The Future of EdTech

In The News 

COVID-19 cast an enormous spotlight on digital learning, highlighting both its positive and negative aspects. 

While it can improve learners’ confidence with using technology, better preparing them to work with digital tools in the workplace, and can streamline staff workloads, it also relies on learners having access to hardware such as computers, smart phones, and tablets. 

A problem thrown into sharp relief when the government and providers struggled to distribute digital devices to students during the pandemic. 

As coronavirus’ impact on our day-to-day life has retreated, the explosion in the use of education technology platforms during the pandemic has stayed with us. 

One of the standard bearers of edtech during the pandemic, the Oak National Academy, is now being turned into a quango so its bank of free lessons can continue to be used by teachers. 

This is not without some controversy, however. Geoff Barton, general secretary of The Association of School and College Leaders, has warned the quango could undermine teacher autonomy by prescribing “what a good history lesson looks like, or what a good English lesson looks like”. 

The British Educational Suppliers Association, which represents suppliers to the education sector, even threatened the Department for Education with legal action last month over the decision to create an Oak quango. BESA said a £43 million subsidy for the quango would distort the edtech market. 

Edtech the export 

The controversy over the Oak National Academy demonstrates the sizeable impact edtech has had on the way learners are educated in the UK.  

The Department for Education boasted in 2019 that the UK has the largest edtech market in Europe and has some of the fastest growing edtech companies in the world.  

Possibly the greatest success story from the UK edtech sector is Multiverse, set up by Euan Blair in 2016, which achieved a valuation of $1.7 billion in June this year. The independent training provider delivers training remotely and works with 295 employers, as of its ‘outstanding’ Ofsted inspection in 2021.  

Edtech also has enormous potential as an export: The government’s International Education Strategy (last updated in 2021) estimated the total export value of the UK edtech sector at around £170 million. According to a report by Edtech UK from 2020, UK digital tech exports are projected to be worth £31.45bn by 2025.  

Edtech appears to be here to stay, so what will its future applications be and what potential does the edtech market have? 

Interview 

This month, we spoke with former schools minister and edtech advocate Jim Knight about how edtech can be best used by educators and the problems the sector faces in sourcing investment.

Does education technology have the potential to help fill Britain's skills gaps? And will greater use of education technology help students learn the digital skills they will need for work? 

The answer to that is broadly yes. Qualified by, I am much more enthusiastic about education technology as a way of enhancing humans rather than replacing them. So whilst there are some examples, for instance Duolingo, where there's some merit in learning that particular skill solely using a machine, I think it's probably better used in conjunction with a teacher.  

You can point to YouTube as a way that lots of people are learning how to do lots of things from cooking, to mending their cars. 

But, where able, you can also refer things which are not entirely clear from the video to an expert teacher.  

There's also the potential around artificial intelligence to enhance teaching that I think is really exciting and really interesting. The potential of technology to elevate skills transfer at a peer-to-peer level, is also really interesting and exciting.  

I think we're just at the beginning of imagining how you could create an educational ecosystem with technology tools embedded alongside human teaching. 

But there is a massive danger that we overlay technology on the pedagogies and the curriculum. Say for instance, ‘okay, this thing that we currently do that we might not have a specialist teacher for, can we get technology to replace it?’ Or ‘can we access technology and carry on teaching the same way, but to 40 kids rather than 30 kids?’ 

What role do you think the metaverse will play in educating students in the future? 

My now 32-year-old son was, 18 years ago, pretty much addicted to World of Warcraft. So that immersive gaming technology that had an element of social interaction and has user generated content is quite compelling and there is also something interesting around thinking about gamified pedagogy to engage learners too. 

I think we should also be ensuring that every child has good access to nature and the inspiration of real life, real people, real environments. It's all part of the mix. 

With UK digital technology exports set to reach £31.5bn by 2025, what potential do you believe education technology has as an export? 

I'm on the board of CENTURY Tech, which is an AI-powered learning tool for maths, English and science. We've got a pretty big market in international schools, which is another sector I'm quite involved with. 

Then there is the potential of business-to-government sales. I was speaking with someone recently about how excited and interested Vietnam’s government is around using some of our technologies and expertise.  

Now, it's also true to say I think the investment environment for edtech here in the UK is not as strong as it needs to be. It's much, much easier to raise money in the US, particularly Silicon Valley, than it is here. 

That's attached to a whole number of different factors and Multiverse is our first alleged billion-pound unicorn [a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion] in the ed tech space. It is possible here, but Euan had to go to the States to raise it.  

The brand and reputation of British education is really strong internationally. We can see that with the exponential growth in the British international schools, British qualifications, and British higher education. It is a really important brand identifier for Britain.  

So why wouldn't our technology that is used for learning also be exported? There are constraints, however, and obstacles. 

What is the health of the edtech sector like at the moment? 

I don't think it's 100 per cent healthy. It is possible to seek funding but much harder to get serious funding when a new tech business is getting started. It’s a real problem.  

There are very, very few examples of businesses over a valuation of five to ten million. And that's something that needs to be understood and that goes to the heart of my worries about the investment climate. 

When I was looking into acquisitions, there's not much out there of scale. So instead, you either have to look harder to see where there might be. Or you end up buying some small, probably teacher-founded bit of edtech that's solving a problem, is clever, is a nice product, and will be well-researched and well-designed because the teacher’s done it. And it doesn't cost so much money, it’s a few million to buy it. But that changes the life of the individual founder and then you have to integrate it and build it.  

You have to use your own market penetration to land it, as well.  

With private equity funding, it's just a bit of a ball ache because the owners want to double their money quickly. They've got a two- or three-year timeframe. 

Do you think the lack of investment is the same in the US and the UK, or is it really a UK-focused problem? 

It might be a European problem. It might be a rest of the world problem and it's only in North America where there is just that stronger appetite. But right now, it's hard to raise money anywhere. 

Opinion 

Chief executive of Cognassist, Chris Quickfall, explains how edtech can be used to spot learners' needs early on and allow educators to provide support based on evidence. 

Personalisation is the key to facilitating learning for all, but it requires delivering a tailored curriculum at scale. To my mind, there is only one lever that can support educators to make this change at the speed desperately required without staff burnout: The edtech sector. 

Technology is already helping educators to adapt quickly and sustainably.  

Blended learning is here to stay and, as we’re finding now with the rising costs of essential services, it gives providers more options in difficult circumstances to ensure access to education. Of course, access to online learning must be as carefully considered as classroom learning. Any adaptations and reasonable adjustments must consider the support needs and individual circumstances of learners.  

However, this responsibility poses a challenge of its own that often leaves providers to fend for themselves: 

“There is too much inconsistency across the SEND system in how and where needs are assessed and met,” reads the SEND Review. 

Separating SEND provision from the core of delivery is one of the greatest mistakes a provider can make and could easily explain why there is still so much inconsistency in learner support processes.  

Thinking that SEND learners make up only a small minority within a cohort means that providers will likely be overlooking learners with hidden needs. It also dismisses the reality that everyone has different needs and ways of learning. 

I’m talking about a future of education that automatically adjusts to a learner’s way of thinking and natural information-processing abilities. A system that provides early identification and support for learners who do not have an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) yet still require support. Most importantly, a future that enables educators with the right information, in the right place, at the right time to provide evidence-based support and maximise each learner’s experience. 

The SEND Review and the government’s Levelling Up agenda both rely heavily on our education system to ensure that people of all ages and abilities have the best opportunities to thrive. Add to that, all the work to plug the gaps of a generation affected by the pandemic, and educators find themselves grappling with a huge societal responsibility – albeit not an entirely new one. 

Software companies around the world, like my own, are focused on empowering educators and learners alike. There is such a huge opportunity to make impactful change at a scale not previously possible and transform the way we approach learning itself. 

At Cognassist, we’re helping providers to identify learning needs through initial assessment and using AI to predict which learners are at greater risk of dropping out, so early support interventions can be implemented. Data and technology can provide a level of accuracy and consistency that may be missing across the sector, but these innovations are also shaped by educators themselves. 

Organisations slow to realise and adapt to change will be the hardest hit, and our ongoing recovery relies on us supporting each other. It makes me think of the popularised pandemic sentiment, “we are in the same storm, but not in the same boat.” 

So, let’s build a boat to weather the storms ahead and make sure no learner is left behind.