Software is moving to the cloud and so is school. Cloud-based computing makes applications available anywhere, anytime, across multiple devices. Software-as-a-service allows us to tailor what we use and how much we buy -- take your pick of five versions of Turbo Tax depending on your needs; build your own playlist of music; build your own virtual desktop with your favorite browser, email client, and applications.
I wrote about this last week too and it wasn't a very popular idea with some readers. I still think School-as-a-Service (SaaS) is an important metaphor for the future of customized learning and am certain that it will work better for students and teachers. We ask teachers to differentiate learning and then give them big classes. The shift to personal digital learning will soon customize learning as much as the rest of our lives.
Here are 10 dimensions of School-as-a-Service:
1. SaaS has a digital backbone rather than print backbone; it's a unique student identifier more than a book bag; it's an IP address more than a seat on a chart.
2. SaaS is student-centered rather than teacher centered; learning is customized for every student -- a playlist/project-list of their own -- rather than experiencing whole group age-cohort instruction (large group experiences and seminars may be part of SaaS but they aren't predominant).
3. SaaS is competency-based rather than time based; progress is marked in small and flexible chunks (e.g., merit badges) measured by multiple assessments many of which are embedded within the learning experiences.
4. SaaS is dynamic scheduling rather than master scheduling; there is a new and flexible day schedule every day rather than a 90 day course schedule.
5. SaaS has a free or inexpensive foundation of open instructional experiences but can be enriched with premium games, simulations, and other curated collections and sequences. The same can be said for tools -- a foundation of pretty good open tools augmented by premium applications -- all purchased and downloaded and customized online.
6. SaaS is team based staffing with some local and some remote staff. About the time the bureaucrats are about ready to nail down new value-added evaluation systems based on annual standardized assessments, differentiated/distributed staffing and progress based on performance makes much of that obsolete.
7. SaaS isn't bound by a place but it may be take up temporary residence ranging from a day a week check-in to extended day/year with full wrap around services.
8. SaaS isn't going to get too hung up on a particular access strategy because it is mobile and works across multiple devices. Many students will look at least three screens during day: a big screen, a mobile screen, and a screen linked to a full keyboard.
9. SaaS works best with weighted funding with a portable wallet that facilitates acquisition of specialty services (e.g., speech therapy, reading specialist, math tutoring).
10. SaaS is best situated in case management services for guidance, transcript management, integration and application opportunities, connection to community services, and extracurricular activities.
I've written frequently about emerging learning platform ecosystems: digital content libraries on a widget rich social layer with a smart recommendation engine and aligned student, teacher, and school services. SaaS is really an extension of a next gen platform. The metaphor attempts to move a step further from teacher- and print-centric, classroom-based learning to a set of customized learning services that are flexible in time and location.
The big state and national online learning providers are SaaS -- at least a first gen version featuring mostly flat and sequential content and bounded by a set of restrictive policies.
Choice to the course, as just enacted in Utah by SB65, is a step in this direction. But SaaS will take some energy and investment by lead providers (i.e., the folks that take student outcome responsibility and manage the transcript) to stitch together into a coherent service offering. Most providers (including school districts, charter school networks, and state virtual schools) will want to join an ecosystem rather than attempting to build their own. Broadband providers will need to be part of the solution by ensuring affordable access to every home.
Teaching in a SaaS will be dynamic and rewarding. There will be less direct instruction, but when called for, it will be (like School of One in NYC) to groups ready for that lesson on that day. Master teachers will have full year contracts, will be will paid, and will have the opportunity to impact the lives of more students. More teaching contracts will be flexible in time and location allowing some teachers to tailor their work life.
Most families will continue to appreciate the custodial aspect of school. The efficiencies of SaaS will help some schools stay open year round. Families will have flexibility on when they vacation and learning will be very portable.
SaaS is a mindset as it is an academic and technical architecture. It is a conviction that our public delivery system can be fully customized and can work better and cost less.
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1. We have the ability to travel (even on a limited budget) without any interruption to their learning.
2. They are self-directed and learn at a pace that always stretches them.
3. They are much more focused during the daily average 3.5 hours of required learning than their previous year's 6 hours of classroom study. They spend another 4 hours daily reading, creating art or doing something productive.
4. I am more involved than ever in the education of my children. Parents are responsible for their childrens' education, but classroom instruction often disconnects parents from the process.
5. My retired father-in-law, a Ph.D. scientist, spends an hour or so per day tutoring my kids in their math via Skype. It is great for him to have a sense of purpose and it is great for my children to connect with their grandfather in this meaningful way.
6. Illness doesn't impact their learning schedule as much.
There are other reasons why I'm excited for the transition to better learning techniques. Thank you for pushing for this much-needed advancement.
Oh, yes! I can just see the headlines.
The problems that we have in normal public school will not go away with SaaS.
Perhaps it is my bias, in that believe there is value in the current educational model with direct instruction. An article that cites that I would do less direct instruction certainly doesn't appeal to me as a practicing educator. I actually like to teach students!
Game-based learning and mobile tech are increasing motivation and access. The combo should help us double learning time and maybe even learning gains for kids that need it most.
I supported components of your previous post (and I took some flak for doing so), this restatement of your idea goes way too far.
Let's rephrase this to older technology to highlight its absurdities. Instead of a software portal to access educational content, let's go back to a librarian. This is a genius-level librarian who can help everyone. The content instead of online is composed of books, videos, other media, quizzes and tests. So, this similar system would work as follows:
The student goes to the librarian to ask, "I want to learn about X." The librarian hands them all the materials, and off they go. If you proposed this system, you would be laughed off the stage. And yet, this is precisely what you have proposed using technology to obscure and bedazzle the issue.
One, teachers are professionals. If the student doesn't understand, the teacher can find ways to help them learn differently. If it is all a service (library), then if you don't fit into that method or methods, you are doomed.
Two, there is no coaching or encouragement from the service (library). You have completely devalued the teachers contributions.
Three, as someone who has completed a degree online, I can tell you that my teacher interaction is severely restricted. Many students who started with me did not make it through. We can't allow this for K-12.
You are trying to mechanize what cannot be mechanized, and degrading professionals at the same time.
Pay attention, folks. We're already witnessing what happens when we put our lives in the hands of corporations. Sure, it all sounds nice when they say they're looking out for our best interests, but there's absolutely no reason to continue buying into that lie.
HuffPo needs to do a much better job of vetting its bloggers, particularly in the area of education. I've been reading so much unfiltered, uncontested ga.rbage here lately, it's ridiculous. Jeanne Allen from CER? Michelle Rhee? Now this?
How personal will your child's relationship be with their teacher. Will it be face to face or monitor to monitor?
You aren't so much interested in customized (which is expensive) as cheap. How much money will it save with all the students online and a teacher with a class of 100 and a course load of a thousand? (Or, rather that opportunity to impact more lives.) That will sure save bucks. No custodian. No school nurse. No counselor. No principal.
I'm not saying some students might not thrive in an independent, at will learning environment.
I am saying it's not for all students.
And a great deal of education is lost without the face to face, open and flexible classroom conversations that allow students to interact and explore not only amongst themselves but with an adult that has mastery of the subject and indulges the curiosity of their students.
Less direct instruction. A quality education is all about direct instruction.
The bulk of your 'SaaS' outline was airy fairy cloud stuff. I would not give money to a corporation before I gave it to a public school. How would you actually change a school? How would you change the teacher to student ratio - the bulk of the school costs, regardless of the system? I like the schools my children go to. They have computers and magic white boards and high standards. I don't see the breakthrough learning there though. We live in an area with decent property tax revenue, so we are lucky. The rest of the country is closer to the mean, just getting by.
(PS: Turbo Tax has 1 version not 5 - you pay by the parts you use: federal, state, business, personal, investments, etc.)
Given the level of business doublespeak in the article alone, I have zero confidence that any child would have a good experience with this kind of digital nightmare future.
Public educators, like many helping professions, don't do it solely for money. They are true knowledge philanthropists, helping people to gain knowledge and skills and pass them on. Its really a core part of being a human being, that idea of sharing knowledge.
Here's where technology comes in. While SaaS and its variants will need improvement, it is a concept that is unstoppable even as it evolves. Costs per student will be lower, classroom sizes are less critical, bricks and mortar overhead is lower, and access by students is far easier.
I would hope that today's teachers work with this technology and help it along, rather than fight it and allow for-profit colleges to create alternatives whose goal is to enroll students, but not necessarily to educate them.
Not everyone is a techno-savant. Its up to teachers to make this type of education work, to get students engaged, learning, and giving feedback to teachers and technologists. I think knowledge philanthropy will grow as public education declines- not from for profit diploma mills, but from teachers and education professionals that see this as an opportunity.
I believe that the real power of technology in education is when it supports human interaction through social learning, peer support, mentoring, and collaboration.
I don't think you will get much benefit from technology in soft skill areas such as critical thinking (www.agilecriticalthinking.com) and other important 21st century skills by simply breaking down materials into competencies.That works for certain skills but not for thinking skills.
Think of technology as an enabler and tool making the high quality teacher more efficient.
Charlie
Charlie
Navigation 101 (Envictus.com) does a pretty good job of helping teach self management (the 'get your act together for school' stuff)
Sims and games are getting better a promoting thinking skills, but I'm still a fan of projects that integrate/apply learning in teams.