With over 25 years of experience in education research, administration, and thought leadership, Laurie Forcier has dedicated her career to the intersection of education and innovation. As Vice President of Strategy at EDT&Partners, she focuses on helping schools integrate technology in ways that truly enhance learning and operational effectiveness. Through EDT&Partners‘ partnerships with international schools, she has witnessed firsthand the challenges of digital transformation and the strategies that lead to real, sustainable success.
Moving Beyond EdTech Overload: A Systems-Based Approach
International schools today face a common problem: too many technology choices, too little guidance. Many invest in tools without clear frameworks for investment or evaluating impact, leading to high turnover of EdTech products and frustrated educators. Teachers and leaders know that digital transformation isn’t about adopting technology for its own sake; it’s about making intentional choices, but they lack the scaffolding, support, and resources within their own organisations to really do that well.
A structured approach is essential. Schools must consider both the “bricks” (teaching and learning solutions) and the “mortar” (infrastructure and integration) when designing their digital ecosystems. Without this perspective, EdTech adoption is often piecemeal and ineffective. Schools also need to ensure that any new technology they introduce is not only pedagogically sound but also operationally viable—one that can be implemented at scale across different campuses with different needs. A school may have an excellent teaching and learning tool in place, but without sufficient training, integration, and teacher buy-in, its impact is severely limited. This is where structured processes and strategic guidance become critical.
Building a Cohesive Strategy: The “What” and the “How”
When turning to advice, schools might come across consulting firms that focus on strategy—the “what”—but stop short of execution where schools need support. In my work with international schools, I’ve seen how important it is to bridge this gap and ensure that solutions are effectively implemented. This is where EDT&Partners stands apart. One example of this is our work with the major international schools group, International Schools Partnership (ISP).
“Schools need to ensure that any new technology they introduce is not only pedagogically sound but also operationally viable”
A Success Case in Strategic EdTech Selection and Decision-Making Frameworks
Since the inception of our collaboration with ISP, we have worked closely with their leadership to refine their academic and EdTech strategy, facilitate informed decision-making, and support their long-term vision for innovation in education. Our role has evolved in response to ISP’s needs, ensuring that strategic objectives remain central to all initiatives.
A major part of this partnership has involved curating and evaluating EdTech solutions, working alongside ISP to develop long-lists and short-lists of companies that align with their pedagogical goals. This process has included shaping and refining what they mean by their academic pillars (e.g., academic achievement, life competencies, and future pathways), vetting tools, engaging with providers, and preparing companies for structured demonstrations.
Beyond tool selection, we have supported ISP in structuring decision-making frameworks to ensure a strategic and systematic approach to EdTech adoption. This included the development of documentation that aids pilot testing and technology integration, ensuring alignment with ISP’s long-term goals.
The result? The group is now piloting a cadre of carefully aligned and vetted partners, with strong systems in place to assess pilot success and begin to scale in the next academic year. Moreover, there is excitement about scaling, as there is enhanced visibility of the products being piloted.
Contributing to the greater EdTech Ecosystem: Open Innovation and Collaboration
Choosing and implementing technology is just one part of the equation—schools also need solutions that evolve with the broader EdTech ecosystem. That’s why, at EDT&Partners, we built Lecture —an open-source generative AI framework, developed in partnership with AWS, designed to help institutions integrate AI in meaningful, scalable ways.
Lecture is designed as a foundation from which to build generative AI uses in education—you might think about it as being similar to a stock cube in cooking. The Lecture framework contains essential, best-in-class components that schools, universities, and EdTech companies can use to develop their own AI-driven solutions—to build their own special sauce. Rather than each institution having to build a chatbot, question-answer generator, language translation tool, or AI-supported critical thinking application from scratch, Lecture provides an ever-expanding base of these kinds of capabilities that can be integrated, expanded, and customised to fit diverse educational needs.
This approach acknowledges that while institutions want to leverage the power of generative AI within their own ecosystems, they shouldn’t have to reinvent fundamental tools. Built on AWS’s infrastructure, Lecture ensures that institutions benefit from scalability, privacy, and security, key considerations when deploying AI in education.
Driving AI Innovation and Impact in Education
As a mission-driven organisation, EDT&Partners believes education should be accessible to everyone, everywhere. That’s why we’ve made Lecture open-source, ensuring all institutions, regardless of size or resources, can innovate and enhance learning. By sharing this framework, we foster collaboration and make transformative technologies, like generative AI, available to all.
We’ve already seen Lecture deliver real impact. At the University of Luxembourg, for example, we partnered with faculty to test AI-assisted feedback tools that improved both student engagement and instructional efficiency. The pilot demonstrated clear benefits, leading the university to expand its use of the framework across additional departments.
But our work with Lecture is far from complete—we invite schools and school groups to participate in this initiative. If you are an education leader interested in piloting AI-driven solutions, we would love to collaborate. By working together, we can develop innovative applications that are truly fit for purpose in schools and ensure that AI is being leveraged in ways that are meaningful, ethical, and effective.
Driving Meaningful Change in International Schools
There are ways that schools can move beyond EdTech overload and toward sustainable, impactful digital transformation, and it is genuinely a privilege to have the opportunity to work with schools every day as they do this good work. We look forward to continuing to collaborate on pioneering EdTech systems and AI solutions in education. The opportunity is here—let’s build the future of learning together.
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By Laurie Forcier
Laurie Forcier is the Vice President of Strategy at EDT&Partners.
