The EdTech market continues to evolve at pace and by some estimates will be worth in excess of $598bn by 2032 driven by a combination of AI, gamification and immersive VR and AR learning.
AI, as with so many other sectors, has been transforming education and AI platforms like Squirrel AI and Microsoft’s Reading Coach have been delivering enhanced personalised teaching so that students can be better analysed and their strengths, weaknesses and preferred learning styles better understood.
Using these platforms educational programmes are now being customised and their content tailored to suit the individual student’s needs, while these platforms can also help teachers to provide more targeted interventions to help students who may be struggling and encourage greater levels of engagement and motivation.
AR and VR are also opening up a range of new possibilities by offering not only experiences – returning to Tudor England or visiting ancient Rome – but also by providing hands-on experiences in a safe online environment.
ENGAGE XR is a provider of Virtual Classroom Solutions and offers a VR/AR platform that enables teachers and students to better connect and collaborate. ENGAGE can support up to 70 students and offers over 6000 3D learning models and upwards of 150 virtual locations to explore. Students can participate in virtual field trips and engage in hands-on scientific experiments using curriculum focused content.
By using experiential learning opportunities students have been found to benefit from improved comprehension as well as attaining better levels of retention.
Interestingly it is also possible for students and teachers to use the platform – via a Content Editor and AI Character Creator - to create their own immersive experiences.
Gamification is another significant development in EdTech, whether that is scavenger-hunt activities, competitive quizzes or leaderboards all of which are helping to change the way in which students engage with digital learning.
Learning analytics are also fast becoming a critical aspect of teaching. They support the collection and analysis of student data enabling teachers to assess performance, behaviours and outcomes. How educators are looking to track performance and then tailor their approach to teaching is changing rapidly and the insights that are gleaned are helping to inform teaching practice and deliver more personalised support and resources.
But while digital education has benefits, many students and teachers want, or require, some face-to-face interaction so it also needs to be possible to blend in-person and online learning to offer the best of both worlds.
Modern educationalists are aware that there is a growing need to provide more immersive environments and solutions that help deliver more inclusive lessons that help students who lack key skills.
SMART Technologies, a specialist in interactive education technology, recently partnered with the University of Melbourne to launch a research initiative that explored how classroom environments can better support neurodivergent learners.
The word ‘neurodiversity’ is used to explain the unique ways people's brains work and being neurodivergent means that an individual has a brain that works differently from the average or ‘neurotypical’ person. People who are neurodivergent often experience unique emotional and behavioural symptoms including difficulty with social interactions, clumsiness and anxiety.
The study identified several strategies and tools to better promote engagement, reduce barriers, and to empower students and how to use technology to facilitate inclusion.
With over 20% of the global population said to be neurodivergent, traditional classrooms often exclude these students by prioritising norms designed for neurotypical learners and these can create significant challenges, forcing neurodivergent students to mask their differences rather than focusing on learning.
“A learning space where everyone feels safe, happy, and part of the community,” is the vision of Matt Harrison, who was lead researcher at the University of Melbourne and co-founder of the University of Melbourne Neurodiversity Project.
Harrison identified a significant gap in education and, in collaboration with SMART, set out to better understand the challenges of neurodivergent students.
"By engaging directly with these learners, we gathered authentic insights into strategies and tech tools that make a real difference,” said Harrison. This groundbreaking, student-centred research provided data that will better enable educators to foster inclusive classrooms and was able to identify 36 actionable recommendations.
Among those steps emerging from the research were the adoption of EdTech tools that were able to better involve students in choosing and implementing specific classroom options while at the same time focusing on each student's individual strengths and needs.
Technology has a crucial role to play in achieving this and, as Jeff Lowe, SMART Technologies Executive Vice President said, commenting on the research, "These recommendations offer educators and education leaders a clear pathway to designing classrooms that prioritise inclusivity. By listening to the voices of neurodivergent students and understanding their needs, we can ensure our technology considers those needs, creates meaningful change and success for all students.”
At the annual British Education Training and Technology Show (BETT), an education event which was held in January this year and that brings together educators, technologists and industry leaders to better understand the trends, innovations and technologies shaping education, the importance of therapy and education was highlighted by a significant number of exhibitors.
One, Musicon, combines therapy with education and has been described as a “revolution in education”.
The company has created a drum that when it rotates buttons can be pressed to activate modules of the board to compose, program, draw and design. Bringing together a combination of hearing, touch and sight it helps students to develop communication, social and cognitive skills as well as teaching mathematical and programming competencies, according to the company.
In fact, research suggested that 89 per cent of teachers found that by using Musicon (see photo) autistic and visual impaired students enjoyed improved motor, cognitive, social and emotional-motivational functioning.
Another company, Creative Activity, presented an Immersive Room solution that can provide an accessible and alternative learning environment for students by combining lighting, sounds, texture and colours. Using wall/floor projection or a LED Wall Wash, the room can be used to stimulate visual, motor and auditory senses improving a child’s communication and social skills.
Above: The need to integrate technology into the classroom will require ongoing professional development (Credit: Rawpixel.com - adobe.stock.com)
Education policy and technology
According to the Education Policy Outlook 2024 report, the education system is faced with three critical issues: a shortage of teachers; an excessive amount of time spent by teachers on non-instructional tasks and, the digital skills gap of students.
With the World Economic Forum suggesting that 39% of the key skills required by the labour market will change by 2030 and with the role of AI and big data analysis becoming increasingly important, it’s crucial that education and technology become an inseparable combination to improve teachers' daily work and consequently train students' digital skills to cope with a changing world of work.
“Edutech: where are today's schools?” was a piece of research carried out by Acer for Education and looked at the implementation of technology, analysing the use of digital devices, the priorities for improvement, and perceptions about the associated benefits and risks.
According to this research, nearly 80% of respondents consider the laptop the most useful device in class, but just half of them have a PC assigned or funded by the school. In fact, 40% of teachers rely on their personal device and 11% use a shared one within different classrooms.
Digital devices are still used for basic activities, which suggests that in most cases there is a lack of digital skills among teachers. Among students, less than a fifth were using digital devices for activities involving STEM tools (19%) or Esport/Gamification (15%).
Teachers were found to use devices during classroom or laboratory lessons (80%), to share, for example, presentations or online materials with students, to conduct assessment tests (66%), or simply to update the electronic register (57%) or outside the classroom for administrative tasks (63%).
This study did find that half of teachers are already using AI, and the other half are interested but would like to learn more about it. When asked most teachers agreed that it can bring many benefits, but they also expressed concerns.
While AI enables teachers to simplify lesson planning, prepare assisted exercises, analyse student progress and perform automatic assessments they were worried that students were using AI to cheat – whether when doing homework or relying on GenAI when writing essays. Worries were also expressed as to how sitting in front of a screen for extended hours was impacting the health of students.
“This research confirms how technology has now become a mainstay of modern education, but it is equally clear that there is still a long way to go. It clearly emerges that in most schools there is a need for increased investment in digital devices, in the IT infrastructure as well as in teacher training and awareness policies for responsible use of technology, such as AI,” commented Cristina Pez, Commercial Director for Education at Acer EMEA.
Robotics and Education
Educational robotics are increasingly being used to introduce students to robotics and programming, enabling students from a very early age to build and program a robot capable of performing various tasks.
Educational robotics are used to help teach STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects in which practice takes precedence over theory.
A good example of this is Ozobot, a developer of programmable robots and STEAM-based learning solutions which has developed a range of robots to teach students about programming, communication and robotics. With many entry-point levels it has made robots that are accessible to users no matter their skill level.
The Ozobot Evo comes with sounds, interactions, and a series of lights that can all be used to enhance play or education and employs Bluetooth LE, proximity sensors, LED lights and is wireless charging enabled.
These robots are helping children to develop basic cognitive skills and to develop the mental processes to solve problems of various kinds through an orderly sequence of actions.
Another important benefit of educational robots is that they are also teaching children to become familiar with and learn basic programming concepts, a skill that is becoming more and more important every year.
Challenges and Opportunities
While the developments taking place with EdTech are exciting they come with a number of caveats. In particular, not everyone will have access to the latest technology.
Policy makers and educators need to ensure equitable access, especially across poorer communities, while the training of teachers to use new forms of technology effectively remains a challenge and needs to be addressed.
Integrating new technologies into classrooms will require ongoing professional development as well as training and support as to how to use these digital tools effectively.
The benefits of using AI have been noted but how do you ensure that issues of bias and transparency are addressed, and that AI is used responsibly in education.
There is plenty of scope to use Edtech to teach better but also to improve how we address the diverse needs of students.
