The 5 Questions Administrators Should Ask Before Buying EdTech

In 1876, Western Union passed on buying Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent for $100,000. Their internal memo called it "an electrical toy."

This is the recurring story of institutions that evaluate new tools by imagining them working exactly like the old ones. EdTech companies do the same thing in reverse: they build tools imagining a classroom they've never sat in, then ship them into environments that rarely look like their assumptions.

Brooke Rosenthal, Lead Product Designer at Subject, has spent nearly two years doing the opposite. With a background in medical anthropology and a master's in product design, Brooke studies how the systems people are in shape the ways they behave — and she takes that research into real classrooms.

What she found should change how every district evaluates the platforms it's considering.

Built for a Classroom They've Never Seen

Brooke Rosenthal knows that reading about a classroom isn't the same as being in one.

Early in her time at Subject, Brooke visited real schools and observed something no survey captures. A student raises her hand, the teacher walks over and the platform barely factors in. The classroom handles the communication gap on its own.

In a virtual school, all of this is happening across the airwaves. If the platform isn't designed for the reality of that virtual communication gap, the student could get stuck without the teacher ever knowing.

The National Center for Education Statistics reports that millions of K-12 students remain enrolled in virtual or hybrid programs, holding well above pre-pandemic levels. That's a lot of students using platforms designed for the scenario where the teacher is three feet away.

"When you think about virtual schools, a student can't raise their hand. That creates more friction to helping the student progress."

— Brooke Rosenthal, Lead Product Designer, Subject. Platforms that build one solution for every scenario without understanding that difference create that friction daily, and they may never figure out why their pilots fall apart.

The question	What earns the point	Points earned
"When I picture how this would be used in a classroom, is only the teacher OR student happy?"	Notable ways both the teacher and students will be positively impacted	_ out of 1
"Can I see both the teacher view and the student view of this feature right now, without switching to a separate login?"	Both views, same session, no workaround needed.	_ out of 1
"How do I adjust reading level for an IEP accommodation — and how many clicks does that take from the main dashboard?"	Three clicks or fewer from the dashboard the teacher actually uses. (The shorter the path, the more often it actually gets used.)	_ out of 1
"Am I able to find details on older versions of this product, proving that feedback was incorporated and improvements were made accordingly?"	Product upgrade announcements, detailed user guides, and customer-oriented messaging around updates	_ out of 1
"Can I tell what a virtual student does when they're stuck and can't raise their hand?"	A specific, built-in answer for how the platform surfaces that need without the teacher actively hunting for it.	_ out of 1
Total Score		_ out of 5

The question

What earns the point

Points earned

"When I picture how this would be used in a classroom, is only the teacher OR student happy?"

Notable ways both the teacher and students will be positively impacted

_ out of 1

"Can I see both the teacher view and the student view of this feature right now, without switching to a separate login?"

Both views, same session, no workaround needed.

_ out of 1

"How do I adjust reading level for an IEP accommodation — and how many clicks does that take from the main dashboard?"

Three clicks or fewer from the dashboard the teacher actually uses. (The shorter the path, the more often it actually gets used.)

_ out of 1

"Am I able to find details on older versions of this product, proving that feedback was incorporated and improvements were made accordingly?"

Product upgrade announcements, detailed user guides, and customer-oriented messaging around updates

_ out of 1

"Can I tell what a virtual student does when they're stuck and can't raise their hand?"

A specific, built-in answer for how the platform surfaces that need without the teacher actively hunting for it.

_ out of 1

Total Score

_ out of 5

The 5 Questions Administrators Should Ask Before Committing to a New Tool

Built for a Classroom They've Never Seen

Built for a Classroom They've Never Seen

The three-rung ladder test to evaluate a product's features

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