Why I Have A Problem With So Much Education Software

Seth Godin proclaims:

A sad truth about most traditional b2b marketing

"People who don't care, selling products to people who care less."

He's arguing that companies who sell to other companies all too often don't have the end user at the heart of their product. All business to business (b2b) companies would say that this would never apply to them, but the sad truth is indeed that they have little inherent motivation to make a product that the end user wants. Their customer is the middleman.

Transfer this to education markets and you have a catastrophic truth to face up to: few virtual learning environment providers, education software as a service makers, or education publishers can - statistically, at least - get away with saying that they always have the end user in mind. They have the purchaser (Local Authorities, Schools or teachers, but not children) in mind first and foremost, with their best effort to balance the needs of the end user (the child) running alongside at best, second place at worst.

What examples have you seen in education where the b2b company, selling to Local Authorities, Schools or teachers, but not to children, has first and foremost an unbending loyalty to what the end user - the child - wants, over and above any competing demands of the middleman buying the product?

I'll start with the only one that comes to my mind: Moshi Monsters, which in 15 months has gone from 1m learners to 22m, nearly all of them 7-11 years old and making the choice to turn up there to learn.

Adendum: I say it's the only example that comes to mind given that any efforts to market directly to parents have failed completely for Moshi - direct referral through word of mouth, one kid to another, is what makes it spin. I wish VLEs worked on the same principles :-)

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• Moshi Monsters Surpasses 15 Million Players (newswire.ca)

Pic of salesman having a bad day by Kenyee

Comments

[John McLear]

Couldn't agree more. Our most popular product during holidays is Primary Games Arena yet that is the tool teachers value the least.

We are making a pro-active push to try to make our more commercially successful products such as primarypad more appealing to pupils.

[Jonathan]

You could argue that the application of internet filtering and VLEs in particular are the key spending issues in provision of B2B software in education.

Too many ICT Departments too busy teaching or ICT Support teams who do not engage teachers and students in their needs??

[DK]

... not specific to education - B2B is dead (killed by social media), as it's all (and has always been) P2P (peer-to-peer) : http://socialmediaforsuits.com/2010/03/social-media-killed-b2b/ ;-)

[joe wilson]

The educational stuff gets better and better my seven year old loves Club Penguin and lots of games sites ( words, numbers, puzzles , virtual worlds and dressing up models with effectively a virtual scrap book ..loads of stuff) - to be fair the school does promote some of these - but as fun places to go at weekends and at home.

VLEs - like timetables and classrooms and buildings are about how you organise learning - not necessary or sufficient for learning to actually take place Managed and maintained by those who deliver and not the learners. The broader concept is an MLE Managed Learning Environment .. lots of great diagrams from JISC work circa 2002.
Always looked for a VLE that was run by learners cross institutionally but don't think it is that far off

[Ewan McIntosh]

There's just one thing that makes me baulk in there, and it's the notion that someone, anyone, makes it their job to 'deliver' learning. Are we not beyond that notion at least metaphorically? What's the organisational role of government and commerce if we said that it was not to deliver per se?

[Joe Wilson]

Ewan we're still bit away from this .. Comes down to do learners drive system or do govt economic priorities - the supply and demand argument. The what is schooling , the why public vocational education or indeed Higher education exist question.
Not an issue in some countries where learners pay for thier learning one way or another ..but even there seen as delivery of a specfic service with focus on customer satisfaction.