Study reveals better edtech procurement practices lead to better learning outcomes

BY PAUL JUNOR

There has been interest among education stakeholders with respect to how best to help students improve their learning outcomes. The Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) is a not-for-profit, national centre that is at the forefront of researching strategies to heighten Canada’s digital advantage in a global economy.

On Monday, March 6^th, 2023, they posted a press release as part of its third report in its edtech series, “Buying into Learning Outcomes: Education Technology in Canada.” The study focuses on the increasing challenge of technology procurement in K-12 schools.

This report explores the differences in procurement practices across provinces and territories, and offers a road map for governments and school boards to improve their purchasing processes leading to better student learning outcomes around technology use in schools.

This revolutionary study posits that Canada requires a balance between centralized, decentralized, and divisional procurement, which would ensure that with increased partnerships between diverse regional procurement stakeholders and the involvement of procurement teams it would be possible to standardize and systematize their purchasing processes. The following four areas were explored by the study:

• Procurement approaches that promote successful integration with a school’s existing technology infrastructure and risk to data privacy and security
• Innovative approaches to budgeting, including the role of charity, private sector grants, and fundraising in the context of demographic considerations
• Improving edtech procurement outcomes through multidisciplinary procurement teams, including specialists in pedagogy, curriculum, technology, accessibility, cyber security, privacy, Indigenous student realities, digital equity, diversity, and inclusion
• Staying abreast of edtech market developments beyond form RFI (requests for information), including learning about edtech solutions from end users, other schools, vendors, edtech conferences, professional developments, etc.

This 80-page study notes that there has been an increase in educational technology or “edtech” purchases from kindergarten to grade 12 (K to 12) all across Canada. This process is a complex process that involves identifying a need, researching what the market can provide, selecting a solution, and making a purchase. It may take the form of an informed pilot or trial, direct purchase from a single vendor, or competitive bidding process, or request for proposals (RFP). The overall purpose of the study highlights: commonalities, differences, challenges, and strengths in edtech procurement practices.

The study is divided into three sections. They include the following:

Section 1: Introduction to Edtech Procurement

• Including what types of technology schools purchase, who in education is involved in technology purchases, and the benefits and challenges associated with centralized, decentralized, ad divisional procurement

Section 2: Stage of the Process

• Highlights various approach to staying on top of the edtech market, launching a procurement process, assessing vendors and making procurement decisions, and implementation and process management

Section 3: Navigating the Procurement and Strategies for Improving Canadian Edtech Policy

• Assesses strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in Canadian edtech procurement from the perspectives of the public and private sectors, before turning to a set of strategies for enhancing K-12 edtech procurement

This new study by ICTC is timely and relevant due to the COVID-19 pandemic. School systems have increased their purchases of educational technologies to deal with the lack of in-person classes. By getting feedback through semi-structured interviews as well as from public and private sector policy roundtable, it provides a good overview of what is required to ensure there are better learning outcomes for students.

It reminds us that with millions being spent on edtech procurement, there is a need for greater collaboration between diverse regional procurement stakeholders and vendors. This is essential to standardize procurement purchasing processes and strategies.