Giving Compass' Take:

• The Greater Essex County District School Board shares three strategic steps toward building and tailoring edtech solutions for a school district. 

• When thinking about education technology in the classroom, what should be the top considerations? Who should be part of these conversations to achieve the best outcome? 

• Read more about how to make edtech more effective. 

Every district has been through it. Either your team identifies a new technology need that has to be implemented at the district level, or you determine your current system doesn’t fit today’s school climate.

With a focus on customization in our technology implementation for the Greater Essex County District School Board, we have come closer than ever to our overarching desire to go to as few places as possible to do as much as possible with as few passwords as possible.

With so many resources being invested in the selection and deployment of the new system, we really wanted to make the solution our own. Here are three steps our school board took to tailor our solution to our specific wants and needs.

1. Clearly Define Your Needs. It will then be easier for you to identify which solutions have the bandwidth to fit your needs. As companies respond to your request for information, you’ll find those nice-to-have functionalities in addition to how flexible vendors can be to your outlined needs.

2. Get Creative. Don’t leave it to one person to determine the customizations for your new solution. Open up a dialogue among multiple stakeholders to encourage brainstorming and include diverse perspectives.

3. Speak Up To Your Vendor. As you work with your vendor to set up a technology rollout, remember: it never hurts to ask. Even if a customization doesn’t appear to be available with the solution you’ve selected, a vendor will likely do everything in their power to make the platform work for you.

Read the full article about building your own district-wide education tech solutions by Shelley Hudson at Getting Smart.