Educapital attended the BETT in London again this year. The four-day long event brought together edtech professionals, professors, companies and public organizations from all over the world – more than 380 speakers, 900 companies (from Google, Microsoft, Promothean to the smallest pre-revenue startups), 34 000 visitors were present at the BETT 2020.
EDTECH TRENDS FOR THE UPCOMING YEARS
Over the course of the discussions and interventions by professionals, a number of major trends or questions that are shaping the Edtech ecosystem have emerged.
Microsoft and Google’s products for education are making their way into the classroom
The 2020 edition of the BETT was an opportunity for Microsoft and Google to present and showcase their many education products. They did not miss it, hosting huge booths at the very center of the exhibition hall.
From Microsoft’s teaching academy to Google G-Suite for Education, there is not one education-related issue to which either one of the two US giants do not have a solution to.
They are making a theatrical entrance in the classroom, which begs the question of the digital sovereignty of states in the midst of all this.
2. Companies (and not only researchers) need to provide (proprietary) evidence that EdTech works
Many speakers tackled the subject of the impact of EdTech. How effective indeed is education technology in reducing the workload of teachers ? In improving the learning curve of students ? In facilitating the return to employment of unemployed university dropouts ? In preparing students to the skills of the XXIst century ?
In other words, the “billion-dollar EdTech question” is “can we prove it works ?” as Alison Clark-Wilson, from UCL Knowledge Lab, puts it. In a very interesting talk, she, like others during the many talks held at the BETT 2020, argued that there was a growing need for empirical, statistically based evidence of the effectiveness of EdTech.
This growing need cannot be answered to by researchers or university labs alone, and companies, regardless of their size, have a role to play in addressing the issue. Most companies still rely on anecdotical evidence to prove that their solutions work but stakeholders, be it investment funds or teachers and schools, need more than that before they invest some of their money into financing a pilot project or purchase a product. In other words, “research-informed EdTech” is the only way forward and companies need to be more evidence-aware.
3. Technological and pedagogical innovation need to go hand in hand to deliver significant learning outcomes for students
Technological innovation is taking off and there is no doubt about it. Nonetheless, it needs to be backed by better suited pedagogical frameworks that help teachers make the most of technology. Carol Allen and John Galloway for instance stated that financing projects is not an issue, the barrier lies now in learning how to implement new technology and how to use it to alleviate the workload of teachers. Technology takes away tasks and makes some easier. It can be of great help in helping disabled students in their learning process for instance.
But when it comes to choosing what tools or learning management systems (LMS), it also means that more autonomy must be granted to teachers and schools, as they know best what they need, many speakers argued.
The event Edtech 50 Schools at the BETT Arena showcased schools that are giving space in their curriculum to technology. The headmaster of Shireland Primary School for instance gave an inspiring speech in which she explained that “it’s not about the sexy use of technology, it’s about using technology systematically to change the way pupils learn”, an approach her school has adopted. EdTech is not a subject, she explained, it’s a tool and must be viewed as such. Beyond massive savings on operating expenses (up to £35k/year in avoided photocopies alone) technology helped enhance student engagement and streamline administrative chores.
4. How do we protect children from overexposure to screens while exploiting the full potential of education technology ?
One of the main questions many talks discussed is of course: how do we protect children from excessive exposure to screens while making the most of available technology? Answers differed from one speaker to the next or from one company to another, but none dismissed such a challenge.
According to Sigutra Mitra, a professor of Education Technology widely famous for his “hole in the wall experiment”, the most relevant way to address the issue is by letting children evolve in a “self-organized learning environment”: the absence of a teacher is sometimes a tool. Children, clustered around the internet in safe, unsupervised spaces excited by questions they like can self-organize to learn anything by themselves.
Other policy responses include forbidding phones in schools, an approach taken by France in primary schools. It has been criticized: Sophia Mavridi, in a talk at the BETT Arena about the “digital residents”, deemed that schools must rather use phones differently, using them as tools in lessons to eventually prevent excessive usage. Instead of banning phones that is, one must promote self-regulation techniques – for example disactivating notifications on laptops. At any rate, the debate is still open and perfect answers yet to be found.