haiku LMS

We had a spectacular time at SIAA and met many leaders in the industry who were willing to share their knowledge with us.  As a young startup, we felt that we were walking among giants, but at the same time we were encouraged by the excitement people expressed when they saw what haiku LMS was all about.

In many ways I felt it was a return to my grad school days, where intelligent people debated both the real-world and esoteric problems, where innovation and entrepreneurism were rewarded.  I can't think of a better place to have been this last week.

So, to share some of my musings now that I have returned to the Land of Goshen (Indiana) here are my five takeaways from SIAA:

1. The true battleground in education technology is in the publishing arena

As schools increasingly turn to technology as a medium for for new and innovative ways to teach, the publishing industry's dependence on the traditional textbook as its bread and butter is being challenged.  New resources like Curriki  and Connexions  are changing the ways we think about content and its distribution.  Publishers are looking to other leading companies for examples on how digital content can be licensed to protect their investments without giving up their market leadership positions.  People expect content to be free in the world of today's internet, and it appears that it is hard for publishers to see the path to a viable business model that will support free content but still keep them in business.

What to do?  I certainly haven't figured that out yet.  If I do, I'll be sure to give the publishers a call.

But if you think you know, and you want to try your case against the sermon of a modern day prophet named Joshua, you need to talk to Joshua Marks of Curriki.  He makes a compelling argument in favor of Open Source Content.

2. The era of true individualized education is upon us

There were a number of exciting products on the horizon that will better enable a student level, rather than class or state level approach to learning.  Exciting products (our fellow incubator participants) like the Open English Personalized Language Learning Platform and the eSpindle Vocabulary & Spelling Tutor  illustrated how technology can shape content to match a users needs instead of forcing the user to match the content.  These products fit well into our 'invisible technology' philosophy at Haiku.  Open English in particular made me want to get back into language study...this is education of the next generation.  Check it out.

3. The need for web software focused on usability is acute.

Web technologies are finally catching up with desktop capabilities when it comes to user interfaces.  AJAX was a hot topic at SIAA this year, and everybody wants a 'netflix' or 'netvibes' like interface. Even yet, many of our fellow vendors were using interface technologies which are five, even ten years old.  It is apparent that this is going to change in the near future as companies are realizing the benefits of paying attention to interfaces as Google continues to push the boundaries of what users expect in web applications.

4. Education is beginning to become aware of the benefits on on-demand software

The business market has definitely come to realize the benefits of on-demand's instant upgrades, low IT needs in such products as SalesForce and Google, but the education market has been slow to embrace any systems that are hosted off-site.  We found that the participants at SIAA were receptive to the benefits of on-demand software, and recent surveys distributed by the SIAA seem to indicate that schools are recognizing on-demand as a viable option as well. This is good for haiku LMS and IMHO good for the industry as well.

5. The people involved in education and business are some of the most wonderful people I have ever met.

Actually it's not a trend...I think it has always been this way.  Educators have their hearts in the right places.

I have to thank Sari Follansbee of EdTech Designs, June Harold of Saywire, Todd Brekhus of Plato Learning, Joshua Marks of Curriki, Patrick Vaughan of ITN Source, Jeff Schultz of McGraw Hill Education and the professional and caring staff of SIAA for an outstanding and enlightening conference.  I look forward to joining the crew again next year.

If you are a startup in the education realm, the SIAA conference is a must-attend!

-Bryan