LearnPlatform by Instructure
Building Upon the Full Scope of EdTech
How this district continued to utilize and evolve its edtech management to support tech-enabled learning environments
The last few years have dramatically changed the student and educator experience as teaching and learning has become more tech-enabled. In 2018, Michael Arensdorff, Senior Director of Technology at Oak Park Elementary School District 97 and his colleagues were focused on two goals. First, they wanted to provide visibility for all stakeholders into the educational technology tools the district was using by creating a shared library. Second, they wanted a way to look beyond usage to start exploring which tools and implementations were effective. Today, in 2022, the team at District 97 has continued to evolve both its goals and plans to address their current challenges.
When Arensdorff’s team first began its partnership with LearnPlatform in 2018, they sought to answer questions such as, “Are students and teachers using a particular product at the level they expected?” and “Does this tool create the desired impact on outcomes?” With the help of LearnPlatform, the team was able to help answer those questions while setting the stage for more in-depth research questions and implementation refinement.
Fast-forward to 2022, with LearnPlatform playing a central role in the district’s edtech management, one of the main benefits Arensdorff’s team enjoys is the ability to streamline its processes from initial evaluation to implementation and renewal. For several years they focused on understanding district-wide product usage through the Inventory Dashboard and running initial rapid-cycle evaluations on strategic tools to establish baseline data on edtech usage. The team’s priority during this time was to assess the primary purpose of individual edtech tools and determine implementation improvements to maximize impact on teaching and learning.
How LearnPlatform Helps Oak Park Evolve Their EdTech Management
Arensdorff and his team understand that edtech effectiveness goes beyond usage. Over time, LearnPlatform has become a space for the team to discuss the district’s goals for edtech evaluation, intersections between existing edtech tools, and impacts of other district priority areas with help from the expert research team.
Having the research, experts and space to continue to have those conversations with administrators with us has been helpful.
Michael Arensdorff
Senior Director of Technology
The district has expanded their use of RCE, partnering with LearnPlatform researchers to create guiding questions for their evaluations that ultimately ground their vetting approach for new tools. The team now uses a logic model formulated by the researchers at LearnPlatform to guide and inform decisions early on in the vetting process.
Those questions have been helpful to change conversations on the front end, which also help change the conversation as we go through analyses and the impact of different tools. Getting that data provides more questions of what we are looking for.
Michael Arensdorff
Arensdorff and his team have also dug into the usage data to identify under-utilized resources and opportunities to improve implementation processes. With a constantly changing array of edtech tools available, they wanted to be sure they were providing effective and equitable professional development. They also wanted to highlight additional areas of inquiry for the district to explore, for example, “Are some teachers more effectively incorporating the tool with effective teaching strategies as opposed to relying solely on consumption of the tool as the sole strategy?”
Other changes in the district have also included a new superintendent in July 2022 and the addition of a director of data analytics. With these additions to the Oak Park team conversations about the importance of data to show the impact of edtech on student growth have evolved. Together, the team works to put more data in the hands of more individuals across different roles and apply their findings to aid in delivery of effective classroom instruction and product implementation. Professional development on a larger, districtwide scale is also a focus for the team.
What’s Next
Since working with LearnPlatform, Arensdorff and his team have shifted existing practices to deepen the application of evidence in their edtech ecosystem. When the district wrapped up its first set of rapid-cycle evaluations in 2018, the team hoped to correlate usage with student achievement to start building up a robust internal evidence base. Now, through additional knowledge, experience and deepening partnership with the LearnPlatform research team, Arensdorff’s team has broadened the application of evidence-based evaluations for continuous edtech ecosystem and implementation optimization.
As next steps, the Oak Park team is committed to diving deeper into outcomes-focused rapid-cycle evaluations and updating their LearnPlatform edtech library to support transparent communication with all stakeholders. Ultimately, Arensdorff and his team hope to support the district’s goal of creating a positive, equitable learning environment for all students and more deeply engaging families in learning taking place both in and outside of the classroom.
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