| | September - 201919It doesn't matter how great an education idea or intervention is in principle--what really matters is how it manifests itself in the day to day work of people in schoolsSet milestones and goals for your initiatives. These should be clearly defined and measurable (from the baseline that you have set).It is up to you how robust these impact measures are. From a peer recommendation or an expert opinion, through to a double-blind randomised controlled trial, there is a range of evaluation approaches out there. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to this, but it is unlikely that you want to wait two years to see the outcome of a randomised controlled trial before trying something new. Do what feels manageable. Evaluation is important, but it should be proportionate to the programme. Your evaluation measures should be agreed with all stakeholders (including your software partner) so that you can work together in assessing the impact over time.Think cloud, and ensure interoperabilityIf you think you are ready to choose something new, then there are a few pre-requisites that I would consider. If you have not already moved most of your IT infrastructure to the cloud yet (removing servers from dark cupboards hidden around your school), then you should start to. Evidence from groups of schools in the UK suggest this can save up to 40-50percent in IT hardware and services costs over 5 years. The days of buying software that needs to be installed on physical machines on site are mostly over. Embrace the cloud and seek out software that can be accessed online, from any location, and with a single unified log in. If the software that you are thinking of purchasing relies on student and class data to work effectively, ensure that they have a clear data processing agreement, and are willing to use APIs to automatically move data between systems. It is no longer acceptable, in my view, to be uploading and downloading csv files containing student data.Find a partnership not a contractOnce you have clarity on all of the above, you are in a better position to confidently select a partner to support you in solving your problem. You want to work with a software provider that cares about their product--one who would be upset if you wound up using it incorrectly. You want them to help you to identify and secure the data points that you need, share their product development roadmap with you, and work with you to develop your evaluation/impact measures and approach.Ensure capacity in your schoolFinally yet importantly, you need to make sure that you have structures in place to manage the change programme that will enable you to launch something new. You need to ensure that there is adequate engagement with, and training for your staff, so that you can gather feedback and iterate on new processes. You also want to have the appropriate leadership in place to keep a project on track. Without all of these steps, any new technology launched in your school is unlikely to stick.In summary, most technology problems come not from purchasing the wrong piece of kit or software, but rather from not having the right process in place to identify the problem you are trying to solve to begin with. Both school leaders and ed tech suppliers who not only acknowledge this, but aim to address it, will find adoption and impact much easier.
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