For years, the education system was mimicked on a factory model—schools built large classrooms, filled them with multiple rows of students, and teachers delivered one-size-fits-all instruction. However, the birth of computers and the Internet changed all of that, renewing interest in education globally, offering a new method of providing instruction. Yet, simply having nifty computers and other handy digital devices available for teachers and students was not the simple answer schools were hoping for. With the rise of the EdTech industry, though, campuses have found the change agent that can help prepare all students for college, careers, and the innovation-based economy in which they will make their living. By reinventing approaches to learning and collaboration, EdTech solutions are transforming traditional education norms, helping to encourage and evolve relationships between educators and scholars while shrinking the accessibility gaps so that every student has the opportunity and means to learn.
On the eve of this year’s annual TCEA conference, Daniel Litwin, MarketScale’s Voice of B2B, caught up with Darren Ward, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at ALL In Learning—a classroom technology for engaging with students and tracking their day to day progress—where they discussed the strategies and conversations propelling both education and student success.
Ward explains that the classroom solution instructors are seeking are a combination of tactics that improve their instruction combined with tools that eliminate duplication and save time.
“I think that schools—schools being defined as teachers, principals and the district leaders—are all trying to, at least in my conversations, they’re trying to find out how our students are performing, typically on the state standards,” says Ward. “They’re looking to improve student t achievement and growth, and they’re looking for ways that technology can help them achieve those goals without costing their teachers their nights and weekends.“
In the classroom, having access to the most current data enables teachers to validate where their students are and where they can go. As such, EdTech solutions and best practices are helping many schools improve their rankings.
“By and large, the data that they were seeing was more, well, what people describe to me as autopsy data—it’s after the fact, it’s late. And these businesses [EdTech solution providers] have got more in-the-moment biopsy data, if you will, to really help them grow their business, identify problems, etc. So schools and teachers are finally getting the data that they need in the classroom, that’s not six or eight weeks late—it’s actually fresh and relevant.”
With Texas schools—particularly Dallas ISD—setting the pace for many districts around the country, Ward was excited about attending TCEA 2020, stating “Just getting to visit with hopefully hundreds (if not a thousand-plus!) teachers and education leaders. To hear what they’re doing and getting to hopefully learn from them, but then getting to share with them what ALL in Learning is doing and how we can hopefully work together with them.”
To hear more of Darren Ward’s thoughts on the TCEA convention, All in Learning and the EdTech Industry as a whole, tune in here. And stay on top of what’s trending in education today by subscribing to MarketScale’s EdTech channel.
