Good afternoon everybody.

Just to just to help me a little bit.

I'd love to just ask you a couple
of questions as we kick off so

I get a feel for where the audience has
come from Could I say that those of you

who are from anybody from
the engineering school here.

OK That's pretty great anybody
from the business school here.

Fantastic.

So kind of fifty fifty and
a graduate as opposed to a graduate group.

OK.

Wonderful.
OK so it's really exciting to be here and

it's a real privilege to have a chance
to share some observations with

you all the I'd like to take
a couple of threads and

sort of development through
the course of this I I call this talk

you know talking about the soul and
at the same time going digital.

And that to me is being the essence of the
challenge that we've been involved with

which was rediscovering our result
that rediscovering what makes

us a company that has purpose and
passion and at the same time.

How do we rebuild the business model so
that will be the sort of the broad

thrust of what we talk and
I'm joined here by a number of colleagues.

I'm not going to call them all up but
I will call out.

Steven Laster who put his hand up.

Steven is my partner in crime and we'll
talk about what he's been doing with us

and he runs our whole
development team world wide.

The let me start and
go back eight hundred eighty eight.

An important year in this campus.

Because it was your creation.

It also happens to be
the year the McGraw bought.

The Journal of railways.

That was the foundation of
McGraw Hill with parallel.

And Pam forward.

You have the development of a company

which quite frankly was
extraordinary very successful.

And then in twenty thirty.

McGraw education was sold
because it would run out of road

group of activists investors became
involved with the parent company and

said basically that education business
you've got sells textbooks get rid of it.

Get out of it.

And McGraw Hill as was then as is now
Standard and Poor's sold a business and

a group of investors bought it and
that was a moment of

real profound impact and change in the
future and the history in the trajectory

of our business and it marks a real
turning point an important turning point.

Crucial thing to making changes
to having a reason to change.

And that'll be a big theme
of this conversation.

I was first called about this job.

Shortly after that takeover.

And I put it into context I'd gone for
a walk hike actually hundred mile hike

with my then middle son seventeen years
old and each day we were doing sort

of fifteen to twenty miles and beautiful
wilderness and it's especially seventeen.

You know everything's about
to begin to happen and

I was filling him up with all that
a father can give us far as follow your

heart fully a passion really go for it.

And on our second day on this war.

My son said.

Turn it down.

I've heard.

You know you had you had this thing for
a while you know two days.

You know the five days to go but
I'm going to ask you a question.

When you go to the to
your office every day.

Do you feel the passion that
you're telling me to seek.

You also know that question I've
been running a public company for

a is happily ensconced in
a in a nice job as a C..

And it gave me cause to poor.

We reached night stop it was a pub

in a Ramada remote corner of
the English coast line and

I picked up on a pay phone because this
was completely out of my coverage.

I called the chairman of the company and
I said I'm resigning.

And a couple of weeks later the firm went
and it was a headhunter he said David.

By the way a public company you resigned.

It's going to take a while I didn't just
call the Chairman Sam walking I said I'm

giving you a year's notice so

that she would have a good chance
to to get succession plan for

a couple weeks to find somebody
says I've got the perfect job.

Fits your values fits your you
know everything about you.

You've done a little while in
educational publishing you've done

some time in software.

This is the perfect thing and
you really care.

And they talk in the open door and
said What's the company and

they said well I can't tell you secret.

So I said well I can't tell you.

A couple of weeks later they
say look we've now been cleared

to tell you it's McGraw Hill education and
I said this is a really easy conversation.

I have zero interest in that company.

It's got a broken business model.

It's about as antithetical to the.

Sector in which it works
as you could imagine and.

Like to get back to growth not
dealing with managing a retreat.

And at that point he hadn't said
you're being a little bit hasty

I've revealed by that point
that I was changing jobs.

They said come out and meet some of
the people and I came to Boston.

An amazing weekend with Stephen.

And we kind of interviewed one
another on the subject really was.

Can we make it do we make it together.

Is the software architecture really
going to be capable of doing what this

thing is and can we really redefine and
rediscover the mojo of education.

And into the weekend I moved from
being not interested to thinking

this was the job that I had to have.

And I'm really pleased that Stephen's
here with me now on this journey.

But you've probably heard from this
accent that I'm not from these parts.

You probably weren't that out its
graduate group elite university.

So I thought what I'd do is a tell you a
little bit about me because that will fill

in a little bit of the context for
this where better to start.

That's me at eighteen.

I came from a family which was in
southern Africa very political family

became refugees immigrants to the U.K.
in one nine hundred sixty.

First to what was what is now Zimbabwe but
then up to the U.K.

And when I came of age eighteen.

I was so intent on showing that I
had nothing to do where I came from.

And that I had everything
to do with where I was.

But I just signed up and
joined the British Army.

Obviously tried not to be
eighteen by growing Mistah she.

And the purpose for me was to

take root to prove that I was
belonged where I had moved to and

also of course given that I came from
a left wing family which was focused on

human rights to do the most difficult
thing I possibly could to my parents.

Upon food a few years.

That's twenty five.

I'm at Graduate School of Business and
Stanford.

Key lesson to the guys in the room when
you have had take advantage of it.

So I then I come from
his background which was

committed passionate about
making a difference.

Really believed in rights.

Really believed deeply in
the opportunity to make

an impact in the world and
on the back of that forged a career.

Looking at times in companies for
things which were changing and

Symbian we sat upon the crest of
the mobile era fact when I first

joined Symbian mobile coverage
here was virtually nonexistent.

We sat debating.

In a room sort of that the single best
moment I have of the technology revolution

was having a discussion about
the protocols for sharing photos

across mobile phones in an era when they
were the size of a brick and the screen

was tiny and nobody could imagine why
anybody would want to share a photo.

So we set the standards we moved from
nothing to the first hundred million

phones and that was pretty exciting
things moved on Apple came I got out.

Luckily just before that.

But the crucial thing that I took away
was that you can make a massive do.

For once by harnessing the power
of software in service

of content in every form.

So here I am inside of
McGraw Hill education.

We have a company which is sort of
wondering where it's going well.

It knows it.

Its core skill is
the production of content which

everybody around us confidently asserts
is of less and less value every year.

It's not true.

By the way but
it's the it's the common assertion and

the question was How do you restart and
reset and

get the engine going again and there are
three real things to sort of sit back and

think about you know obviously what
are you going to do about strategy.

What does that mean.

And that's particularly relevant if you're
in a company which is being sold by

its parent.

I mean you know mom and dad sold me.

Doesn't that doesn't feel good does it.

It doesn't feel that you're sort of on
the winning edge of things of that point.

So we sat there and
we thought how are we going to do that

how we can look at our culture
because strategy is trumped every day

of the week by culture and
how we're going to create the kind

of culture which is going to be able
to sustain the strategy that we want.

And then the third thing
is how we can execute.

Well it's tough when
you don't know exactly

where you're going people start
to make predictions anybody seen.

The guy at the top right.

He's a really interesting
guy in terms of in terms of

part of small to mean you
shy of business history.

William Preece he ran the British Post
Office at the time and eight hundred.

Seventy six.

Shortly after the discovery of
the first implementation of the phone.

He proudly announced that there
was no possible reason for

anybody to want a telephone because
there were a lot of messenger boys.

And that's that's when.

You know Thomas Watson often quoted
as saying that their world market for

computers was full and

that's kind of interesting and
then of course here in Atlanta.

You can't not mention eighteen T..

I've actually seen
the apocryphal McKinsey study.

Which led them to exit the mobile business

which was fundamental on the basis
that the world market for

mobile phones was nine hundred thousand
units and could never be more because

the costs could never possibly sustain
something different by the way that's not

that much larger than when we were
discussing what the mobile phone.

What the fit with the picture
on a mobile phone would be and

somebody did actually ask us.

Well what use would a picture
be that was that big.

So when you saying something about
making a strategy from New York

questions are difficult because
you sort of sit down and

say well where are we going and how do we
know what it is that we're going to find.

So we went about this in a different way.

He said the heart of our business
is actually fairly straightforward.

We are involved in touching people and
changing lives and

we as a business need to acknowledge
that we've lost sight of that.

So we've got to go and find it so
the leadership team to start with

came with me on a journey and
we chose in this context India.

Because it posed the greatest
number of challenges to us.

We had an incredible immersion
in education in India.

Going to elite schools the I I T's
phenomenal sort of generators

of intellect and at the same time dealing
with classrooms where kids sit two and

three to a desk fifty to
one hundred in a classroom.

And frankly the teacher could
even be asleep at the front.

And we use that we to get to know one
another but also to reset the values of

our business and the fact not only
that the leadership team went out but

the fact that we will know and
to go and do that.

Caused quite a ripple in the company.

And people said wow OK this is kind of for
real where we're really doing something.

But rediscovering your soul which
this was a big part of it is

only relevant if you can then
connect that to something deeper

and the wonderful thing about the world
of education is there are some very

deep things that one can reconnect with.

Starting in the actually the one
nine hundred seventy S. a guy called

Benjamin Bloom started to do some great
research as an educational psychologist

here in the States who started to do some
very deep research on how people learn.

And he developed the concept of mastery
learning which was articulated in a series

of papers through the one nine hundred
seventy S. and into the into the one nine

hundred eighty S. that curve value of all
all of you being on a curve at some point.

That traditional curve there that
red curve in the middle is the way

the experience of students in most
lecture theatres not typically in.

An elite school like this but that there's
a top middle and bottom spread out across

the the range and you will have professed
isn't teachers tell you pretty regular

I just you know fit into the curfew at
the top of the bottom so and so for.

What.

Lou showed was that if you could intervene
with those students and ensure that they

didn't progress the lesson to however long
it took until they really knew lesson one.

You got the first effect which was
the key called the first Sigma.

You moved everybody's grade
up on average one and

that middle curve was mastery education.

And interesting it's the same group
of students by the way you just

shifted them all.

And then he said look
if we could afford it.

We'd go for one two one tutorials and

we get another whole Sigma In other words
the whole distribution Remove the same

student would get two sigmas
better than in the first instance.

So we set about thinking about
how we would redefine our company

on the basis that could replug into this
powerful effect this one sigma effect.

Could we become a part of delivering the
answer that education is crying out for

which is improve results measurable
results in a way of really supporting and

changing lives.

And I talk to you here.

You know your role on route to graduate
those of you who choose not to

Pat's going to be a Bill Gates or
do something unusual of that nature.

But I was in a community college
in Illinois the other day

with a graduation rate of seventeen
percent one seven seven zero one seven.

And frankly the ability
to intervene is huge.

And if you catch somebody who
is there on the curve and

you move them to their you make
a massive difference in the lives.

So when we started to think about.

Who we were and what could we be.

We had something really
special to work with.

And so we set about building a team and
technology who would.

Harnessed that and had really think
about how we could put to good effect.

All the value in our content.

By creating effectively a set of
interventions around the content.

Creating effectively a data layer and
the day.

Celera would interact
with each student I would

produce three incredible outputs
the first output obviously to the student

write it doing well you know
to direct real time feedback.

Of you know this you don't know this or
maybe you know this and

you're not confident that you know it and
you should be confident.

Or on the other side
you're be overconfident.

You need to really sit down and
do your work.

All those variables coming
back to the individual and

the second string would be to
the second most important person

in the room after the student from the
student's perspective their instructor.

How can you help an instructor.

Who is facing a big room like this
make a difference to each life.

So is he here in the front.

Professor.

Just use the wonderful phrase of me and

said when he was describing a room
like this he said from the third row.

Everybody is online.

Right.

Well how do you do it you're sitting on
stage you're trying to interact how do you

do it will suddenly if you get direct
data on individuals you can intervene.

And amazingly just the other day I
saw a wonderful example of this.

This at half a College
just outside of Chicago.

I was at the first day of class.

You're all familiar with that feeling that
is a math group going through their work

and lo and behold.

It's twenty minutes into
the classroom where

we're at the back kind of watching
what's going on in the process.

This is something amazing happening here.

Everybody's progressing as I expect.

But this one student has done
a ton of work before and

the system shows that keeps getting
things right but very very slowly.

And I just don't know how it could be and
it's a big section.

We stayed at breakfast the next day said
I've made it an incredible discovery

the data told me I need to have
a conversation with that student I had

a conversation with that student.

He's actually from Peru.

He basically doesn't speak English.

So no wonder he's struggling
with the questions but

once he's framed the question
he's going to get it right.

In Hopper he started in freshman algebra
on day one on day three using calculus.

The effect of that you can imagine
in terms of a life because that that

young individual was going
to slow through a semester.

They passed their inevitably
going to pass but

the question is wasting all of that money.

It's a community college
is a tough environment.

The chances of getting a great
outcome in life profoundly impacted so

focused instruction.

And then the third kind of unexpected
to us because you know when you

when you make changes you don't you don't
realize quite how you can achieve your own

business was a job and
if you come from our business.

We're all familiar with the ugly parts
of the publishing model make editorial

changes generate sales
it's a sort of ugly thing.

Suddenly we're in a world where

we can make editorial changes
because they improve outcomes.

And we can demonstrate that and
we can justify that.

So that's pretty exciting.

So we then sort of set about saying well
what what is it that we are and how can we

how can we fulfill that promise learning
science was what the the broad subject is.

How do we.

Stay true to our soul which
was content and pedagogy and

add to that this layer of technology and
drive student success.

And there are a number of
steps that we took on the way.

Reality is whatever you say whatever your
marketing should be able is the question

is do you walk the walk is it
real is the substance here.

So for us the digital products group
the group that Steven leads was formed as

we spun out of McGraw Hill and
there were two hundred people who

were loosely called engineers and
I do say loosely.

They kind of at some point did some
software of one sort or another.

Now we have just on five
hundred REAL engineers.

We built a development lab in Seattle.

Why.

Because we keep finding people who used to
work for Amazon who say I am fed up man.

I've done three years of
optimizing a buy button and

we would love to do something
that is worthwhile and

we have something worthwhile to do and
we built our other biggest lab in Boston.

We've doubled the spend loosely.

Loosely because it's more than doubled and

all the way we said benefit
of being a late comer

to making a digital transition is
that you don't have a big codebase.

So we want to jump start the process we
found a couple cool bits of technology

that we wanted and we bought them and
that's kind of being the journey but

then the other part is what does that mean
what does that feel like on the inside.

How do you run a business when you change.

Literally every metric

as you go easy thing to do is you
going to become a digital business.

You might want to think
about what is up time.

Well if you come from the book
business can anybody tell me about.

Up Time is if you sell books.

Perfect write your book.

So as you never had to think about it.

So we had some guys who were in a small
little bespoke data center who were

doing their very best and
they were very proud

that you know it was ninety seven percent
which translates by way to the fact

that only on ten days
a month was there disruption.

Well we're in a different world now
where across the macro level any

sort of quiver is noticed and dealt with
and it's just a different equation and

pretty much every metric
that we look at is moving.

But we're still doing the old business
alongside of the new business and

that's kind of an interesting challenge
to have as we go through that.

And at the same time you've got
the challenge of your people you know.

You want to plug into.

All of our annual D.N.A. that forms the
soul of a business you want to link it to

the purpose and mission that is
out there that is intent that

is something that you can harness
that actually makes people get out.

And by the way I've never met anybody
outside of a private equity firm who

when they wake up in the morning
says I want to drive the P.S.

right now he gets up
saying I want to drive in.

P.S. People get up saying.

I want to make a difference.

People get up saying I want to achieve
something I want to contribute something.

Sure.

People want to make money but outside of
a time time in her range of occupations

people's goal and purpose is to achieve.

So we set about creating an echoing the
experience of our team into the business

and the experience that Steve and
I had in India we now replicate internally

with great big squads of our people
going out to not for profits and

gauging with education really.

Plugging us back into
the world of our soul so

that we're really in a good put place
to go and that's the impact that we're

trying to have we're really proud to be
here thank you very much to the school for

inviting me and to invite in my colleagues
and we're very happy to answer I'm

very happy to answer questions but I'll
try and direct any to my colleagues that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And one thank

you.

David that I have a question to start off.

Then so.

You talked about that transformative
experience with your leadership team going

off to India and some insights gleaned
from that and a lot of data analytics

insights through data helping you
inform what content you need to create.

And also learning.

So the question I have is
can you just kind of share

with us any kind of cultural differences
that you've been able to appreciate

terms of how people learn if there is any.

I mean people internally or
people externally.

So I think there's the to both right.

So in the classroom.

One of the biggest challenges and
opportunities is you've got.

Faculty and teachers in K.
twelve and higher read.

Who have been you know when
the door shuts there alone and

they get to be very good at what they do
and suddenly you're saying to them hey you

can do something differently you can
inform your education with a piece of data

and I think that can be quite challenging
and at the same time it's very exciting.

So.

How you balance that excitement and
the challenges is one thing for them.

And secondly is is formative feedback
you know we're all we've all

grown up in summative assessment world.

Where you put your head down you work for
the year and

then you do this exam which
has some kind of consequence.

The idea that you're going to be on this
constant treadmill of feedback which is

going to make a difference is quite
difficult for a lot of people.

It's quite difficult.

And you know that's a legitimate concern.

It's hugely powerful to
impact to drive outcomes and

change behaviors but the way you change
behavior is you don't change behaviors by

saying you've gone away for the summer.

Here's your results from
three months ago Good luck.

So a lot of changes and
that's internal as well as external.

I'm Joshua Hale and I'm actually an M.B.A.

student here but I used to be
a teacher for the past two years.

And one thing that I was wondering
was as a teacher you don't have

very much feedback on how
well you are teaching.

Unfortunately a lot of my colleagues never
hear you teach this well you teach this

poorly define yourself ever providing
feedback for professional development for

teachers with that data and
using that assessment in that regards.

Yeah.

So there's a there's a huge
huge positive potential

to harness that to support teachers and
their development to say what works and by

large I mean you know just credit you for
what for your experience of what you did.

But I bet you were surrounded by people
who actually wanted to do things right and

want to do things better and

they live in a world where
there's very little give back.

Right.
The door shuts you're on your own and

an hour later another bunch coming right.

So suddenly to be in a place where you
can say I can measure improvement.

So the there's a there's a wonderful.

There's a professor I
was with the other day.

Who's in U.T. Austin.

Who teaches chemistry.

Who teaches section of five hundred and
he describes how for basically for

twenty years of his career.

Chemistry is hard.

The question is can you for.

And the the top fifteen percent
who are going to be pre-med and

that's where the energy is

he's completely changed his his
modality he uses a ton of data.

He has twenty I think there were other
poor T.A.'s they were high quality but

they had a tough life because this
professor every week is setting them

a long list of to do's for
each of the students in the subgroup and

last year he gave three hundred days
to a section of five hundred and

the university said Is
this something wrong.

This is grade inflation and
they didn't assessment they said.

Actually it's the strongest
Co What we've ever produced and

it was just that bloom effect and that
was all because of him being empowered by

data.

David thanks for
coming to Georgia Tech today.

I said a question about
your business model.

You're clearly going through a transition
by presuming you're still selling

textbooks is that right.

So at this point what percentage of
your businesses textbook based versus

caught it's being delivered actually

also do you have these aspirations in
terms of the pace that you plan to take

the business where the majority
of the content will be delivered.

Actually I guess the second part of the
question is have you all thought through

different types of pricing models
in terms of great great question.

Are all rather than the purpose of
the textbook What other types of models

are you look at so
you can reduce the costs for

students great question and
an important one.

In the first half of this year sixty three
percent of our revenue is software based

thirty seven was print.

So sixty three was digital.

And if you look five years ago it was
seventy five eighty percent digital and

whatever was print was whatever seventy
five percent print but whatever it was

digital was kind of an add on we ascribe
revenue to it but it wasn't fundamental.

The courseware is now the digital
that sold Israel digital.

So we've had to look at
the business model hugely.

And the question of affordability
in equities very much is

very paramount to it.

So what we started to do is we said
how do we you know when you're

an incumbent How do you decide
to media Iran business model.

And starting last September.

We actually said to everybody
who went digital we made a very

straightforward commitment.

If you went the digital license which is

call it somewhere between depending
on the product between eighty and

one hundred bucks for between one and
two years depending on the course.

That's the that's the in price that
includes a ton of all the adaptive

software all personalization all
the homework to all of that.

And of course as a free book
which you can print out.

But if you want us we will actually print
a loose leaf book and mail it to you for

twenty five bucks.

Depending on the cost twenty five for most
courses but it does go up to forty for

something so the all in is

the most you could spend directly is about
one hundred thirty hundred forty bucks.

On average it does vary by course
the traditional textbook model

of course we don't govern the price
that comes out of the college bookstore.

Nor Amazon.

So we're just looking at that and

say well why would anybody spend
two hundred something dollars.

So we're actively trying to promote
drive usage towards digital for

that reason we think there's
a lot of steps on the way as we

change that is a model which are important

because you know the real thing you
want to do is sell a better outcome.

You know if we can show people
it's going to do better.

That actually dwarfs any gain
from the ten bucks saving and

I was in CUNY City University in New York.

Activation yesterday morning.

And it was really interesting
because they could.

Get the whole course in class
through the online system for

one hundred twenty dollars and

a number of them had bought it downstairs
in the bookstore for two hundred thirty.

So you know this is not unusual thing and

I think there's the what you point to is
an important subject it's like you think

about the epi pen and the drug
companies how did they make themselves.

So the citizens of evil.

Well I think the publishers had walked
them selves pretty much into this into

a very similar place and we're trying as
hard as we can to move to a place which

says we want to deliver great
value to the students want to have

a great product to that and
outcomes and deal with affordability.

That's important question.

No no I don't I don't think it's going
to go to zero because I think the SO

in integral in a small graduate
class where you're very intimate.

The the ability to the value of creating

the software to create interactivity
goes away because your class is six.

Why would you.

So I think that is very secure.

It's hard for
me to imagine freshman economics.

You know these giant rooms you see
all freshman biology having print.

It's just I struggle to see
why that would be the case.

Because we can we know we can get a better
result we know we can do it more cheaply.

We know we can do it better for
the professor and better for the students.

That's the future.

It's just as you move down from those
giant sections to the smaller and

smaller cohorts.

And I guess the flip is as you go online.

Suddenly the ability of the software
to actually help online course target

individual students even though they're
online in real time and say you need help.

No book can do that.

So I think.

The role of the book is much more defined
not going to go away in education.

Early on you suggested that your value
proposition is improved student outcomes

improve learning move the curve
distribution off to the Right

now you're into this for
four or five years.

What evidence do you have that
in fact that is an outcome and

have you considered making that be one of
your key performance indicators yet so

we we've got a great question.

The challenge of you know I'm not
going to with a group of educators

that the challenge of
Education Research is is complicated.

You know to get all of that going.

We've got various things working for us.

The oldest of the software
programs is actually in math.

And there we have peer reviewed studies
coming out demonstrating actually better

than a one sigma effect on that so we're
very quick very confident about that.

In some cases we felt confident enough
that will actually do pay for results.

So we've actually got a a course
running in Arizona State University.

They've got a thing called the Global
freshman Academy which is a full credit

full credit delivered online and
the math program there is.

And we don't get paid unless the student
chooses to pay us at the end when they get

the credits.

So it is it's quite a deep
level it is a K P I.

But I hope that's not the universal model.

It's an interesting trial for us.

We'll see we'll see what happens on
the move because actually very few people

seem to want the credit as yet.

But we'll see.

High.
So

I'm glad I have a question just about the
cultural change that you spoke a little

bit about when you had a huge increase in
amount of Engineers that you guys hired.

So I'm cured.

But the transition from paper to online.

So the engineers has increased.

But how does the culture as
far as like employees gone.

And with educators in your system and
that kind of thing.

It's a complex subject so.

You know we've we've created a.

You know social software in the business
which is very active and vibrant.

We're trying to create a very
diverse context for our business.

We're about sixty three percent
female as a new organization.

But of course if you hire five hundred
engineers in a relatively short period of

time you're overwhelmingly white and
Asian male.

The new cohort.

So we've gone to great lengths and
we're going to great lengths to try and

promote diversity in
the engineering teams.

As far as the conduct of dialogue but
some very simple things you know my.

Well.

Steve when it when he was once when
Stephen had his first first meeting with

the then owner of the then chairman
of the company people vetted what

you wore before you saw
the chairman right.

I made a point.

The first day I came in I was
in jeans in the in the office.

It's a trivial point.

It's just the echoes cascade out.

So the style has become much more informal

we're trying to get to a place where
there's a lot of very frank honest

straightforward feedback we have these
people doing these wonderful experiences

where they're out meeting and engaging and
really using a language which is

not traditional We talk about saw we
talk about the way people feel and

how you're engaging in class
which is really important.

So I'd say you know all C.E.O.'s
would love to say I came in I.

Waved a wall around and
two years later the culture was different.

It's not like that.

Things change over time but
I feel where we're really in a very

progressive positive place it's coming
to a good a better and better place.

But the journey is a continuous one.

This is actually good when the college
to computing one thing that happens

often when the student is interacting
with the software to help

you learn is that the student is
interacting only with his software and

he said a social interaction
can suffer sometimes but

a social interaction is also very
important for the learning process

because that's where the interpersonal
skills sometimes come from.

Have you seen this trend and
if you have seen it.

How do you what what steps can
one take to make sure that those

interpersonal skills are in trouble
because all to getting attention and

not just the cognitive skills to software.

Great shock I completely agree.

I mean learning is social.

So we would you know that
there are people out there and

sometimes by the way we have teachers
who say they're frightened of

this technology because it's
going to you know we're trying

to create robot teaches we're trying
to remove them on the contrary.

This is very much more about it's in a
funny way it's less about the software and

more about the data.

So if you can in the in
the ordinary course of study.

You can say there are there
are different tasks to be done.

If you make use of classroom
time which is social time.

In in a in a social way.

And so a great flipped classrooms a very
interactive lots of group work happening.

And then you use the software to do.

Let me the donkey work outside work just
check that you've really learned this

you know I was in this
Start a French class.

The other day there is no point coming in.

Unless you learn the basic grammar and
basic recovery.

The same is true of fundaments writing
code that's just don't come and

talk to me actually do
a little bit of work.

If you've done that then the data is so
powerful to the instructor to

say I can diagnose your
problem before it's manifest.

And again I look at a wonderful talented
group of students like this where

graduation isn't the question

the question is all the other richness
you're going to get out of the education.

That's one question when you look at a
room which is the average in this country.

You know.

Across all to your school seventy
percent fall out of fall out

fail to graduate in three and across
all four year schools between call it

forty percent forty to forty
five percent fail to graduate.

So you've really got a different problem
and sometimes I feel that the discussion

is all about how does it impact
that the narrow elite rather

than saying we've got a real problem in
this country which is a huge numbers of

people falling by the wayside and we don't
need to compromise social learning and

we need to empower teachers and
have them very much at the heart.

But I think it's the biggest issue and

I know that there are people out there
saying we can in a particular in K.

twelve we just have a teacher
I just have a robot.

I don't think so.

Thanks for telling this

sounds funny actually just answered
a significant force in my question but.

You know being new to college and
the first couple years.

We still have that experience
like have experience in the K.

through twelve space and especially
high school we expose the idea that

flips classrooms are becoming the trend
and that teachers really really want them.

Is that somewhere that you know
because actually heavily pursuing and

how far away and
teachers that are in K. twelve.

Well you know the there are you
know one hundred thousand.

Individual districts in this country and

each of those is effectively
funded distinctly.

And within each district is
tremendous principles of equity but

across districts there isn't.

So what you go to in the country
is you've got a profile of

the front end which operates and has got
nothing in common with what's going on at

the back and so that there is
a growing digital divide as a result.

Absolutely.

We're seeing in a well equipped well

funded environments lots of
flipping of classrooms happening.

Teachers being getting the right P.D.
but that's the minority position.

It's a tiny part across K.

twelve generally if you're thinking
about the intervention of technology.

You don't have robust and
have robust why fire everywhere.

You don't have for reasons of
equity everybody's got a device and

oftentimes they can't sustain it.

So it's a very very mixed picture.

But the only.

The only fairly certain
thing is each year.

There's a bit more and
we use high read as a much better example

of that because you know now that we
are you know in that first half sixty

three percent digital we're already aware
the high rate is already made the jump and

I think it will spread to K twelve.

Hi I am a current Internet Steam
based charter school that's in

Atlanta area and this past month
we just unrolled our P.P.L.

project based learning projects for
all grade levels in the school and

I want to know what part if any at all is
McGraw Hill playing in the movement and

trying to transition to more
projects in the classroom.

So if you are in K. twelve.

There is you know a huge amount of
effort to create curricula which.

Is the opportunity for
teachers to create project based work.

So the idea of you know
the teacher the sage on the stage.

Everybody listens.

That's basically you know so
quickly changing.

So what you're doing is again
I'd say it's front of the way.

And there's a great piece by Arnie Duncan
on the best of the charter movement that

he published the Atlantic.

I think could have been even this week.

We think that the provision
of rich a curriculum in K.

twelve is really important and so
as we every program we sell and K.

twelve is no longer a textbook it's all
it's a digital with a print manifestation.

So if you take a history book which
is call it six hundred pages in case.

Well behind that will
be if not the pages but

you know the equivalent of six thousand
objects which could include videos.

So you want whatever the subject
is you've got then you've

created a library an archive
a curated archive which allows for

much richer intervention and
interaction with the students.

That's Part one Part two is we
made a decision that the way we

treat curriculum is we'd say that you know
we'd move from a world where we did we did

we wrote once and
thought that we would do everything

to a world where we say
we're part of an ecosystem.

So we're trying to build in
Stephen in the team the A.P.I.

isn't hooks to allow us to add third
party content and have it still run

through the analytics and the data which
would mean for project based work.

People could.

You know a particular particular teacher
who's got a particular special subject

could build something and
have it run into the software.

So we think that's definitely the wave
of the future and kudos to you and

your school.

My name is be a new student.

So I want to know like when you transfer
them to the light of the major challenges

you faced like I mean it in the right.

Everything.

And so that the challenges.

I mean I've got four
colleagues on your right.

Who could one of them doesn't
have had to a great one.

Still got its color.

I think that's that's a reflection
is literally every metric

that you use to run.

So if you've got a business you know
from the front end we used to be totally

dependent on the relationship
with the bookstore.

Suddenly we've got a situation where the
bookstores really still important to us

but at the same time you know frankly
the relationship with the with the Amazon

cloud is what's doing capacity balancing
and you suddenly work out that.

You know if you're going to up time
up time every minute is not equal

rights minute between midnight and
one A.M.

on Sunday nights is the time that
we cannot have the system go down.

WHERE IS a minute at lunch time or
Wednesdays.

Nobody's going to notice.

You know it's just so there's so
many variables which change.

If you're moving an existing business
we often talk about it in the sense of

changing the wheels on
a car while it's driving

because you're having to
run the old business and

do something new at the same time
which is great fun rather challenging.

But quite.

You know there's just
every variable changes.

I'd love to say it's just a few but
it's every variable.

And a lot of people change.

You know it's very tough for
people who've done one thing for

ten fifteen years suddenly say well we're
going to do this not straight forward.

How much is eighty eight Americans with.

Abilities universal design
being integrated into these new

technologies and now you could go to print
can you go to braille can you go to the.

Voice and is this going to
disrupt the dissidents is that

you do those things for
not accessible accessibility

is is one of the great opportunities and
one of the great technical challenges.

So we spend a huge amount
of time trying to work

out what constitutes success ability and
times.

You know that is a struggle
because people say well.

We had a situation where they were.

At a different college
somebody was talking about.

Well I'm a graphic designer.

How do I deal with visually impaired
people who want to study graphic

design at one end.

And there's lots of things that you come
up and you do but the short answer is.

In the design philosophies and principles.

One of the things that we it's a
cornerstone is everything that has to has

to come out has to work on
the basis of being accessible and

it's a tremendous opportunity for us.

David thank you so much for
coming to Georgia Tech and really.