Do teachers and students get the ed-tech products they need: The challenges of ed-tech procurement in a rapidly growing market
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Ed-tech courseware products to support teaching and learning are being developed and made available for acquisition by school districts at a rapid rate. In this growing market, developers and providers face challenges with making their products visible to customers, while school district stakeholders must grapple with “discovering” which products of the many available best address their instructional needs. The present study presents the experiences with and perceptions about the procurement process from 47 superintendents representing diverse school districts in the U. S. Results indicate that, while improvements are desired in many aspects of the procurement process, the superintendents, overall, believe that, once desired products are identified, they are generally able to acquire them. Difficulties lie in tighter budgets, discovering products that are potentially the best choices, and evaluating the effectiveness of the products selected as options. These findings are presented and interpreted in relation to five major “Action Points” in the procurement process, and also with regard to implications for evaluating how educational technology impacts K-12 instruction.
Keywords: Ed-tech, school districts, K-12.
Downloads
Article Details
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
References
Chaudry, S. (2013). Navigating through pitfalls. Evaluating practices in the education technology procurement process: Superintendent and vendor perspective. EIA and Digital Promise Report.
Lake, C. (2014). Fostering market efficiency in ed-tech procurement: Annotated bibliography. Unpublished manuscript, Center for Research and Reform in Education, the Johns Hopkins University.
Younie, S. (2006). Implementing government policy on ICT education: Lessons learnt. Education and Information Technologies. 11(3-4), 385-400.