Heroes deserve principles

There is a proliferation of edtech companies out there - now more than ever. How do you know which is going to deliver a transformational learning tool to your district, your classrooms and your learners? First, I believe that any edtech company worth their salt must be founded on guiding core principles, and if they don’t live by those principles every day they risk not meeting the needs of their customers -- who are doing some of the most important work in our nation right now. 

After all, as edtech providers, we support heroes and heroes deserve principle centered partners.

There are five founding principles that my company is built upon and they reflect our intent for social and economic impact. 

People: Education is a human endeavor 

The human spirit has boundless potential and can be inspired to achieve - when barriers are removed. By increasing visibility into learner’s work and replicating and enhancing tried and true teaching and learning workflows, students' aptitude for learning increases with a myriad of opportunities for individualized learning. The key is the simplicity and logic of the differentiation tools for the teacher. Differentiating learning within a single lesson, inquiry, unit or project for multiple students needs to be embedded in a single learning delivery or space so as to not overwhelm teachers or create ‘too many lessons for one topic.’ Thus, a key purpose of technology in the classroom is to improve deliverability and teachers’ job quality, not burden them with extra tasks. 

I believe it’s fundamental too, to support teachers in their evolving job roles by offering extensive professional development; training programs and an online community for teachers to connect and share support. 

Empowerment: Inspiring teachers and students 

We know that every teacher joined their profession to provide opportunities for young learners to be successful. We also know that every student wants to be successful. We inspire both teachers and students to be 21st century educators and learners preparing for an increasingly connected world. 

Great teachers wear many hats from class management to individualized instruction to formative feedback to learning activity composition. A connected world increases their ability to individualize, give feedback, and compose unique learning activities. 

Students need clear visibility to expectations for learning so they have their best chance of success. A connected world gives students efficient access to information about their learning expectations.

Social equity: Access to learning for all 

Social equity in learning is at the core of what we do. We organize the internet for the classroom regardless of where students live or their level of income. By managing free productivity software from Google, we open access to all freely available learning resources globally as well as access to experts and other learners around the world. In these days of hybrid learning, teachers can use the same tools for both at-home and in-person learners, increasing connectivity between teachers and students in a time when isolation is increasing. 

Transparency: Making learning visible and intentional 

John Hattie’s meta-meta study of 50k studies and 80m students shows that when learning is visible and intentional, the impact on student performance hits its highest level. Our goal has been to support the high impact teaching and learning strategies outlined by John Hattie in all that we do in developing our instructional suite of tools. Visible teaching and learning occurs in a student-centered classroom where students can collaborate and partner with their teachers and fellow learners. Teachers have insight to the learning process through analytics and transformation reporting and can agilely adapt their approach-- using the students' understanding as the barometer of their success. Students are able to take responsibility and agency for their work via the Hāpara Student Dashboard and teachers can have clear visibility to student work through Hāpara Teacher Dashboard and Hāpara Highlights.

Technology for the good: Enabling effective learning 

Technology applications in education need to do more than solve a small set of problems. The Hāpara Suite supports teachers in making the transition to cloud based digital communication, collaboration and class management. Teachers and students deserve effective classroom learning tools that provide student agency and best practices. Technology to enable learners and their teachers to become 21st century digital citizens is technology for the good.

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of technology in the classroom, and our changed reality is such that it is hard to imagine the time when its use was debated. What hasn’t changed though, is the importance of having strong, identifiable foundations and principles upon which edtech tools are built, so they can power truly awesome learning!

Wayne Poncia is a well-known thought leader in educational innovation in the United States and Canada and CEO of Hāpara, who power connected learning for teachers and learners.