What’s new in education technology? Why is technology in education now even more important for teachers and students? Why is it crucial for teachers to be at the heart of EdTech development?

We take a look at these questions and explore the current EdTech climate, which has seen big changes after a challenging time has transformed the learning landscape for teachers and students.

The Covid EdTech challenge

The challenges that educators faced during lockdown were unprecedented. But keeping pupils motivated, engaged, and up to date on their studies was still their number one priority. This put an immense pressure on technology and its use in learning, forcing it to evolve to meet the challenges. These challenges changed the learning landscape for a lot of educators. Teachers have had to empower students with more self-learning, giving them the tools they need. Educators everywhere began adapting new hybrid and fully remote ways of teaching in order to keep students engaged.

Changing EdTech attitudes

Results from the annual State of Technology in Education report, show how important Edtech is to educators and learners right now. Here are some numbers that show just how the current EdTech climate is affecting attitudes towards technology and its benefits in education:

• 86% of educators say technology should be a core part of learning
• The focus on growing Edtech has increased 29% in the last five years
• Growing Edtech is now a priority for 39% of schools
• Over 80% of educators think technology improves engagement in classrooms
• 57% of IT staff believe schools should prioritise updating their technologies
• 79% of educators agree technology helps them do a better job
• 84% have identified that technology is a great way to improve engagement
• 33% of educators believe technology can improve behaviour

Getting teachers involved

Teachers and educators already have big workloads. And if EdTech is not designed with the collaboration of teachers, it will quickly hinder them instead of help. After all, EdTech is as much about streamlining the learning experience for teachers, as it is about improving it for students.

Non-intuitive software and applications can create large amounts of administration for both students and teachers. Fortunately, providers and developers are listening to teacher feedback and working with them to constantly improve the services for use in all forms of learning.

Adapting to hybrid learning

Schools and teachers are currently considering their technology provisions and examining whether they are sufficient for the current climate. Some technology such as interactive whiteboards and projectors are great in the classroom, but are they suitable for remote learning?

New flat panel displays are allowing teachers to share their screens during lessons and use remote-access tools, ensuring that their students can engage and learn no matter where they are. This not only broadens the learning environment, but ensures no student needs to miss out through absence.

Lack of EdTech strategy

The State of Technology in Education report also revealed that the role of designing the school’s strategy for EdTech lands mostly at the feet of headteachers. Worryingly less than half of those surveyed said that their strategy was a collaborative project, using the vital experience of teachers.

With so much changing for learning in a short space of time, schools are trying to keep up. Only 50% of school staff could confirm that their school had a strategic vision for education technology. But this could be as much down to communication and collaboration as lack of investment.

Online safety concerns

The focus on online safety during the recent transition to more remote learning has no doubt increased. Teachers are naturally worried about both the security of resources and data, and the safety of their students as they share and collaborate online without supervision.

This has made online safety and data security a big part of school EdTech strategy for many schools this year. Teachers need technology solutions that are peer reviewed, can be trusted with their data, and are safe from prying eyes, so they can focus on maximising their students’ learning.

Our vendor solutions

We have so many great EdTech vendor solutions it was too many to fit in here. So we’ve created a buyers guide so you can see them all in one place. You can see it in full here.