School-as-a-Service

I spent the last two years and more than $1 million trying to get a couple high schools (initially, just the 9th grades) open in NYC and Newark. States have created elaborate charter review processes intended to result in quality schools and baked into the process is the twenty year tradition of growing good, new, small, schools one grade at a time. In 5 years you can confirm that it is a good school; in ten years you know that it is a good network. It takes a long time and it is very expensive.

What if it was possible to create "school-as-service" and you could just turn it on and it worked well anywhere, anytime?

Software as a service (SaaS) made it easier and cheaper to use computers especially for those of us that use multiple devices. It's software on demand anywhere anytime. It's no longer necessary to load computer programs with a disk, you can access almost any kind of program -- spreadsheet, word processor, customer relationship manager, or tax preparation software -- on the web.

As Digital Learning Now recommended, the shift to school-as-a-service starts with a statewide commitment to every student as a digital learner. Where states reduce historical barriers, the shift to personal digital learning will mean school-as-a-service: access to quality courses and teachers from multiple providers.

Utah Governor Herbert signed a bill yesterday that introduces SaaS education. Florida SB1620 and Idaho SB1184 will do the same.

The emerging vision for education is school-as-a-service. Open your browser and you have learning options, multiple providers, multiple devices, customized engaging learning anywhere anytime.

These bills are also important because they introduce performance-based funding; a portion of the funding is withheld until students successfully complete the course. This is a step toward states funding outputs not inputs.

SaaS education changes the basic assumptions -- it doesn't need to be time and place bound. That doesn't mean it will all go virtual -- for the foreseeable future at least 90 percent of families will enjoy the benefits of local schools -- but it does require a new mindset, new staffing patterns, new budgeting strategies, and new ways to communicate with students and families. School districts should get on the SaaS bus.

 

Follow Tom Vander Ark on Twitter: www.twitter.com/tvanderark

Comments

[cjaco]

11:36 AM on 03/31/2011

The only ones who profit in computerized education are the corporations who make the computers, software, and support. Learning is interactive, and much of it is cultural and personal interaction, ie. learning to play well with others. School as service is a terrible idea with misplaced priorities since it certainly isn't on children.

[maninal2]

11:08 AM on 03/31/2011

"What if it was possible to create "school-as-service" and you could just turn it on and it worked well anywhere, anytime?"

What if we accept that technology is a tool, not a substitute for teachers. It would just as ludicrous to assert that the typewriter would be a viable replacement for teachers. Educating is more than content combined with delivery.

[Shaun Johnson]

05:03 PM on 03/30/2011

These are terrible ideas, much like that terrible book Disruptive Innovation, which makes the claim, what, that you innovate by targeting non-consumption? So, it's like Frosted Flakes, better than no breakfast, right? Then some trumped up software is better than, what, staring at the wall for six hours? I guess! Then you hire hourly workers with a high school degree to "facilitate" individual learning all day. The software will be so inherently AWESOME and motivating that you can stick like 60 kids in the room and they'll be so focused, nothing could possibly go wrong. Did we not already try something like this in the 70s called Programmed Instruction, first posited by B.F. Skinner, yeah, the rat and pigeon guy? But I guess now in 2011, we can embed YouTube videos, MP3's and all of that. We could connect it to social networking sites. Is there not something called putting lipstick on a pig, right?

[bwilcox]

03:35 PM on 03/30/2011

Hi Tom -- I always enjoy your posts. While others might see this move to SaaS (School as a Service) as an attack on traditional forms of education I see SaaS as the beginning of an inevitable migration toward ‘customer’ centered learning services –thus, to the contrary, this isn’t about the institution, nor something to challenge the institution –rather, it IS about scalable delivery of services to the student. This process of being responsive to ‘learner needs’ suggests that each learner is unique and has differentiated goals, thoughts, learning processes, aspiration, and intelligence ---something very challenging to achieve in the long-held tradition of ‘place based’ learning (the traditional classroom environment). As fiscal pressures collapse the number of educators available to teach students, and also the availability of resources in the physical plant of traditional education, this will put pressure on how, where, when, and with what tools we achieve mass personalization of learning services. SaaS, or ‘cloud based learning infrastructures’ have the capacity to dramatically scale the number of participants in the learning ecosystem. As such, not just one ‘Salman Khan’ emerges as a Super Educator, thousands do, and with this emergence of Free Agent Educators, so then emerges the Free Agent Learner, unbounded by seat time and traditional ‘anvils’ or standards of learning. What if, in fact, you could invert the pyramid of education so that the ‘top’ of the learning ecosystem was ‘all learners’ and the rest of us placed the student and their needs first? -- Bruce

[TFT]

06:59 PM on 03/30/2011

Considering Kahn and others already exist, people with the motivation you speak if will always be able to tailor their learning.

This is for rich people, not Americans.

[TFT]

02:32 PM on 03/30/2011

Let me try again.

We can't automate teaching; it requires relationships. Stop using education as a way to make yourself rich(er).

[TFT]

02:25 PM on 03/30/2011

Please, just stop trying to automate education. Getting an education requires relationships with humans.

You're not helping kids, you're trying to help yourself to America's money. You should be ashamed.

[Ldcook]

09:54 AM on 03/31/2011

If a teacher can be replaced by a robot they should be.

Any teacher worth their salt cannot be replaced by a robot.

[maninal2]

11:10 AM on 03/31/2011

And I thought the TFA ideas was ridiculous

[Ldcook]

02:15 PM on 03/31/2011

It says I have a reply but I cannot see it here. This comment was to say that teachers are invaluable and cannot be replaced by technology.

[CLamb]

01:58 PM on 03/30/2011

This requires motivated students with computers and internet access. Most of these things are lacking in students of failing schools.

[kinger50]

06:34 PM on 03/30/2011

I agree. School as service assumes a willing "customer." For many, who see the value of education and are somewhat self directed it can really work. I live in a very rural area and remote learning has been great for our family. Many school reforms assume an urban setting that is broken and ignores the logistics of living in areas that cover a large geography. I think many students who have little supervision however would squander this opportunity. Not mature.

[lcr999]

11:35 PM on 04/02/2011

sorry...flag by mistake. They really should put those buttons farther apart.:-(

[maninal2]

11:09 AM on 03/31/2011

Most of these things are lacking in all schools.