Low Standards in Educational Software

Follett Destiny is synonymous with Library software where I come from, where I am now, and where I’m going. It’s ubiquitous. There are hundreds of thousands of districts and schools using it. It does Library catalogues, maintains check-outs, and stuff like that.

Which is pretty amazing when you think about it, because apparently all these school districts and schools all don’t mind having the same ugly green color throughout the user interface. Because, you know what, you can’t change that ugly green color.

Screen Shot 2013-10-26 at 11.32.17 AM

I wrote to the support people myself. Can’t I just change that green to our school colors. Nope. You’re kidding me, right? Nope.

This is what really irks me about software intended for schools. It intentionally goes against the grain of best practice. Colors of a website are so ridiculously easy to change and adjust, it’s not even funny. It does not require extensive understanding of any technology, it’s just a color!

It’s almost as if companies and software packages that are completely uncustomizable are built that way to protect the school from itself, because they aren’t competent enough to maintain something that can be changed or readjusted.

I have to wonder about the standards of those that are choosing to use such software, too, because they obviously don’t mind any of it.

It’s an insult to our collective intelligence.

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