In this week’s episode of All Things Marketing and Education, Elana sat down with Thor Prichard, President & CEO at Clarity Innovations, a mission-driven, K-12 education-focused professional services and consulting firm that provides education strategy, content creation, engineering, and design solutions. They discuss the importance of designing EdTech products with learning outcomes in mind, the challenges of creating effective EdTech products, and the UX/UI non-negotiables from an educator’s point of view.
Thor reminds us of all the considerations when creating effective EdTech tools with the end user, students, in mind, particularly that implementation and professional development programs are essential steps to the process. Thor also highlights some of the current trends in the EdTech space.
Top Takeaways:
Designing EdTech products with learning outcomes in mind is crucial for their effectiveness.
Effective implementation and professional development are essential parts of successful EdTech adoption.
Balancing depth and breadth in product design requires a focus on the instructional application and intentional scope.
Non-negotiables in EdTech products include single sign-on, accessibility, and data privacy.
Efficacy in EdTech is a complex challenge that requires time, research, and teacher input.
Conversations with educators and exploring science fiction can provide inspiration for innovative product design. Product design plays a crucial role in the success of EdTech products.
Design thinking process helps in creating user-centered and effective solutions.
User-centered design focuses on understanding and meeting the needs of the end-users.
Keeping up with the latest trends in product design is essential for EdTech professionals.
Here's the full transcript of Thor’s podcast episode.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK): a way to explain the role and intersection of three domains of knowledge relating to teaching and learning.
Resources for data privacy and security:
For schools: CoSN’s Cybersecurity Initiative is the place to start.
For EdTech companies: The Student Data Privacy Consortium and Student Privacy Pledge are good places to start.
UDL guidelines: a set of concrete suggestions that ensure all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.
Office of EdTech Accessibility resources: learn more about considerations around accessibility in both EdTech tools and the classroom.
Resources to support the SAMR Model: Kathy Schrock’s guide to helping us understand the SAMR model, a model designed to help educators infuse technology into teaching and learning.
Global Impact Taxonomy: open source classification framework for the global impact economy.
Elana Leoni, Host
Elana Leoni has dedicated the majority of her career to improving K-12 education. Prior to founding LCG, she spent eight years leading the marketing and community strategy for the George Lucas Educational Foundation where she grew Edutopia’s social media presence exponentially to reach over 20 million education change-makers every month.
Thor Prichard, Guest
I lead the team of technology-savvy learning experience designers and education-savvy product designers and software engineers at Clarity Innovations. We create solutions for our clients that help improve the process and practice of teaching and learning. My professional interests are focused on the intersection of technology and learning. I keep current on emerging policy, instructional, and technological trends to inform when a combination is right for potential emergence in the K-12 education market, generally 3-5 years from now. Having worked at this for over two decades, I’ve seen the work of education happen from multiple perspectives. Whether that’s for clients the likes of Intel, Adobe, Sphero, NWEA, PBLWorks, Kindercare, Common Sense, Math Learning Center, littleBits, AWS, Microsoft, or ISTE, it all comes down to improving pedagogy to enrich the lives of learners everywhere. And in my free time, I enjoy offshore sailing.
About All Things Marketing and Education
What if marketing was judged solely by the level of value it brings to its audience? Welcome to All Things Marketing and Education, a podcast that lives at the intersection of marketing and you guessed it, education. Each week, Elana Leoni, CEO of Leoni Consulting Group, highlights innovative social media marketing, community-building, and content marketing strategies that can significantly increase reach, relationships, and revenue.
Rate, Like, and Subscribe
Let us know what you thought about this episode by rating and reviewing our podcast. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let us know what you loved most about the episode! Also, if you haven’t done so already, subscribe to the podcast to be notified when we have more content to share with you.