In our covid-shaken country, should schools and universities open back up for business? How should that be done? And dare we pause and consider for a moment the impact that the last half year of distress will have on the financial stability of the ed tech market? This is a tough story to write, because there are dangerous booby traps at every turn, strong emotions that cloud our judgement, and a thick fog of uncertainty blanketing the horizon ahead.
Some European schools may have figured it all out, but here in the U.S., decisions about opening up schools are still in an uncomfortable state of flux.
As I look outwards over the landscape of opinions about reopening U.S. schools, discordant signals are clearly observable:
- fear is still in the driver’s seat
- people’s politics is clearly a determiner
- geography and socioeconomics remain key influencers
- stakeholder survey questions are being shaped in ways that almost any opinion can be supported by data
Here are a few vignettes of the cacophony and diversity of actions apparent in the U.S. Provided mostly from a Colorado perspective and partially from a broader U.S. perspective, here is what to expect with K12 and higher education re-openings this fall. (Remember, these plans seem to change on a daily basis.)
K12 Education
Here in Colorado, the parent surveys I have reviewed indicate an 80-95% parent preference to return children to physical attendance at schools, given some adjustments. Still, Colorado’s largest school district will start the first two weeks fully online. Another large Colorado district will run a blended option (example: Monday through Wednesday online, Thursday and Friday face-to-face). Many other Colorado districts will simply delay the start of the school year and make their tough decisions later on. On a more national level, Los Angeles will not return to face-to-face instruction this fall, but will continue fully online. The Houston schools will begin schools on a delayed start, virtually. After 6 weeks, students may possibly return to face-to-face schooling. Finally, a large Virginia district, although parent surveys indicate the strong preference (60%) for face-to-face schooling, will open in virtual mode only.
Higher Education
How higher education will be dealing with reopening is another helter-skelter patchwork of possibilities. As of today’s writing, The Chronicle of Higher Education, which tracks more than 1,250 institutions’ plans for getting back to class, indicates that 50% of college institutions are planning to return to in-person instruction, 34% are aiming for a hybrid option, while 12% plan to shift to a fully online restart. That same patchwork is evident here in Colorado: while the University of Colorado system is largely headed online for most students and programs, the Air Force Academy deems training pipelines as “mission essential” and will return to face-to-face learning with a timed and spaced sequence of testing. Almost all private colleges and universities in Colorado are returning to in-person learning, although requiring lots of testing, social distancing, and masks. It’s a decision largely dictated by dollars, since private institutions don’t benefit from the guaranteed safety net of state-funding.
On the business side of ed-tech, where is all this commotion taking us? What can we expect in terms of sales and opportunities? My current sense is that purchasing of mobility devices will trend upwards. K12 schools will purchase more tech, needing to now personalize the resources that are currently shared by grade levels. Parents will buy more devices, too. University students will need more mobile devices and beefed-up computers as university shared labs shut down and more classes head online, in whole or in part. In K12 and higher ed environments, mobile devices experience much more “wear and tear” than stationary devices, so we can also expect equipment replacement cycles to be sped up both now and in the near future.
Even after the shift back to in-person instruction, in the post-covid world we can expect technology to play an increased role. Opportunities will undoubtedly rise for clever and crafty ed-tech solutions. So, maybe the cup is half-full instead of half empty. In my next article, I will provide an interesting and rapidly expanding example of pursuing ed-tech sales opportunities in a post-covid world. — Len Scrogan
