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This week I’m attending the ISTE conference in Philadelphia. I’m excited to meet new people, reconnect with old friends, and learn a lot along the way. I’m also bracing for enthusiastic sales pitches from edtech companies.
Whether you’re going to a big conference like ISTE, taking in information about edtech via social media, or simply relying on my newsletter, it’s good to stop and ask questions about the new edtech tools you see. To that end, here are some things I look for and questions I ask when evaluating new edtech tools.
Could this be done just as well without tech?
I often ask myself, “could this be done just as well without tech?” If the answer is yes, then the new edtech product that I’m being pitched might not be worth spending a lot of time on.
Does this use of AI actually help?
I’m certain that every company from Google to the tiniest start-ups at ISTE will be talking about AI this and AI that. There are some great uses of AI. I like the ways that Canva, Adobe, and Microsoft are using AI to improve graphic design.
There are also some uses of AI that might actually be making more work for teachers and students. This spring I tested an AI quiz creation tool that seemed great until I discovered that every correct answer was “C” throughout the quiz it created. Unfortunately, the only way to shuffle the answer choices was to do so manually.
Will using it empower students?
What first got me excited about edtech many years ago was seeing what my students could create when given new tools. It gave my students a feeling of empowerment to be able to create new things (videos, games, virtual tours to name just a few). It was what got me excited when I taught computer science. And it’s what I still look for in new edtech tools. Will using it give students a feeling of empowerment.
Who made it and why?
If you can, try to find out who made the new edtech tool you’re investigating. Do they or anyone who works for them have actual teaching experience? If not, why did they get involved in the educational technology field? Bad answers to these questions aren’t necessarily deal-breakers, but they give me cause to pause and be slightly more critical of the product.
Canva is sponsoring my trip to ISTE Live this year. In the video above I demonstrate how I used Canva’s Docs to Deck tool to quickly make a presentation about the things I was looking forward to at the conference.
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