WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.940 OK, so if you're involved in educational technology, 00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:08.619 maybe building it, buying it, or even using it 00:00:08.619 --> 00:00:11.640 in the classroom, you've probably felt this. 00:00:11.679 --> 00:00:13.679 This kind of disconnect. Yeah, exactly. Between 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:15.779 the systems you're given and, well, what you 00:00:15.779 --> 00:00:18.280 actually need to do the job. Right. And today, 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:20.339 we're really going to try and crack open why 00:00:20.339 --> 00:00:22.399 that happens. There's a fundamental reason for 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:26.199 that gap. There is. And the core idea here. coming 00:00:26.199 --> 00:00:28.679 from research like Gary Ackerman's work on IT 00:00:28.679 --> 00:00:31.460 for teaching, is that designing tech for schools 00:00:31.460 --> 00:00:33.299 isn't like designing for a regular business. 00:00:33.740 --> 00:00:37.340 It's just different. Oh, so. Well, if you look 00:00:37.340 --> 00:00:40.159 closely at what teachers actually do, their workflow, 00:00:40.619 --> 00:00:43.159 it's pretty much split, structurally split into 00:00:43.159 --> 00:00:46.179 two very distinct, almost opposing kinds of tasks. 00:00:46.359 --> 00:00:48.140 OK, two worlds. And that's our mission for this 00:00:48.140 --> 00:00:49.939 deep dive, right, to unpack that. Exactly. We 00:00:49.939 --> 00:00:51.719 need to define these two categories. Let's call 00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:54.520 them, say, highly predictable tasks on one side. 00:00:54.780 --> 00:00:57.560 And on the other maybe. Unpredictable authentic 00:00:57.560 --> 00:00:59.579 learning tasks. That's a good way to put it, 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:02.179 yeah. And we need to understand why that first 00:01:02.179 --> 00:01:05.180 world, the predictable one, feels so familiar 00:01:05.180 --> 00:01:08.480 to IT folks. You know, manageable. Right. Well, 00:01:08.480 --> 00:01:11.260 the other one. The authentic learning stuff. 00:01:12.599 --> 00:01:15.200 It just throws in so much uncertainty. It really 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:17.260 challenges how we even think about designing 00:01:17.260 --> 00:01:19.319 systems. And you really need to get this difference 00:01:19.319 --> 00:01:23.379 because if you don't... If you try to apply a 00:01:23.379 --> 00:01:26.459 rigid, predictable business solution to that 00:01:26.459 --> 00:01:28.959 second kind of task. The creative messy kind. 00:01:29.099 --> 00:01:31.879 Yeah. You end up with tech that's just frustrating. 00:01:32.500 --> 00:01:34.799 Rigid. It actually gets in the way of good teaching 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:36.840 instead of helping it. Exactly. You've got to 00:01:36.840 --> 00:01:39.140 respect the dichotomy. It's fundamental. OK. 00:01:39.260 --> 00:01:40.959 So let's start with the familiar ground, category 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:44.180 one. The highly predictable tasks. This is where 00:01:44.180 --> 00:01:46.659 IT systems feel, well, comfortable. Definitely 00:01:46.659 --> 00:01:49.159 comfortable. Yeah. These tasks, they're defined 00:01:49.159 --> 00:01:52.200 by being Well, predictable. Makes sense. And 00:01:52.200 --> 00:01:53.859 they look a lot like the administrative jobs 00:01:53.859 --> 00:01:56.040 you see in any organization, really. Like back 00:01:56.040 --> 00:01:58.560 office stuff. Sort of. Yeah. Because the inputs 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:00.579 are pretty standard, the steps are repeatable, 00:02:00.739 --> 00:02:03.599 and you know what an output should look like. 00:02:03.939 --> 00:02:05.879 IT can handle that. So they can plan it out. 00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:09.240 Plan it, design the system, test it. All with 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:11.139 a pretty high degree of certainty that it's going 00:02:11.139 --> 00:02:13.819 to work as expected. So what are some concrete 00:02:13.819 --> 00:02:15.439 examples for people listening? We're talking 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:18.039 about the basics. Yeah, the crucial standardized 00:02:18.039 --> 00:02:20.849 functions. Think data management. That's the 00:02:20.849 --> 00:02:22.629 big one. Like recording attendance every day? 00:02:22.949 --> 00:02:25.430 Perfect example. Recording attendance, managing 00:02:25.430 --> 00:02:28.150 student records, transcripts. Putting in grades, 00:02:28.509 --> 00:02:31.250 calculating GPAs. Exactly. All that essential 00:02:31.250 --> 00:02:33.870 bookkeeping. It fits neatly into, you know, a 00:02:33.870 --> 00:02:36.629 requirements document that an IT department can 00:02:36.629 --> 00:02:39.199 understand and build for. And it's not just pure 00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:41.560 admin, is it? Does this predictability extend 00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:44.139 to actual teaching tools sometimes? It does, 00:02:44.199 --> 00:02:46.460 yeah. Particularly for instructional tools that 00:02:46.460 --> 00:02:49.400 kind of mirror workforce training. Ah, okay. 00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:52.539 Like compliance training. Right. Mandatory safety 00:02:52.539 --> 00:02:54.979 training. Or maybe those rote skill building 00:02:54.979 --> 00:02:57.199 apps. You know, where the goal is just hitting 00:02:57.199 --> 00:03:00.240 a standard metric. Can the student do X? Yes 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:02.879 or no. The success measure is super clear in 00:03:02.879 --> 00:03:05.139 those cases. Did they pass the quiz? Is the grade 00:03:05.139 --> 00:03:08.550 recorded correctly? It's transactional. efficient. 00:03:09.129 --> 00:03:12.530 And that's why, historically, so much early edtech 00:03:12.530 --> 00:03:14.509 investment went right there. Because it fits 00:03:14.509 --> 00:03:17.409 the model's IT already knows, like ERP systems. 00:03:17.830 --> 00:03:20.750 Enterprise Resource Planning. Or CRM. Customer 00:03:20.750 --> 00:03:23.830 Relationship Management. Yeah. Those systems 00:03:23.830 --> 00:03:26.210 are built for managing predictable data within 00:03:26.210 --> 00:03:29.150 an organizational structure. Category 1 tasks 00:03:29.150 --> 00:03:32.389 fit right in. They provide stability. Structure. 00:03:32.449 --> 00:03:35.680 They're the backbone, absolutely. But... And 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:38.639 this is the crucial part. If a school only focuses 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:41.020 its tech on category one... They're missing something 00:03:41.020 --> 00:03:43.379 big. They're missing the core mission of education, 00:03:43.719 --> 00:03:45.539 really, which is about discovery, creativity, 00:03:45.759 --> 00:03:48.500 critical thinking, not just managing data efficiently. 00:03:48.680 --> 00:03:50.360 Okay, that raises the obvious question then. 00:03:50.659 --> 00:03:53.419 If category one is so clear, so manageable for 00:03:53.419 --> 00:03:56.800 IT, why don't innovative schools just stick to 00:03:56.800 --> 00:03:58.620 that? Why do teachers always seem to be pushing 00:03:58.620 --> 00:04:00.919 the boundaries, needing more? Ah, because the 00:04:00.919 --> 00:04:03.800 real deep learning. The stuff that really matters 00:04:03.800 --> 00:04:05.620 intellectually, that happens in category two. 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:07.719 The unpredictable challenge. Right. The authentic 00:04:07.719 --> 00:04:09.340 learning environment. And this is where that 00:04:09.340 --> 00:04:11.560 whole analogy to business IT just completely 00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:14.120 falls apart. OK. This is where the uncertainty 00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:16.759 comes flooding in. So we need to define authentic 00:04:16.759 --> 00:04:19.300 learning a bit more clearly. What does that actually 00:04:19.300 --> 00:04:22.620 mean in this context? It means tasks that deal 00:04:22.620 --> 00:04:26.879 with complex, messy, real -world kinds of problems. 00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:29.680 Not simple multiple -choice answers. Definitely 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:33.000 not. These are problems that don't have one single 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.759 right answer. And it's the process of tackling 00:04:35.759 --> 00:04:38.600 these problems that messes with traditional IT 00:04:38.600 --> 00:04:41.180 planning. How so? What makes it so unpredictable? 00:04:41.519 --> 00:04:43.759 Well, the unpredictability isn't just random 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:47.459 chaos. It comes from, I'd say, three main things 00:04:47.459 --> 00:04:49.600 inherent in this type of learning. OK, what's 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:51.540 the first one? First, the direction the learning 00:04:51.540 --> 00:04:53.879 takes. It's often driven by the student's own 00:04:53.879 --> 00:04:56.459 interests and questions. Which you can't standardize, 00:04:56.540 --> 00:04:58.720 not across a whole class, let alone a grade level. 00:04:58.899 --> 00:05:01.160 Exactly. So right away, your path isn't fixed. 00:05:01.339 --> 00:05:04.100 Second, the learning pulls from all sorts of 00:05:04.100 --> 00:05:06.500 information sources. Not just the textbook. Right. 00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:09.120 You might be grabbing data from public websites, 00:05:09.620 --> 00:05:12.560 digging into historical archives online, maybe 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:14.839 even generating your own data through experiments 00:05:14.839 --> 00:05:18.180 or surveys. It's diverse and often unconventional. 00:05:18.459 --> 00:05:21.379 Okay, student -driven direction, diverse sources. 00:05:21.579 --> 00:05:24.259 What's the third element? The third one. And 00:05:24.259 --> 00:05:26.759 this might be the biggest hurdle for IT requirements, 00:05:27.300 --> 00:05:30.160 is that the output, the actual product of the 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:32.689 student's learning, isn't defined at the start. 00:05:32.850 --> 00:05:35.430 It emerges. It emerges as the project goes on. 00:05:35.509 --> 00:05:38.069 The outcome evolves based on what they discover. 00:05:38.250 --> 00:05:40.089 You don't know exactly what it will look like 00:05:40.089 --> 00:05:42.189 when you begin. Can you give us a concrete example 00:05:42.189 --> 00:05:45.170 of that? An emergent product. Sure. Let's say, 00:05:45.250 --> 00:05:47.730 okay, a history class is doing a project on local 00:05:47.730 --> 00:05:50.889 urban development. Maybe category one systems 00:05:50.889 --> 00:05:54.189 like shared drives help them store initial research 00:05:54.189 --> 00:05:57.389 docs. Fine. Standard stuff. But as they dig deeper, 00:05:57.509 --> 00:06:00.709 they realize. Yeah. You know what? The best way 00:06:00.709 --> 00:06:02.689 to show how this specific neighborhood changed 00:06:02.689 --> 00:06:05.750 over 50 years is to build an interactive 3D map. 00:06:06.149 --> 00:06:08.670 Okay. That sounds more complex. Way more complex. 00:06:08.689 --> 00:06:12.829 Way. And now, suddenly, they need access to maybe 00:06:12.829 --> 00:06:15.629 some high -end visualization software, maybe 00:06:15.629 --> 00:06:16.990 something that was bought for the engineering 00:06:16.990 --> 00:06:19.470 or architecture students, and they need that 00:06:19.470 --> 00:06:21.509 software to somehow talk to their standard cloud 00:06:21.509 --> 00:06:23.430 platform where they're collaborating. So hang 00:06:23.430 --> 00:06:26.509 on. They're using a tool maybe meant for designing 00:06:26.509 --> 00:06:30.769 buildings to teach local history. That's repurposing 00:06:30.769 --> 00:06:34.069 on a big scale. It absolutely is. And that repurposing, 00:06:34.470 --> 00:06:37.509 that experimentation, that's the killer variable 00:06:37.509 --> 00:06:39.910 for IT designers. Because it wasn't planned for. 00:06:40.050 --> 00:06:42.569 Never. Yeah. When teachers are facilitating this 00:06:42.569 --> 00:06:44.629 kind of authentic learning, they're constantly 00:06:44.629 --> 00:06:47.009 questioning their own methods. They're exploring 00:06:47.009 --> 00:06:49.509 new ways to teach, trying out different tools 00:06:49.509 --> 00:06:52.629 and technologies. They are, in effect, innovators 00:06:52.629 --> 00:06:55.490 themselves. And as the source material highlights, 00:06:55.829 --> 00:06:58.829 they actively look for ways to use the existing 00:06:58.829 --> 00:07:01.990 IT systems for things that were never conceived 00:07:01.990 --> 00:07:04.189 when those systems were first spessed out and 00:07:04.189 --> 00:07:06.870 purchased. Exactly. That must create chaos for 00:07:06.870 --> 00:07:09.290 things like system configuration and security. 00:07:10.440 --> 00:07:12.439 guarantees configuration drift, you know, the 00:07:12.439 --> 00:07:15.079 system slowly moving away from its intended documented 00:07:15.079 --> 00:07:16.980 state. Can you give an example of that drift? 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:18.899 Okay, imagine a standard learning management 00:07:18.899 --> 00:07:21.459 system in LMS. It has a basic discussion board 00:07:21.459 --> 00:07:24.579 feature, right? IT probably intended it for simple 00:07:24.579 --> 00:07:27.189 teacher announcements or student Q &A. Pretty 00:07:27.189 --> 00:07:29.649 straightforward use case. But then, an innovative 00:07:29.649 --> 00:07:31.689 English teacher decides they want to use that 00:07:31.689 --> 00:07:34.689 same discussion board to manage a really complex 00:07:34.689 --> 00:07:37.829 multi -stage peer review process for essays, 00:07:38.310 --> 00:07:40.209 with different threads for drafts, feedback, 00:07:40.430 --> 00:07:42.870 revisions. Wow, okay. Can the system even do 00:07:42.870 --> 00:07:45.800 that easily? Probably not easily. But the teacher 00:07:45.800 --> 00:07:47.759 will find a way. They'll hack the settings, use 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:49.939 weird workarounds, maybe combine it with other 00:07:49.939 --> 00:07:52.459 tools. They'll make it work because their teaching 00:07:52.459 --> 00:07:55.040 goal, their pedagogy, is more important to them 00:07:55.040 --> 00:07:57.199 than following the IT department's intended use 00:07:57.199 --> 00:07:59.399 case. They're prioritizing the learning over 00:07:59.399 --> 00:08:02.290 the system's neat little box. Precisely. and 00:08:02.290 --> 00:08:05.209 the result of all that constant bottom -up innovation 00:08:05.209 --> 00:08:08.449 and repurposing. It just injects way more variables, 00:08:08.709 --> 00:08:11.850 way more uncertainty into everything IT manages. 00:08:12.470 --> 00:08:15.889 Design, testing, security updates, overall system 00:08:15.889 --> 00:08:18.389 stability. So the neat, tidy framework built 00:08:18.389 --> 00:08:21.089 for category one tasks just can't cope with the 00:08:21.089 --> 00:08:23.269 demands of category two. It kind of buckles under 00:08:23.269 --> 00:08:25.250 the pressure. It's the classic tension, isn't 00:08:25.250 --> 00:08:27.990 it? Stability versus flexibility. Efficiency 00:08:27.990 --> 00:08:30.500 versus innovation. Okay, let's try and synthesize 00:08:30.500 --> 00:08:33.440 this now. Bring the two worlds together. Because 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:36.559 this fundamental split, this tension, it's the 00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:39.059 core design dilemma in EdTech, and it really 00:08:39.059 --> 00:08:43.039 impacts schools, budgets, IT teams. Oh, it absolutely 00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:45.279 does. It puts them in a really tough spot. On 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:48.799 one hand, you have to maintain those super reliable 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:52.159 lockdown systems for category one. Attendance, 00:08:52.379 --> 00:08:55.960 grades, payroll, standardized test data. That 00:08:55.960 --> 00:08:58.379 stuff has to be accurate and secure. No room 00:08:58.379 --> 00:09:01.220 for error. Exactly. That demands stability, clear 00:09:01.220 --> 00:09:04.299 rules, governance, long planning cycles for upgrades. 00:09:04.740 --> 00:09:06.720 Predictability is paramount there. But at the 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:08.500 exact same time? At the exact same time, you 00:09:08.500 --> 00:09:11.820 need to somehow support category two, the authentic 00:09:11.820 --> 00:09:14.879 learning, which demands the opposite. Constant 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:17.419 flexibility, adaptability, the ability to integrate 00:09:17.419 --> 00:09:20.039 new tools quickly, handle unexpected uses. And 00:09:20.039 --> 00:09:21.580 for you listening, if you're managing a school 00:09:21.580 --> 00:09:23.950 budget or you're designing these systems... This 00:09:23.950 --> 00:09:26.090 split explains why that simple off -the -shelf 00:09:26.090 --> 00:09:27.629 system, the one that worked perfectly in the 00:09:27.629 --> 00:09:29.909 finance office, is the source of constant complaints 00:09:29.909 --> 00:09:31.909 from your most creative teachers. They're not 00:09:31.909 --> 00:09:35.110 just being difficult. The system literally doesn't 00:09:35.110 --> 00:09:37.529 support the way they need to teach. And supporting 00:09:37.529 --> 00:09:42.409 those unauthorized or unconceived uses must be 00:09:42.409 --> 00:09:45.649 expensive, right? A drain on IT resources. It's 00:09:45.649 --> 00:09:47.710 hugely expensive in terms of time and effort. 00:09:48.190 --> 00:09:51.110 When a teacher pushes a system beyond its design, 00:09:51.549 --> 00:09:54.929 who fixes it when it breaks? The IT team. Right. 00:09:55.110 --> 00:09:57.590 They spend hours troubleshooting weird issues, 00:09:57.970 --> 00:10:00.090 finding workarounds, patching security holes 00:10:00.090 --> 00:10:02.169 that pop up because the system is being used 00:10:02.169 --> 00:10:05.769 in unexpected ways. It's basically creating technical 00:10:05.769 --> 00:10:08.789 debt or configuration debt within the school's 00:10:08.789 --> 00:10:10.809 context. And I bet it also leads to what people 00:10:10.809 --> 00:10:13.389 call shadow IT. Oh, definitely. Teachers just 00:10:13.389 --> 00:10:15.450 get fed up. They'll start using their own personal 00:10:15.450 --> 00:10:18.129 cloud accounts or finding free online tools or 00:10:18.129 --> 00:10:20.129 installing software the district hasn't approved. 00:10:20.529 --> 00:10:22.269 Because the official school system is just too 00:10:22.269 --> 00:10:24.570 rigid or slow to adapt to what they need now 00:10:24.570 --> 00:10:27.629 for an emerging student project. Exactly. The 00:10:27.629 --> 00:10:30.429 inflexibility of the Category 1 focus system 00:10:30.429 --> 00:10:33.429 actually drives the creation of these decentralized 00:10:33.429 --> 00:10:36.169 unsupported solutions, which of course creates 00:10:36.169 --> 00:10:39.230 massive headaches for data privacy, security, 00:10:39.350 --> 00:10:41.509 and management down the line. So the innovative 00:10:41.509 --> 00:10:45.110 teaching still happens? Sometimes. Yeah, but 00:10:45.110 --> 00:10:47.289 it happens despite the official IT infrastructure 00:10:47.289 --> 00:10:49.289 not because of it, you know stepping back and 00:10:49.289 --> 00:10:51.190 looking at the sources like Gary Ackerman's work 00:10:51.190 --> 00:10:54.009 you mentioned This isn't a new problem he's identified. 00:10:54.110 --> 00:10:56.309 He's been focused on this specific tension for 00:10:56.309 --> 00:10:58.350 a while, hasn't he? He really has. It's been 00:10:58.350 --> 00:11:00.190 a central theme in his research and writing, 00:11:00.450 --> 00:11:03.470 this core idea that schools are not businesses 00:11:03.470 --> 00:11:06.289 and the technology needs are fundamentally different 00:11:06.289 --> 00:11:09.370 because of this split in tasks. He really challenges 00:11:09.370 --> 00:11:11.289 that common assumption that you can just take 00:11:11.289 --> 00:11:13.950 business IT practices and drop them into a school. 00:11:14.789 --> 00:11:16.850 Yeah, his book titles actually say it all, don't 00:11:16.850 --> 00:11:19.919 they? Things like technology and schools. It 00:11:19.919 --> 00:11:22.159 isn't like this in business. That title just 00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:23.940 crystallizes the whole issue we're talking about. 00:11:24.279 --> 00:11:25.919 And you see it in his earlier work too, right? 00:11:26.460 --> 00:11:28.519 Like, efficacious technology management from 00:11:28.519 --> 00:11:32.059 2018 or technology -rich teaching from 2015. 00:11:33.059 --> 00:11:35.820 They all grapple with the same core challenge. 00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:39.679 How do you manage technology effectively, efficiently, 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:42.059 when the central activity it's supposed to support 00:11:42.059 --> 00:11:45.000 real teaching and learning is inherently experimental? 00:11:45.210 --> 00:11:48.309 often unpredictable, and driven by human interaction 00:11:48.309 --> 00:11:50.490 and creativity. It's a framework that actually 00:11:50.490 --> 00:11:52.909 makes sense of the friction. It validates the 00:11:52.909 --> 00:11:55.409 teacher who feels constrained by the tech. And 00:11:55.409 --> 00:11:57.590 it validates the IT director who feels like their 00:11:57.590 --> 00:11:59.850 carefully planned systems are constantly being 00:11:59.850 --> 00:12:02.309 undermined or broken by the users. It shows the 00:12:02.309 --> 00:12:04.289 conflict is structural. It's baked into the nature 00:12:04.289 --> 00:12:07.009 of education itself, not just personalities clashing. 00:12:07.129 --> 00:12:09.429 Exactly. It's the fundamental difference between 00:12:09.429 --> 00:12:12.070 designing systems primarily to manage information 00:12:12.070 --> 00:12:14.970 efficiently. Category 1. First is designing systems 00:12:14.970 --> 00:12:18.730 to facilitate discovery and creation. Category 00:12:18.730 --> 00:12:21.570 2. Okay, so just to recap quickly, we've covered 00:12:21.570 --> 00:12:23.929 these two critical types of tasks teachers face. 00:12:24.570 --> 00:12:27.289 The predictable, data management, admin -like 00:12:27.289 --> 00:12:30.850 tasks. Category 1, familiar territory for IT. 00:12:31.009 --> 00:12:33.649 And then the unpredictable, complex, authentic 00:12:33.649 --> 00:12:36.350 teaching and learning tasks. Category 2. where 00:12:36.350 --> 00:12:38.350 student interest and emergent outcomes drive 00:12:38.350 --> 00:12:40.929 everything, introducing massive complexity for 00:12:40.929 --> 00:12:43.370 IT systems. And we've seen how trying to manage 00:12:43.370 --> 00:12:46.070 category two with systems designed only for category 00:12:46.070 --> 00:12:48.809 one leads to frustration, workarounds, shadow 00:12:48.809 --> 00:12:51.529 IT, and ultimately hinders innovative teaching. 00:12:51.690 --> 00:12:53.730 Right, and it forces us to confront the fact 00:12:53.730 --> 00:12:56.450 that the most powerful pedagogical moments, the 00:12:56.450 --> 00:12:58.470 real breakthroughs in student understanding often 00:12:58.470 --> 00:13:01.149 happen precisely when teachers and students push 00:13:01.149 --> 00:13:03.230 technology beyond its intended limits. Which 00:13:03.230 --> 00:13:05.549 brings us perfectly to our final... provocative 00:13:05.549 --> 00:13:08.090 thought for you, the listener, to chew on after 00:13:08.090 --> 00:13:10.730 this deep dive. Okay. If the most valuable, most 00:13:10.730 --> 00:13:13.549 impactful teaching often relies on teachers constantly 00:13:13.549 --> 00:13:16.309 finding ways to use IT systems for purposes that 00:13:16.309 --> 00:13:18.950 were never conceived in the original plans. If 00:13:18.950 --> 00:13:22.230 that hacking and repurposing is actually a sign 00:13:22.230 --> 00:13:25.070 of good, responsive teaching. Then does that 00:13:25.070 --> 00:13:27.350 mean the most effective educational technology 00:13:27.350 --> 00:13:28.809 systems need to be designed differently from 00:13:28.809 --> 00:13:31.250 the ground up? Do they need to somehow embrace 00:13:31.250 --> 00:13:35.879 their own... well. planned obsolescence, or at 00:13:35.879 --> 00:13:39.899 least plan for perpetual reconfiguration. Should 00:13:39.899 --> 00:13:42.960 constant flexibility, the built -in capacity 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:46.769 for ongoing unplanned change Should that be the 00:13:46.769 --> 00:13:49.350 primary design feature for EdTech, maybe even 00:13:49.350 --> 00:13:52.230 more important than long -term stability or rigidly 00:13:52.230 --> 00:13:54.590 defined functions? It's a radical shift in thinking. 00:13:54.929 --> 00:13:57.450 It absolutely is, because that changes the whole 00:13:57.450 --> 00:13:59.129 budgeting and procurement model too, doesn't 00:13:59.129 --> 00:14:02.529 it? Moving away from buying durable, fixed systems 00:14:02.529 --> 00:14:05.669 towards investing in fluid, adaptable platforms 00:14:05.669 --> 00:14:08.110 and maybe the ongoing support needed to manage 00:14:08.110 --> 00:14:10.529 that constant change, that's a massive challenge 00:14:10.529 --> 00:14:13.269 for most districts. A huge challenge, but maybe 00:14:13.269 --> 00:14:16.269 a necessary one. Something to think about. Definitely 00:14:16.269 --> 00:14:18.009 food for thought. All right. That's all the time 00:14:18.009 --> 00:14:19.809 we have for this deep dive. Thanks for joining 00:14:19.809 --> 00:14:21.330 us. Thanks for having me. We'll catch you next 00:14:21.330 --> 00:14:21.490 time.