Why invest in edtech NOW?

Timing is everything...

We are at the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The First (mechanized mining, which led to steam power, and thus improvements in factory output and transportation) and the Second (technical advancements in the extraction of oil/gas, and the creation of electric power and steel which led to the internal combustion engine and improved communication in the telephone/telegraph) each occurred over the course of roughly 100 years.

The Digital Revolution, building on the electric age, followed by the rise of electronics, telecommunications, and computers, opening the door to new technologies including space exploration, biotechnology, and robotics all in the span of just 50 years. (Schwab, 2016)

While the three eras preceding this were triggered by specific technologies that improved efficiencies and thus advanced industry, the Fourth Revolution blurs the outlines of what we consider technology and inspires a new vision of an economy that meets the needs of all people on the planet, requires that we live within our planetary means, and focuses on the goal of maximizing human well-being. (World Economic Forum, 2016) And all of this is charging forth with exponential speed, in this, the dawn of the Third Millennium.

For our students to be ready for this monumental shift, we must continue to reimagine how we use technology to make sure our students have the 21st Century Skills needed to be successful contributors to and innovators in our global interconnected future, including critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, citizenship, and character. (Herr, 2021)

The Six Cs of Education, Planning and Design

2021 - Fanning Howey

Can student readiness happen without improvements to ed-tech? Certainly. But educational technology helps us to raise the bar for all learners, inspiring students to take charge, reflect on their own growth and aspirations, and give teachers the tools to meet these needs.

Furthermore, the majority of students served today are Generation Z digital natives. Born after 1996, technology has heavily influenced their daily experience. Born into a world with integrated smartphones and readily accessible internet, according to the Pew Research Center, this generation is poised to be the most educated generation and will access that education in increasingly global and connected ways. (Parker, Igielnik, 2021).

One survey found that Gen Z’ s are “ online almost constantly, ” leveraging the technology for everything from news and entertainment to education and social connections. Without adopting the best practices of technology for education, we alienate these avid learners and miss opportunities to prepare them for success.

Continuing to fully fund educational technology improvements benefits both students and teachers.

Educators, with continuous professional development and collaboration with colleagues, improve their craft and develop new strategies to inspire students to develop 21st Century skills.

Students benefit from enriched, authentic experiences, engagement with peers, and more personalized learning systems that help them make meaningful decisions and reflections about their own growth.

It is a win-win in the truest sense, but we must be devoted to continuing to reach higher and push harder, and not be complacent in our quest to improve the delivery of precise, individualized learning experiences and assessments for those in our care.

Funding Educational Technology is a WIN-WIN for all stakeholders!

The future of EdTech is powerful and moving at lightning speed. Clearly, the recent pandemic exposed the limits of traditional education, and the need to make learning more flexible, connected, immersive, and integrated. And savvy companies are leveraging that to their advantage… and ours.

How Teachers and Curriculum Will Shape Ed Tech's Future: A CEO Makes the Case (Opinion) Education Week - May 14, 2021

The future of education technology means easily accessible tools that inspire high levels of student engagement and meaningful content, in addition to developing more learner independence, personalization, and authentic connection to the larger world.

At the turn of the last century, Rainer Rilke, a German philosopher, and poet responded to a friend's uncertainty by saying

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves ... Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

(Barrows, Macy 2021)

Certainly, we have done EXACTLY this in this tumultuous time... living the questions about the role of technology in education. We have lived also into some answers - but not all. We must continue to be with these questions, to see where they take us, and to be open to the future that continues to prod us to question the role of educational technology in our schools and our world.