Nowhere is tech more important than in curriculum-here’s why

Harnessing Curriculum-as-a-Service

In the case of Evergreen, what if the textbook not only doesn’t fit the district philosophy of teaching and learning, but doesn’t work well with the new one-to-one technology investment? In any of these situations, the corresponding resources and assessments won’t help the teacher or the district see patterns in the actual student learning and then use those patterns to respond to student needs.

If we change our orientation from curriculum in the form of static materials to Curriculum-as-a-Service  (CaaS)— one powered by technology and human expertise — we can start to imagine a better tool for getting these jobs done.

Rather than provide teachers with one static resource, technology creates an opportunity to empower educators and create helpful, high-quality curricular resources through CaaS. CaaS changes curriculum from a static, paper-based product to an adaptable, cloud-based service. CaaS combines:

• A cloud-based platform that enables districts to edit, author, curate and publish dynamic and adaptive instructional materials and track their impact
• Digital content that provides districts with a starting point of high-quality materials
• Professional services that provide guidance on how to strategically manage classrooms, guide student learning, and track impact

In Evergreen, this approach meant partnering with LearnZillion and working with teachers to take the resources already in-place in classrooms, and adjust them to be student-facing, accessible and dynamic using this new technology.

CaaS Around the World

Using technology to ensure students have equal educational opportunities is an approach being explored outside the US as well.

Brazil, for example, is undertaking an amazing challenge—creating new national education standards for the skills and abilities that every student should be taught in order to succeed in the 21st century. Led by the Lemann Foundation in partnership with Nova Escola, and with support from Google.org, this work includes creating high-quality instructional materials accessible to every teacher in Brazil.

The work being done in places like Evergreen inspired the approach leaders are taking in Brazil. Technology will play a critical role in the creation and distribution of these resources. Starting in 2018, the curriculum will be created in cycles with Brazilian educators using LearnZillion’s CaaS cloud-based platform. Once complete, teachers will have access to 6,000 lesson plans from grades K-9 across all subject areas, as well as digital resources, quizzes and reports.

Creating access to high-quality resources promotes equity whether we focus on classrooms in Washington or Brazil, and technology makes high-quality, easy-to-use and accessible curricula a reality. By providing a high-quality base for all teachers and students, they’re set up for success no matter their area code. This is the future of curriculum.