Edtech UK
Edtech; mo In Autumn 2020, a group of leaders and teachers wrote the Edtech Vision 2025, in response to a House of Commons Committee call for evidence.
Basic access to devices and broadband were also key issues from the start for the Dfe. The procurement and purchase of laptops across the UK seemed tardy and was often mired in controversy.
This group of education professionals concluded that: “COVID-19 magnified the uneven and patchy approach to digital learning in England. Even before COVID-19, schools’ use of EdTech varied widely. The virus highlighted, however, that schools and colleges need support and training.”
Challenges regarding infrastructure, access to devices/reliable broadband and the lack of professional development opportunities were all recognised; but were the Department for Education’s attempts at addressing these timely, well-coordinated and ultimately supportive on the ground?
As remote learning was thrust to the forefront of education, these differences became magnified, leaving some schools and colleges, by default, better prepared than others as ‘closures’ forced most pupils to work from home. There are key urgent lessons for policy makers and governments.
Nationally, too, there were differences with England being somewhat late in introducing a national EdTech Strategy compared to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
DFE Response: Clear and Supportive? Technology across education was essential in connecting school staff and students throughout the period of ‘remote education’ across the UK. However, in England edtech was having serious growing pains with only the very recent 2019 EdTech Strategy, amongst many well-intentioned initiatives. The DfE arose from that initial strategy - with a non-existent benchmark for schools during Covid-19. England has arguably played catch up to its neighbouring countries, but the English-based Edtech Demonstrator programme provided agile professional development from March 2020, with a passionate network of forty-eight institutions acting as peer-to-peer crisis mentors.
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Were the other education nations, therefore, perhaps able to respond in a more effective and agile way than England? Kirsty Williams, former Welsh Education Secretary, speaking at a recent conference, acknowledged that the Hwb, the national digital platform in Wales, allowed an agile response across institutions. Becki Bawler, who teaches in Wales said; “Despite all that teachers, students and parents have learned about digital skills through our recent experiences of emergency remote education, it is apparent that there is still much to be done across the nations (some more than others) to reduce digital inequality and provide the most effective uses of digital technology for learning.”
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