Education is an industry (yes, an industry) prime for a makeover.

Costs to students and parents are high, and benefits are lower than ever before. Our schools underperform compared to many other countries around the world, and the underwhelm when it comes to preparing people for the jobs that are needed in today’s world.

Innovation, a buzzword of the Obama presidency, is needed here as much as anywhere else in our society. And there are companies out there that are slowly starting to get some attention for taking the first steps.

It all starts with identifying with today’s students. They are different than students of the past. They have grown up with Facebook and social media. They have more opportunities at their fingertips, but also less direction and focus. Schools and educators of any kind need to adapt to the student, and not the other way around. That’s the world we live in.

One company that I’ve been lucky enough to get a peek at is uBoost.

uBoost and companies like it are providing a way for schools to offer students a new way of tracking progress. By making education more of a game, and incorporating the social aspects that kids are used to, they make it more likely that students will take the necessary steps to complete their coursework and prepare for what comes next.

Education is boring, and traditional, and slow to change. In today’s world, that won’t work for very long. It’s time we give education a much needed boost and changed the way we think about preparing students for the world to come.