EdTech Organizations Describe Quality Indicators to Examine EdTech and Artificial Intelligence

Key points:

Seven leading educational technology organizations have developed a system aimed at reducing the burden on schools and educators when evaluating digital learning tools. This process aims to help schools select and implement educational technology tools quickly and reliably, said ISTE CEO Richard Culatta during the opening of ISTELive 24 in Denver.

“It is too difficult for schools to determine whether an educational technology product is of sufficient quality to be used by teachers and students. “Each school system must independently conduct a detailed review process for any application before it can be approved for use,” Culatta said. “This is a massive duplication of effort that wastes the time of school leaders who are already overwhelmed with other critical responsibilities.”

This onerous process becomes more cumbersome as generative ai tools become widely available and accessible to educators and students. As described in the tech.ed.gov/netp/”>National Educational technology Plan 2024School systems must leverage intentional and critical decision making to implement effective and meaningful digital learning tools.

“To realize this vision, we must urgently pursue strategies that reduce the need for school systems to identify quality digital learning tools,” Culatta said.

The school review process also limits developers of educational technology products: companies that have created safe and effective products should be able to demonstrate their commitment without a lengthy evaluation by each school. edtech industry leaders agree that the industry as a whole benefits when it is easier to distinguish between products that have met quality requirements and those that have not.

1EdTech, CAST, cosn, Digital Promise, InnovarEDU, SOUGHTand SETDA have come together on behalf of educators, product developers, students, and their families to address the issue.

Culatta identified two critical steps that must be taken to reduce the burden on educators, schools, and school system leaders.

Step one: Agree on a set of common educational technology quality indicators. The seven educational technology organizations identified Five edtech Quality Indicators that should be used to evaluate effective educational technology products.

Second step: Provide validations (from qualified experts) that products have met the five indicators identified in step one. For example, one indicator requires that applications be accessible to all students. An app with this claim would need validation from an independent reviewer with expertise in the area of ​​accessibility, such as CAST.

Through these two steps, schools should be able to identify high-quality educational technology tools in a fraction of the time and cost that the current review process requires. Educators will still make the final decisions about which product is right for their needs, but Culatta noted that all seven edtech organizations are committed to providing the information to help them make that determination.

Five edtech Quality Indicators

to1. Insurance: edtech products must establish robust data security and privacy measures to protect student and educator data and safeguard against unauthorized access or data breaches. This includes adhering to industry standards and laws to create a safe learning environment and adopting principles of data minimization (collect only necessary data) and data transparency (users understand what data is collected and for what purpose).

2. Evidence-based: The design, implementation, and efficacy claims of edtech products must be based on rigorous research and evidence-based practices, as specified by the ESSA Levels of Evidence. Providers must engage in research-based design, empirical validation, demonstrated effectiveness, and alignment with established educational standards.

3. Inclusive: Educational technology products must prioritize accessibility, inclusion, and equitable design to ensure they are acceptable to students from diverse backgrounds and with a wide range of student variability. This includes ensuring that educational technology products are accessible to all students, do not promote existing stereotypes, create new ones, or prevent students from acquiring accurate information due to biased algorithms.

4. Usable: edtech products should be designed to be easily used by educators and students to ensure a seamless digital experience. If the product is not easy to use, it creates an unnecessary barrier and educators and students will have difficulty using the tool.

5. Interoperable: edtech products must connect seamlessly with other technologies within a school's digital ecosystem. This is achieved by adhering to established interoperability standards that ensure secure exchange and enable beneficial aggregation of data to inform instruction and personalize learning.

Trusted validators

Educational technology groups have identified organizations that provide validations for the elements of the Five Educational technology Quality Indicators. These organizations have experience reviewing specific aspects of educational technology products. Each organization requests testing from educational technology companies to demonstrate that the product meets established requirements.

At this time, there is no single location to find all the validations a given product has received, although educational technology groups are committed to creating a comprehensive directory where the credible validations a product has earned can be easily displayed.

Laura Ascione is the editorial director of eSchool Media. She graduated from the prestigious Philip Merrill School of Journalism at the University of Maryland.

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