EDTECH: What is data interoperability? What does it look like to the average person?
BEARDEN: An analogy that someone once described to me is this: Think of the difference between LEGO, Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys. Those are all systems that you can use to build things. But you can’t use LEGO with Lincoln Logs, and you can’t use Tinker Toys with LEGO — not without custom-designed pieces to help the other pieces interlock, which would be expensive, inconvenient and difficult.
Interoperability, with regard to how data is stored and exchanged, is the same challenge. We’re so used to experiencing interoperability in our daily lives that we don’t even realize it’s happening. When you can withdraw money from your bank account using just about any bank’s ATM, that’s made possible by interoperability, because all these financial institutions agreed upon standards for storing and sharing data.
When people hear ‘interoperability,’ it sounds like this really big, scary thing. It’s not sexy. The word itself is intimidating. But once you understand how it actually, practically works in everyday life, you start to appreciate how incredibly valuable it is.
EDTECH: Given that there are generalized expectations about interoperability, what are the barriers to actually achieving it at the K–12 level?
BEARDEN: The K–12 industry is way behind other industries, such as finance or healthcare, in terms of leveraging interoperable standards, partly because there’s never been a significant market driver to push vendors to implement interoperable standards and to push districts to demand it.