Advances in technology are reshaping the way we teach and learn, creating new opportunities and challenges. Addressing these challenges requires a concerted effort to ensure new technology is implemented thoughtfully and responsibly, with a focus on improving the educational experience for all students. Collaboration and open dialogue are key to getting through this, ensuring innovation meets the needs of today’s educational institutions.
Three themes emerge in nearly every collaboration and discussion about what educators, schools, and institutions need from educational technology:
- The need for a reliable, interoperable and flexible edtech ecosystem.
- There is increasing reliance on data and analytics to help build that ecosystem.
- Exploring the role of generative AI in that ecosystem.
evolution of ecosystem
There’s a lot to consider when building edtech resources for any learning environment, including K-12 school districts, higher education institutions, and professional development. Before acquiring new edtech systems, tools, and apps, technology leaders must consider privacy and security issues. How does this technology work with other tools? Will it make the lives of already busy educators easier, or is it just another item on the to-do list? Everything Can it be used by all learners? Does it fit with the curriculum? As your institution’s needs change, can you make those changes easily and affordably?
Of course, following interoperability standards ensures that the entire system works together, making future changes and additions to the ecosystem faster, cheaper, and easier.
1EdTech Community’s open rubrics can help you start the review process by: data privacy, safety, accessibility and Generation AImeanwhile CASE network 2 It helps align these tools with academic standards.
The entire ecosystem is having a huge impact. Initiatives to increase personalized learning and equity across districts and states, technology management solutions that reduce the burden on both technology departments and educators, and the ability for educators to use new technology, to name a few. There are strategies to do so.
Data and analysis
Technology is becoming increasingly important in education, but budgets remain limited. Only just over half of higher education institutions expect their IT budgets to increase, but the increase is only about 2%. In contrast, Gartner’s 2024 Higher Education Forecast shows that 48% of higher education institutions expect their budgets to remain flat or decrease. This means data and analytics are key to selecting the right tools for each learning environment and proving their effectiveness.
1EdTech members are already using interoperability standards to see how their tools are used, support student success, and measure impact on courses, but there’s more work to do .
Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI), OneRoster and Edu-API Enables secure data flow between different tools and systems. caliper analysis Standards make data more accessible and easier to analyze. Our members work to break down silos between institutions and enhance data insights and analysis to benefit teaching and learning at their institutions.
A coalition of major institutions is also driving this effort. LTI Advantage Data Provides real-time information including in-course progress, assessment results, and product usage.
Generation AI
Finally, while there is no doubt that generative AI is causing excitement, confusion, and anxiety, it has the potential to improve teaching and learning if used correctly. Everyone has a different understanding and ability to start implementing AI in their ecosystem.
1The EdTech community has already TrustEd Apps Generated AI Data Rubric And that AI readiness checklistthe conversation continues as we discuss how members are implementing these tools and practical prompts for educators.
These three themes ultimately boil down to one thing. That means we need to build an ecosystem that works best for all educators and supports learners. That’s why we want to ensure that the solutions we build benefit everyone, including K-12 and higher education educators, ed-tech suppliers, nonprofits, and government agencies. It is very important to bring people together.
These conversations and work will continue at 1EdTech. 2024 Learning Impact Conference, will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah from June 3rd to 6th. Educators and edtech innovators discuss how they’re addressing these issues, what’s working and what’s not, and consider where we need to go next.
