ISTE 2010. The Ed-Tech Industry Pauses and Regroups

I attended ISTE 2010 (International Society for Technology in Education) national conference in Denver, Colorado, June 27-30. Over 12,000 education technology leaders attended, adjacent to an exhibition hall of 400,000 square feet hosting 450 21st-century educational technology providers. The theme of the conference “Exploring Excellence” highlighted what was billed as the “World's Largest Ed Tech Exhibition.” The emphasis on excellence was emphasized in breakout sessions and keynote presentations during the four days. Key presentation strands included technology implementation, technology professional development, and interactive learning tools. The participants--educators, education marketing professionals, and ed-tech industry analysts--were challenged to take on “issues of global learning” in a networked world, but my overall impression is of an industry that has paused and is waiting for a new wave of innovation.

New Strategies for Ed-Tech Implementation for the 21st Century

A number of presentations were made by international speakers. It was noted that technology initiatives across the globe are at different levels of implementation, and the strategies for more robust educational technology solutions are at once emerging and intriguing. Dr. Juan Jose De La Mora of the Mexican Ministry of Education perhaps captured the emerging international priorities best of all. “Local, national, and global initiatives need to build an education technology curriculum for the 21st century; transforming education with technology tools.” A scaffold plan includes:

• Improving population access to broadband
• Placing more computers in the hands of students
• Increasing teacher professional development

The suggested professional development in this model includes the adoption and dissemination of a comprehensive set of educational technology standards.

The Education Marketing View: Seven Trends Driving Development and Investment

My discussions with professionals who are marketing to schools and other participants over the course of four days revealed a common set of themes. Here are the seven strands that are moving front and center:

1. Technology preparation and practice. There is more emphasis on tools and skills for pre-service educators and education leaders.
2. Innovative learning in the classroom. Mobile devices and iPad-like technologies bring learning to students' fingertips.
3. Better technology and technology planning. The move is to redefine the learning experience.
4. Use of interactive white board technologies. IWBs utilized in the classroom to create, document, and develop learning experiences and content.
5. Creation of 21st-century campuses. Classrooms designed with wireless connectivity, net books, smart phones, distance learning and global learning technologies at their core.
6. The global imperative. There is heightened interest in promoting the benefits of educational technology.
7. Seamless integration of technology. Finally, digital content is moving into classroom lessons and practice.

Five Educational Technology Trends for School Marketing Professionals

1. The iPad adoption. Uptakes of iPad have been immediate and are evident in this exhibition and across the conference presentations.
2. Delivery of digital content. Ed-tech companies have begun seriously focusing products on content and how technology can deliver content. What is missing is using educational technology to create knowledge.
3. Slower pace of change. The pace of change is significant in the last five years but appears to be slowing now. 
4. Innovation freeze. The struggling economy and the lack of resources in the public education sector is causing a freeze on innovation. Many at this conference note there is really no groundbreaking innovation being showcased this year.
5. Shift in exhibit traffic patterns. Exhibitors observed a significant decline in the number of visitors to their booths after the second day of the conference. This could have been because the weather was inviting, and a number of activities off-site were scheduled, but traffic did seem to noticeably decline as the conference reached the midpoint.

Implications for Education Marketing

• Faster adoptions. The educational technology market has reached a state where there is faster adoption of emerging technologies, rather than the more dynamic innovator state of the last decade. It was noted in several interviews I had with developers that just five years ago, Steve Jobs used the ISTE convention (then called NECC) in Philadelphia to announce the launch of the iPod. Now, the technology is old news. No major innovations of that level were in evidence this year.
• Consolidation of technologies. For example, many market players were touting their product applicably using iPad technology introduced last year. A number of channel competitors have consolidated in the assessment technology niche. The GOOGLE booth was swamped with participants seven and eight rows deep for three days to view apps already available to the market.
• Promotion of existing technologies. Suppliers are selling what they have, mainly curriculum supplements, along with standards management and remediation tools. Content suppliers were numerous, competing at every level. They varied from very local homegrown solutions to national-aligned content publishers; Compass Learning is one example.
• White board technology is super competitive. Whiteboards and related content was the most competitive category at the exhibition. Promethean expended vast amounts of resources at the conference to gain market share against market leader SMART Technologies.
• Repackaging of analog products. Older players in the market like Scantron have attempted to repurpose and repackage their products as a digital solution.
• Network security is still a hot category. Antivirus, network protection, and network monitoring software had a significant presence at the exhibition, with technology solutions providing capability of monitoring individual user events, down to the time and date of a website visit. This technology was imported from the private sector as a mature solution and is now heavily promoted for education applications.
• Microsoft may be losing steam. Microsoft has ramped up its presence with a huge infusion of resources to promote Windows software, and is beginning to promote other applications specific to the education market. The Microsoft booth had few visitors.
• Professional development has moved center stage. Dell had a large booth exhibition presence, with an exclusive market message of professional development for users seeking to use the hardware in education applications. Professional development experts are assigned to specific states where educational technology solutions are advanced, with a network of regional trainers. No Dell hardware was in evidence or sold at the conference in this booth. McGraw-Hill and the newly acquired AIMS Web assessment software utilized a similar regional and state wide professional development model.

Summary: Three Themes for an Ed-Tech Industry at a Crossroads

The ISTE conference this year demonstrated an interesting phenomenon of stabilizing ed-tech solutions in an era of declining resources in public education; and an era of technology saturation in many parts of the United States. An organizational analysis of the change processes at work is appropriate here. Some researchers have promoted the idea of a three-step change process that is both elemental and sequenced. This model may be applicable in this situation. The first step in the change process is a thawing of existing structures, products, and ideas in an industry. The second step is the liquid state, where change is rapid, freeflowing, and not always predictable. The third is the refreezing state, where innovation, change, and new ideas slow. It appears we have entered the third change state at this conference. Participants I interviewed talked about three common themes:

1. The lack of truly new ideas or products. For example, ISTE is in the process of “reviewing and rewriting the NET Standards,” not creating new standards or developing new strategies for implementation. The Council of Chief State School Officers was only able to contribute a white paper on SIF compliance. The educational researcher, Robert Marzano, contributed a treatise on the effectiveness of white board technology in the classroom, funded by Promethean.
2. More of the same. Interviews with suppliers reflected a perception that product developers are providing more of what educators have been offered for the last few years rather than providing new solutions or tools.

3. Emphasis on content. There is a continued emphasis by suppliers on content products rather than knowledge products that support the learner in an active learning environment that creates new levels of understanding. There was a sense that products are more boxed rather than creative.

These observations, combined with my exhibitor interviews and product reviews lead me to conclude that both the ed-tech market and the ed-tech buyers are in a state of a pause after a period of significant change and innovation. The majority of developers are not spending for research and development, rather focusing on target education marketing and tried and selling ed-tech products into tried and true niches.