The United States and the remainder of North America, like Dubai and many other countries in the Middle East, are experiencing a complete digital transformation in instruction. In the last five years, education has struggled to keep up with other industries and to transition itself from a traditional classroom with the teacher as the keeper of knowledge to a world where students can be immersed in technology and the teacher as a guide, helping students choose their own learning paths. Many ask if the transformation will ever be complete or if it will be a never-ending journey.

The short answer is, there will be an endpoint in which schools will be transformed. It will take some very large changes and will be difficult at times. It is a journey lasting from five to ten years for most education ministries and private schools and includes a changing continuum that will conclude in the “Age of Experience.”

The Age of Experience is a business term that defines the current age as more than just information and technology. It is a period when our public online personas define our lives, creating a multitude of experience-driven products. We were fortunate to hold about 30 events per year in cities across the United States. As our team speaks with education leaders, most see the wisdom of their digital transitions ending in an Age of Experience. Education leaders are relieved to know there’s an end to the transformation because they don’t want to keep moving the pieces of their operations indefinitely. Continuous disruption leaves the impression that something is wrong that can’t be fixed.

In the US, federal (national) compliance requirements, rigorous testing, changing standards and an urgency to integrate technology can cause difficulties for any leader. Especially since most leaders in the U.S. are not trained in business and began primarily as teachers with only education training. Education leaders in the Middle East tend to have more broad-based education, but they also struggle with unique pressures that make technological integration difficult.

From 2013 to 2014, we saw the real beginning of the digital transformation for most education ministries and private schools. At that time, they were either considering or already implementing a widespread acquisition of computing devices. Unfortunately, they did so without a complete understanding of how acquisitions would fit into their learning plans or how the education landscape would change in many ways.

By 2016, most ministries and private schools were in a buying mode and acquiring large quantities of the digital curriculum; but without the necessary tactical maps behind them, or even a plan for cost negotiations with the thousands of publishers, or proper scrutiny of the vast array of learning objects. Now, education ministries are putting a greater emphasis on quality over quantity, seeing that the money spent did not measurably advance learning.

The Middle East, like North America, is experiencing a digital transition process that is moving along a definable continuum through common phases that can help explain the digital transformation for schools and governments. Understanding these phases can alleviate pressure and make learning more effective, as education eventually arrives at the same place as other industries that have moved through the technology revolution – to the Age of Experience.

Strategy Years
The first phase of the digital transition continuum is called the Strategy Years. The Strategy Years is the period in which an education ministry begins with devices and ends with a plan to implement digital learning. During this time, there are discussions about home access to the Internet and the correct type of device for each grade level. This phase doesn’t yet utilize the highest capabilities of digital technologies and merely substitutes digitized assets for analog learning.

In Strategy Years, there is much depth to the strategy conversation. Some schools and ministries have done this well, but most have not. In this phase, the tendency of leaders is to let these conversations take place solely among teachers and other end-users. If left unchecked, this creates a lack of oversight that can lead to problems like amassing large and unsustainable quantities of digital files. Other problems include critical resources found on individual desktops and frequently not backed up, and teachers allowing students to log into outside services that collect large amounts of student data. Lack of oversight and leadership can also lead to teachers being overwhelmed.

Coming up in Part Two
In part two of this series, we will discuss the next two phases on the continuum, the Tactics and Sustainability Years. This is the period in the digital transformation where education ministries and private schools go from discussions on what features work best to delivering complete packages of learning with readiness and skills to enter the world in 2020 and beyond.

About the Author
Leilani Cauthen is CEO of the Learning Counsel, a research institute and news media hub in the United States that is focused on providing context for the shift in education to digital curriculum.