Have you ever noticed something like, it seems
like schools just, they can never really quite
get technology integration right. It's like every
year there's a new program or device or platform
and then it never really quite works the way
it's supposed to. Right, right, it's like the
promise is always so big. Exactly. And then the
reality. It always falls short. Yeah, always
falls short. Well, in today's deep dive, we might
actually have an explanation for why that happens.
We are talking about a blog post today from Gary
Ackerman over at hackscience .education called
EdTech for Ed Leaders. Choose two. Oh, I love
that title. Yeah, it's very catchy, right? It
really gets to the heart of the issue. It does.
It really does. So the basic premise here, and
I think this is going to resonate with a lot
of people, is that There are three things that
everyone wants when it comes to technology in
schools, right? We want it to be inexpensive.
Of course. We want it to be quick to deploy.
Like we don't want to wait forever to implement
this thing. We want it to be high quality. We
want it to actually work well and do what it's
supposed to do. But the problem, and this is
what Ackerman highlights in his blog post, is
that you could usually only choose two of those
things. Yeah, it's so true. You know, and it's
funny because it's not even just an education
thing, right? This is like a universal... It's
across all industries. Yeah, technology implementation
dilemma. So it's like this technology triangle
and you can only pick two sides. Yeah, and the
third side is always going to have a trade -off.
Always involves a trade -off. Always involves
a trade -off. So let's kind of break down these
different combinations and trade -offs. So first,
let's say you go with inexpensive and high quality.
Right. But the trade -off there is that it takes
forever to deploy it. Right. So a great example
of this that Ackerman talks about are open source
tools. Now, for folks who might not be familiar
with what open source means, it's basically that
the core code of the software is freely available.
Which is great. And it's often very high quality
because it's been vetted and improved by this
huge community of developers. So that's awesome.
Right, it sounds amazing on paper. Yeah, so it's
free? What's the catch? The catch is that open
source often requires a ton of like... Setup.
Setup, customization, configuration, and I can
only imagine if you're a small school district
or even a large one with a really small IT team
that's already overworked. Totally. And then
you want to implement this complex open source
system. Forget it. It's not going to happen quickly.
And that delay means that all those benefits
everyone's hoping for. They're just pushed out
further and further. They're pushed out further
and further. And it's not just the cost of the
software itself. It's also the cost of the staff
time to make it work. Yeah, that's a really good
point. And that staff time, like, it translates
to money too. Absolutely. So even though the
software might be free, the implementation might
not be. Might not be. Yeah, and you know what
else I was thinking about? Yeah. Is that... even
if you have the staff and the time to implement
this, this big complex system, sometimes by the
time you get it implemented, technology has already
moved on. It's already obsolete. Yeah. Yeah,
and then you're stuck with this. Right, you put
all this work into it. This dinosaur of a system
that can't do what you need it to do anymore.
Right, so what if we flip it? What if we want
something high quality and we want it fast? So
what's the trade off there? Well, in that case,
you got to be ready to like open up the wallet,
open up the wallet, because that's where you're
looking at those like off the shelf proprietary
proprietary software solutions. The ones that
are like ready to go prepackaged, usually pretty
high quality because they've been developed and
tested by a company. Yeah. But that convenience
and speed come at a price. They do a premium
price. Yeah. But wouldn't you argue, though,
that sometimes that higher initial cost is actually
offset by the time you save by having a quick
deployment. Totally. Instead of waiting months
for a free system to get set up, maybe sometimes
it is worth it to just pay the money. That's
a really good point. It depends on the situation
and the resources available. I think there's
another caveat with those off -the -shelf solutions
though, which is, you know what happens when
the standard configuration just doesn't quite
fit your specific needs? You're stuck. Right,
you're stuck. With a system. And then you're
compromising on quality. That doesn't really
work. Yeah, because the system can't quite do
what you need it to do. It's like buying a suit.
Yes. Off the rack. Off the rack. It might look
good, but it doesn't quite fit. Exactly. And
then you're spending even more money to get it
tailored. And time to get it tailored. And time
to get it tailored. Right. So all right, well
let's talk about the last combination. OK. The
one that I think nobody really wants to admit
that they've experienced. Yeah. But we've all
been there. We've all been there. which is inexpensive,
and quick deployment. Which usually means...
Which usually means low quality. Sacrificing
quality. Yeah. And that's when you get the total
flop moments, right? Yeah, where you have like,
you know, maybe it's a rushed implementation
of an open source system that hasn't really been
tested, or it's a commercial product that looked
really good on paper, but you know... But nobody
actually did their research. Yeah, nobody really
did their research on it or you know, or maybe
they didn't pilot it properly Yeah, and it's
not even always about just like glitches and
bugs. Yeah, this whole conversation kind of reminds
me of This time that my school Tried to roll
out a new online learning platform and it was
supposed to be like this amazing game -changing
tool But it was so confusing and poorly explain
that none of the teachers knew how to use it.
Classic. And they just refused to use it. Yeah,
it's a great example because it highlights another
layer of this, right? Like even if a system checks
all those boxes. It's free, it's quick, it technically
works. If teachers don't understand it or they're
not comfortable using it. Forget it. It's gonna
fail. It's gonna fail. Yeah. So what does all
this mean for our listeners? Because, you know,
clearly there's no perfect solution here. There
isn't. So how do we navigate this this tech triangle?
Well, I think the big takeaway is there is no
one size fits all answer. The right combination
depends on a school's unique context, like what
are their top priorities? What resources do they
have? What are their needs? What trade -offs
are they willing to make? Yeah, so it's really
about making informed choices and having realistic
expectations. Yes, exactly, and not trying to
chase after this impossible ideal. Right, so
you're not going to get everything. You're not
going to get everything. You have to make some
choices. You're going to have to compromise somewhere.
And I think that kind of leads to a bigger question.
that I think is really important for anyone to
consider. Who's involved in making decisions
about technology and education? Okay, I'm ready.
What are the long -term costs of prioritizing
speed or cost over quality? That's the question.
When it comes to educational technology. Like,
what compromises are we making? Are they truly
serving the needs of our students and our educators?
Because if we're not careful, we might be saving
money. or time in the short term, but then really
setting ourselves up for failure. The failure
down the line. In the long run. And ending up
spending even more money, time, energy to fix
those problems. So that's something for everyone
to kind of chew on and think about as they're
making these decisions about technology in their
schools. Absolutely. All right. Well, thanks
so much for joining us for today's Deep Dive.
I hope this has been helpful for everyone out
there listening. Yeah, this was a good one. and
we will see you next time.