viable solution for all of the students in your schools, please keep reading.

School Rules

For Ed-Tech to be used at school it needs to play by school rules.

School rule 1: Must be curriculum-based: Schools live in the real world. A place where (perhaps unfortunately) there is a set curriculum and learning outcomes that they need to adhere to. If your software asks them to abandon their curriculum to follow your “knowledge tree” (or any other loosely aligned curriculum) you will be quickly expelled from teachers’ classrooms. If you want teachers to use your resource, it needs to be perfectly matched to their curriculum and approach. This is a hard pill for developers to swallow as there are a lot of curricula out there and you can’t build a general tool for all of them. If you take short cuts in an attempt to target the whole world, your resource won’t even work in the school next door. 

School rule 2: Must be a classroom-learning tool: It can’t be set up as an alternative to the classroom; it needs to be a part of it. If students are putting ear buds in and tuning out the teacher, this resource isn’t going to work. The developers overlooked the fundamental human trait that we are all social creatures and we learn best in a group setting with a teacher there to guide, engage and inspire. It’s the same reason that professional sports teams still have coaches.

School rule 3: Must make teachers’ lives easier: Rule 2 is never going to happen if it makes teachers’ lives more difficult. Does it decrease workload? Is it intuitive? Do you go in to schools to work collaboratively with teachers and students? Does it allow teachers to seamlessly differentiate to every student? Does it allow different models of content delivery (inquiry based / skills based / project based)? Does it follow rule 1 and 2? If the answer is no to any of these, go back to the drawing board.

School rule 4: Students need to like using it. What we’ve learned is that students will like what their teacher likes and uses in class. However, some really engaging features for students are needed… and that doesn’t mean fancy avatars! Does it help develop a growth mindset? Does it reward student progress and effort? Does it create purposeful practice? Does it allow students to continue learning outside of the school day? Can students see their actual grade in their class going up as they use it? Unfortunately, we often evaluate technology using a snapshot, based on how it looks. Be careful, if you do that, you know which one they’ll choose and it will be collecting virtual dust very soon. 

School rule 5: Eliminates obstacles to learning. Is the content compressed so it will work on any school network? Will it work on any student device? Do students need to download anything or will it just work? We’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) no matter how minor you feel an obstacle is, it will become a major hurdle for some students. Don’t put any obstacles in their way!

School rule 6: Must be parent approved. If you are going to effectively implement new technology in schools, parent groups must support it. While parents are very interested in rule 4, there are two specific things they want. Remember, it has been thirty years since they have done high school mathematics and they have an adolescent creature in their house with ever-decreasing communication skills. First, parents want to be informed and be aware of their child’s progress or lack thereof. Second, parents want to be able to help their child at home. If you want parents to support it, make sure to include these two features.

School rule 7: Administrators stand behind it. School administrators need to see the resource’s value, be able to sell it and feel comfortable standing behind it. Administrators tend to look at the big picture and may also be looking at whether this resource will create a positive change in teacher practice. Savvy administrators realize that this is a long-term goal that will come in time if all of the above rules have been followed. 

Tackling Engagement

Over the last six years, our team has followed these simple school rules. In doing so, we have developed an ever-improving platform that teachers and students want to use, rather than being forced to use (80% of MHS users actively engage regularly). Again, this success can easily be replicated; the key is approaching the challenge holistically and listening to teachers and students. In doing so, you will get all of the stakeholders in a child’s education (students / teachers / parents / administrators) all working in the same direction…which is way cooler than a pooping dragon.

About the author:

• Peter Nield is the co-founder of Teaching Solutions Software, whose flagship software, Math Help Services, is now used by schools across the country. The MHS approach to Ed-Tech design has helped countless teachers successfully transition to 21st Century Learning; increasing student engagement and creating a culture of curiosity in the process.