The Department of Education released a guide for developers
who create solutions in the education space. The Ed Tech Developer’s Guide: A
Primer for Developers, Startups, and Entrepreneurs is free and available for
download at tech.ed.gov/developers.
The guide focuses on the key needs of the nation’s
school systems and pinpoints 10 long-term issues facing education. It
highlights issues such as increasing family engagement, professional
development for teachers, and accurately measuring what students have learned
as potential areas for digital tools.
“Technology makes it possible for us to create a
different dynamic between a teacher and a classroom full of students,”
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said at a conference where the guide was introduced. “We need tools designed to help students
discover who they are and what they care about, and tools that create portals
to a larger world that, in the past, would have remained out of reach for far
too many.”
Education technology must do more than just deliver
content to students, according to Duncan,
who added that he hoped paper textbooks would soon be extinct. He also
said developers need to keep disadvantaged students in mind when designing new
tools.
“If the technology revolution only happens for families
that already have money and education, then it’s not really a revolution,” he
said.
