I’m often asked about the future of education. For a long time, my answer revolved around improving the components of the system we already have: smaller class sizes, more project-based learning, and better technology integration. I spoke about creating more humane, inspiring versions of schools.
But my perspective has fundamentally shifted. As the realities of the information age, accelerated by artificial intelligence, have crystallized, I’ve realized that optimizing the current model is like putting a faster engine in a horse-drawn carriage. The chassis is wrong.
The future isn’t about iterating on the industrial-age structure of “schooling” – a system designed for efficiency, standardization, and compliance. It’s about moving beyond it entirely and architecting a true learning system.
A learning system is an ecosystem designed for agency and adaptation. It meets learners where they are, charting personalized pathways based on mastery, not seat time. It shifts the educator’s role from a “sage on the stage” to a coach and facilitator. It moves beyond asking, “What do you know?” to asking, “What can you create with what you know?”
If we are serious about this transformation – about moving from an industrial model to a true information-age ecosystem – we must address the unseen architecture that holds the current system in place. The core and foundational element of this transformation is not a new curriculum or a new device. It is data interoperability.
And it is the only way we can simultaneously personalize learning at scale while upholding our profound responsibility as stewards of learner data.
The Promise of a Connected Ecosystem
Project Unicorn defines interoperability as “The seamless, secure, and controlled exchange of usable data between applications.” It sounds technical, but its implications are profoundly human.
Today, a learner’s journey is fragmented across dozens of platforms, tools, and experiences. A student’s brilliance in an after-school program, their progress in an online tutor, and their performance on a classroom project often live in separate silos. Educators are forced to spend countless hours manually synthesizing this information, serving as human APIs just to understand their students’ holistic needs.
This fragmentation is the enemy of personalization.
Only through data interoperability can we gain a systemic way to understand and support the learner’s journey. It is the infrastructure that enables a shift from rigid, time-based measures to mastery-based progressions. It allows learning that happens anywhere – in a museum, an internship, or a classroom – to be recognized and credited through mechanisms like Learning and Employment Records (LERs).
Interoperability transforms complex, disparate datasets into actionable insights. It allows us to build tools that don’t just report data but make it understandable and actionable for every educator, parent, and learner. When data flows securely, educators are equipped with the information they need to personalize instruction, intervene effectively, and enhance how we measure growth beyond standardized assessments.
The Non-Negotiable: Trust and Security
When we talk about connecting data systems, the immediate and necessary concern is privacy. In this economy, data is an incredibly valuable asset. Our promise to learners must be that we are vigilant stewards of their information.
It is crucial to understand that interoperability and security are not opposing forces; they are two sides of the same coin. A connected ecosystem must be built on a foundation of trust.
In fact, the current fragmented landscape is less secure. Data is everywhere, often duplicated, manually transferred via insecure methods, and inconsistently protected. True interoperability allows us to establish a “SAFE by design” approach – prioritizing Safety, Accountability, Fairness, and Effectiveness. It allows for the implementation of advanced Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs).
We can leverage technologies such as federated learning, in which AI models are trained on decentralized data without the raw data ever leaving its secure source. We can employ differential privacy and strict data minimization to ensure we collect only the absolute minimum data necessary.
Interoperability provides the framework for controlled access. It ensures that the right people have access to the right data for the right reasons, all while prioritizing the protection of children. Security is not achieved by locking data down in unusable silos; it is achieved by creating secure, standardized pathways for its controlled exchange.
The Human Element: Liberating Educators
The ultimate goal of this infrastructure is profoundly human. In a world increasingly shaped by AI, the essential human skills – critical thinking, communication, emotional intelligence, and ethical reasoning – matter more than ever.
The current system burdens educators with administrative tasks and content delivery that machines can often handle more efficiently. By leveraging interoperable data systems, we can automate routine tasks and provide educators with sophisticated tools that analyze student progress and suggest personalized pathways.
This doesn’t replace the educator. It liberates them to do the profoundly human work that machines cannot: to mentor, inspire, challenge, nurture emotional intelligence, and cultivate wisdom. It allows educators to focus on fostering genuine understanding rather than merely optimizing for engagement metrics. When a connected, secure infrastructure supports educators, they can move beyond being deliverers of information and become true facilitators of discovery.
Architecting the Future
Moving from a schooling system to a learning system requires us to confront the obsolescence of our current infrastructure. It demands that we invest in the “public-purpose utilities” needed to underpin an equitable and high-quality future learning ecosystem.
Data interoperability is that utility. It is the essential infrastructure required to personalize learning at scale, drive student outcomes, and improve teaching and learning. And critically, it provides the standardized, secure framework necessary to protect our learners’ most valuable asset – their data.
The biggest obstacle we face is not the technology, which is rapidly evolving. It is our attachment to the systems we know, even as we recognize they are no longer sufficient. As a technologist, an educator, and a mother, I believe we have a moral imperative to build the architecture that the future demands. That architecture must be connected, secure, and centered on the learner.