I am proud of ed tech.
I have literally spent half of my career in formal academic positions and the other half on the solutions-provider side of the equation supporting formal, academic initiatives and strategies. In that time, as you might imagine, I have heard and seen a lot regarding the intermingling of two worlds that sometimes have a love/hate relationship.
I have heard (both 1st and 3rd person) academics say that working for a commercial organization is the “dark side”, although in fairness I also hear that a lot when faculty move into administrative roles. I recall vividly a meeting where a Department Chair wagged her finger at a book publisher saying how unethical it was to “make a profit” off of education. (The rep, quite shaken by the interaction, told me later how frustrating it was as there is no college or university in the world that isn’t trying to make more revenue…)
But despite the (sometimes) oil and water nature of providing products and services that legitimately cost money to build, maintain, integrate, support and more, it has brought me a swell of pride to see the outpouring of help and hugely discounted rates by many, many commercial providers. Our country and our world is obviously in a massive time of stress, with a huge amount of fluctuation in “normal” operations, which absolutely includes education. More and more schools are going to finish out the term completely online, with a professoriate who may have never touched an online platform in their lives expected to create “as good as” educational experiences. And this context will likely play out for a while as experts say that next Fall / Winter are likely to be far worse than this Spring.
So, as I watch my Twitter feed and my LinkedIn updates, I am so grateful to the ed tech companies, large and small, who are going above and beyond to do their part. Yes, I have heard of a few organizations in ed tech who are “price gouging” (which seems like business suicide to me…this pandemic will go away eventually and people will remember!), but for the most part, ed tech companies are putting holds on sales calls, discounting platforms, and in some cases, giving their systems and services away as schools try to transition to a new norm.
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Campus (who, in the spirit of transparency, is working with our Institute to give away their platform via a grant), is doing what they can. As I said earlier, these products and services cost money. So, just as Socrative had to rescind their generous offer allowing anyone moving online to use their system for free, some providers realize out of the gate that they cannot over-extend. Doing so would not only hurt the new partner, but also existing partners. So, Campus has taken a very measured approach to do their part. Despite being an early-growth company, they are offering to bring one school onto their platform for free (until June 30, 2021), while offering a free first year of a multi-year license to others. The totally free setup will help any school who realizes that an LMS alone is simply not enough to get the job done and retain business continuity during this crisis, while the second grant(s) will likely be perfect for any schools who were already looking for a portal, mobile app, and social solution, but are now forced to divert costs elsewhere.
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Lumen Learning is also getting into the act. Just as most colleges and universities will soon see that they struggle with infrastructure around support, connection, etc., most already know that they will need to do something with course management. That’s where Lumen Learning can really help. Lumen courses are “ready to teach,” meaning instructors can get started quickly with minimal set-up. Faculty and/or departments can do as much or as little customization as desired. And they are offering special help for schools during this time of crisis.
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Inscribe is also providing community tools and help for schools and faculty seeking to go online, many for the first time. When I was at Saint Leo we piloted InScribe for our courses, allowing students and faculty alike to generate meaningful learning communities. This is exactly the kind of application that can be a game changer for instructors who are worried about students drifting away in an online class. What makes this even more impressive to me is that InScribe is a true start-up. They aren’t flush with cash like a Pearson or BlackBoard, but they are doing what they can to help. Amazing.
I know there are others. In fact, there are too many to detail here. But it’s really impressive to see so many providers working hand-in-glove with institutions to provide the exact types of support needed to keep education moving forward.
The next few months are going to be a wild ride, that’s for sure. Next week, I promise to write more about what to do now that teaching and learning has transitioned to online. You’ll see a lot of resources and websites and webinars (heck, I am lending some assistance to a Cengage webinar this coming Friday on the subject), but I want to make sure to check in regularly and help with things after week 1. There are tips and tricks that can genuinely help.
But for now, let’s get our infrastructure setup. And for that, most schools will look to commercial providers for help. I hope you can step back, just for a moment, and thank some of those providers with me. This really is a time of solidarity and it’s powerful to see so many of us coming together.
Let me close with one last note about this, but from a different perspective. I closely follow David Brooks in writing, video interviews, and more. As the conservative journalist for the NY Times, I have always been impressed with his intentional, thoughtful, and reasonable perspective. He is often the voice of calm during a storm. But he mentioned this week (both on PBS and in his column) that pandemics result in a decrease in compassion. As one example, during the Spanish Flu outbreak of the early 1900’s, many people stopped volunteering, stopped helping their neighbors, and stopped worrying about anyone other than themselves. At the start of the outbreak, everyone was joining together to muster on, but over time, this quickly dissipated.
This weekend, I saw two women literally fight in a grocery store over a bottle of hand-sanitizer. The older of the two ladies ended up bleeding from the head, after being pushed back into a nearly empty rack, as the grocery store was picked clean. Much has been said about what our new normal could do to people. The elderly will struggle with a decision to remain safe or fall into a depression from loneliness. A huge percentage of kids who rely on schools to feed them each day will now go hungry. People are going to suffer and that suffering will continue for a year or more, most likely. Not to mention what happens when the majority of people find out that COVID-19 produces the symptoms of a cold (making them believe it’s fine to go back to life as they lived it previously), while a smaller percentage see results that are far, far more serious.
So, as I conclude, let’s try hard to remember over time that we are still in this together. We are staying at home more to try and help each other. Yes, you may be fine. You may get the virus and have no ill effects. But you likely have at-risk people you know, and absolutely will be out in the world interacting with others who have at-risk people in their lives. As time goes on, let us remember the interconnectedness and interdependence we all have on each other. Our world is smaller than ever before and now is not the time to brandish a selfish, nobody’s-gonna-tell-me-what-to-do attitude. Let’s try to create a support net for all of our people now, and in the future.
Good luck and good learning.