“EdTech is Like an Extension of Our School”

Over the years, EdTech has helped countless schools and students implement e-books in a way that works for them. In fact, many schools that were concerned about the complexity of the implementation process, as well as ones that had bad past experiences or were inconvenienced by having to use different platforms for different publishers, turned to us to solve their problems.

We sat down with Julie Filer, Director of Instruction at Capital Christian School, to find out why her school chose to work with EdTech Solutions.

Dr. Filer earned her BA from Liberty University, MA from Chapman University and Ed.D. from Grand Canyon University. She holds a California Professional Clear Single Subject Teaching Credential in English. She also holds a Professional Lifetime ACSI Teacher’s Certificate and a Professional Lifetime ACSI Administrator’s certificate. Raised in Pennsylvania, Julie is a fan of all things Pittsburgh; she is married and has two daughters who are Lifers at CCS. Having served for 22 years at CCS, Julie thinks the community at Capital is what makes the school special.

Before you started working with EdTech, what was your biggest concern or hesitation?

When we found information on EdTech, we honestly were thinking, “This sounds too good to be true.” We had been working with a previous company and continually had issues. We actually had an online bookstore for quite some time because, as a private school, our families are required to buy the curriculum. When we started making changes to the digital curriculum, we just knew that the company that we were dealing with was not going to be able to deliver because we had seen that countless times before. So, as we were making this shift to digital curriculum, particularly at the high school level, we found information on EdTech, and everything we were reading was exactly what we were looking for.

How did that “too good to be true” perception change after you started working with us?

You all delivered! As soon as we made the change to EdTech, we just realized that we were in complete partnership. It was like an extension of our school, almost as if we had added another department to our school. There was constant communication, support when we needed it, and when we would hit a snag, we would work together to resolve it. The collaboration was just welcomed! It was as if we were working with our own team at our school.

What is one specific result or takeaway you’ve had after working with us?

I think it’s the constant communication and collaboration, allowing us to be open and able to say, “This is what our needs are as an organization,” and then working with EdTech to be able to deliver on that. Our high school did a three-year rollout with digital curriculum. We worked in tandem with EdTech just to be able to do that. So, even when we made the full transition to digital, and our middle school was operating in more of a hybrid approach, we were just able to communicate our needs and how to make it a smooth transition between both campuses.

What would you say to someone who’s thinking about partnering with us, but is on the fence?

I would say definitely do it! We’ve found that EdTech has been an extension of our school. I’ve heard people say, “Well, I’m not sure about this bookstore.” And I tell them again and again, the fact that we have the online bookstore, the fact that our parents can go in and make the purchases, is so worth it! One thing that has been really helpful for us with the digital piece, is to have the bundle option. It made it very easy for parents to know what’s required and then have the option to bundle it together because it made it very clear to families what was required in the purchase. I could rave about you guys all day long. And I would say, for anyone on the fence, it’s definitely a company that you want to commit to partner with.

Is there anything else that you’d like to share that you haven’t had a chance to share yet?

The fact that I can reach out directly to a person at any time if we have questions or concerns, and get an immediate response is huge! Because we’re not sitting and waiting for a response. Even if we’re waiting for a resolution, there’s communication that we’re waiting for things to be resolved. In my particular role, I’m really thankful for that!

At EdTech, we know that ‘going digital’ can be scary – we make it a pleasant and positive experience for all involved! EdTech is the schools’ premier and modern-day choice for simplified, easy, and fast ebook implementation.

EdTech Solutions leverages education technology to improve learning by making it easy and simple for schools and students to manage and access individualized digital content on any device. EdTech’s cutting-edge approach to schoolwide ebook implementation and our innovative online platform and tools give school administrators and teachers the controls they need while providing students and parents with access to all their content on one easy-to-use platform with a single login, in most cases.

When you work with us, we create a personalized bookstore for your school where students can access and purchase their ebooks and textbooks on Shelfit.com. We also help publishers make their content available digitally to students on our robust multi-publisher ebook reader platform. We strongly believe that knowledge and good education should be available to all, and we are committed to developing and providing the online learning tools and modern services that make it possible.