In a move that could help expand access to free online instructional materials for thousands of U.S schools鈥攁nd may signal a shift in the sometimes-rocky relationship between the education-technology industry and classroom educators鈥攔ising startup company has joined forces with the 1.6-million member American Federation of Teachers.
The partnership is one of several new 鈥渋ntegrations鈥� with creators of free educational apps and Open Education Resources, or OER, announced by San Francisco-based Clever in recent weeks. Teachers at the 27,000 schools currently using the company鈥檚 services will now be able to freely access, with a single login and password, everything from high-powered web-based graphing calculators to high-tech physics simulations to the thousands of free, teacher-generated instructional materials that have been curated online at , the AFT鈥檚 free online lesson-sharing site.
For schools awash in educational software and apps, the new agreements mean that managing dozens of separate usernames and passwords for both students and teachers no longer needs to be a significant barrier to classroom use of free open education resources.
For creators of OER, the partnerships could mean greater use of their materials and a more level playing field with the creators of paid educational software, many of which have already established connections with Clever or one of the handful of other companies offering 鈥渟ingle-sign on鈥� technology to schools. Clever has waived the fees it typically charges paid software programs to selected applications (including Share My Lesson), that are completely free to schools.
And for AFT President Randi Weingarten, the new relationship between her 98-year old trade union and a two-year-old Silicon Valley hotshot is a tangible demonstration of the growing recognition within the ed-tech industry that teachers aren鈥檛 going away anytime soon.
鈥淲e鈥檙e starting to see fewer entrepreneurs going around teachers and instead starting to say, 鈥楬ow can we talk to them to find out what they really need?鈥欌�� Weingarten said in an interview.
鈥淐lever knew that from the beginning. And that鈥檚 one of the reasons they鈥檝e been so successful.鈥�
Solving teachers鈥� problems
For his part, Clever founder and CEO Tyler Bosmeny doesn鈥檛 talk like the typical ed-tech entrepreneur.
鈥淔or the past decade, technology has been the thing that has kept kids from learning,鈥� he said in an interview.
Bosmeny pointed to the headaches described by legions of teachers frustrated by the tedious logistical challenges associated with getting whole classrooms of kids logged on to educational software.
Rather than attempt to revolutionize public education, Clever鈥檚 business model is predicated on solving that very specific problem.
The company got its start in 2012 by serving as a bridge between schools and software providers, in effect taking over the nitty-gritty technical work of integrating a new software program with a district鈥檚 existing student information system so that student accounts could be created and managed automatically.
In May, the company went a step further, which provides teachers and students the ability to access more than 100 software programs via a single username and password.
But until recently, the digital learning tools that schools could access via Clever were almost entirely software programs that cost money.
The new partnerships, Bosmeny said, are primarily a response to requests from schools to gain similar access to no-cost open education resources.
鈥淭here鈥檚 all this really incredible content available online for free that schools would love to use if it were just easier鈥� to access, he said.
A real-world example
In just a few months, about 15 percent of the 27,000 schools using Clever have enabled Instant Login, according to the company.
Big examples include Miami-Dade public schools in Florida and the Houston Independent School District in Texas.
The 58,000-student Chesterfield County Public 69传媒 in Virginia offers a glimpse of what the experience entails鈥攁nd why its implications could be significant.
The district has been 鈥渨orking on building our digital ecosystem for the better part of the last three years,鈥� culminating with a move to provide all middle and high school students with Chromebooks by next school year, said Adam Seldow, the district鈥檚 executive director of technology.
During that time, the district actually built its own dashboard that provided teachers with single-sign on access to approved software programs.
But when officials decided to purchase two software programs, Dreambox Learning and Interactive Achievement, this summer, the companies told them they would only integrate via Clever.
And when Chesterfield officials decided they wanted to expand use of some of the OER resources that were already in use in their schools, including those by , a Palo Alto, Calif.-based nonprofit that provides customizable, open-source science and math lessons to schools, they found the organization lacked the technical chops to make the integration happen on its own.
CK-12 was, however, working on a partnership Clever.
So Chesterfield signed up.
Now, when the district鈥檚 4,200 teachers log in to their single account, they can access not only paid software, but also CK-12鈥檚 free interactive science simulations, without having to separately log into CK-12鈥檚 website.
The biggest impact, said Seldow, is that SSO removes a big excuse often cited by teachers reluctant to try new digital learning materials.
鈥淣ow, it鈥檚 all there, all kids can get to it through a single click, and there鈥檚 no longer a reason teachers shouldn鈥檛 try it if it offers the resources they need,鈥� he said.
A significant opportunity
Other Open Education Resource providers that Clever now partners with include , a free web-based graphing calculator; , an online computer-programming course developed by computer scientists at Stanford University, and , an online program to help students learn to type faster.
The company has worked with OER heavyweight Khan Academy for years, but for smaller groups, the partnership is a potential boon.
鈥淚n this day and age, all schools and districts should have easy access to high quality digital open content through a single sign on,鈥� said Neeru Khosla, Executive Director at CK-12, in a statement.
While the 300,000 free teaching materials available on the American Federation of Teachers鈥� Share My Lesson platform are strictly for educators and not to be used by students, Weingarten said there will likely be similar benefits.
Teachers are 鈥渕ere mortals,鈥� she said, many of whom lack 鈥渢he encyclopedic memories needed to memorize all their passwords.鈥�
Now, though, teachers in schools served by Clever who are looking for lesson plans or other resources can do 鈥渙ne-stop shopping,鈥� Weingarten said.
And in the bigger picture, she said, the union鈥檚 relationship with Clever offers a lesson for others in the education-technology field.
鈥淚f you want your product to be used in schools,鈥� Weingarten said, 鈥渢alk to teachers.鈥�
Photo: American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten addresses the ATF 鈥淩eclaming the Promise鈥� convention last June in Los Angeles--Damian Dovarganes/AP-File
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