D2L: Education at Its Core Is Innately Human
A Q&A with D2L President Stephen Laster
In his career of more than 25 years, Stephen Laster has held top-level positions within higher education institutions as well as with technology companies that are key influencers of technology directions for education. And he's worked in an environment and at a time in which success is not a given for our higher education institutions.
Laster is currently at D2L, where he's recently celebrated his one-year anniversary and a promotion to president. The company is a place where he can focus his expertise on some of the most impactful technologies that the education market wants and needs to see.
Here, we ask him to comment on critical issues for education, on the technologies and practices that can help make a difference, and on the projects he's found most rewarding and productive. We ask him about his own education journey while he comments on some of the most important technology directions he's working on now with his colleagues and customers at D2L.
"If we're going to innovate and invent our way out of the significant challenges that society faces today world wide, then at the center of that there must be a well-educated populace." —Stephen Laster
Mary Grush: As a seasoned technology leader, you have a choice of industries and markets in which to apply your skills. What in your personal or career journey has influenced your commitment to working in education?
Stephen Laster: I have two children: One is a freshman in college, and the other a sophomore in high school. Similar to me, they are both profoundly dyslexic. My journey, of understanding learning both through my kids and through my own dyslexia, is a big part of why I continue to be so committed to the authentic use of education technology.
To unpack that a bit, I see now more than ever that we owe it to the world's population to provide access to high-quality education. If we're going to innovate and invent our way out of the significant challenges that society faces today world wide, then at the center of that there must be a well-educated populace.
At the same moment in time, the world continues to be so complex, that not only is there a world-wide shortage of master educators and teachers, but their jobs have gotten even more difficult. I would argue that you can see this both throughout the pandemic and in the way we now put pressures on universities to scaffold our students in ways that frankly weren't required when we were students at those same universities.
The world continues to be so complex, that not only is there a world-wide shortage of master educators and teachers, but their jobs have gotten even more difficult.
Grush: What will help? Some of the things you've mentioned here are relatively new challenges, but in terms of solutions, what are some tenets that you have been able to rely on over the years? What have you said in past professional contexts that you find remains true?
Laster: I've always said that education at its core is innately human. I think we've all been inspired in both formal and informal educational settings by people who have helped us grow and learn and develop. And, I think technology plays a tremendous role in creating more of those moments of inspiration.
I've always said that education at its core is innately human. I think we've all been inspired in both formal and informal educational settings by people who have helped us grow and learn and develop.
And to that, technology, applied well, helps students to understand where they are in their own learning journey. With some of the basic learning conveyed by technology, more time can be reserved for complex, human-driven applications. And well-applied technology allows us to scale in ways that are necessary — because for better or worse, we have a finite ability to provide and fund the number of educators that might be desirable otherwise.