by CLAIRE FIELD
despite a mixed pandemic performance there is growth
Last week was EdTech week in London with the centrepiece being the annual EdTechXEurope conference. It was good after a two year hiatus to be back in the same room with so many impressive EdTech founders and this year some senior government officials, as Europe sets out its Digital Education Plan 2021-2027 and looks to engage the EdTech sector.
The Head of Digital Education at the European Commission, Georgi Dimitrov, noted that their engagement will be neither a “top down [regulatory] approach, nor bottom up [I.e. no regulation], but rather in the middle ground.”
The focus of the conference was on “the experience of learning” – with specific emphasis on the Impact of EdTech, particularly with reference to UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goals, and on Experiential Learning (i.e. AR/VR).
EdTechX co-founder Benjamin Vedrenne-Cloquet was blunt in his assessment of the mixed performance of EdTech during the pandemic. Despite the obvious achievement which saw education institutions around the world switch to on-line learning in a matter of days, he correctly characterised it as the “regressive triumph of the lowest technology” and reminded the audience this had led to a learning deficit with students falling behind on average by 8.2 months, as well as other problems including a rise in mental health issues. He also called out the sector’s business ethics, with a growing problem of abusive marketing practices and some companies stealing users’ personal data.
It was not all doom and gloom, Dimitrov and other speakers observed that EdTech has proven itself agile, proactive and open in times of crisis (Ukraine and COVID).
Other speakers included Jeff Maggioncalda from Coursera, which now has 102 million registered learners on its platform and saw revenues rise during the pandemic from US$184m in 2019 to US $415m in 2021. In a piece of fortuitous timing, “Coursera for Campus” launched in 2019. It is a subscription model where educational institutions can have access to the more than 5,000 courses on the Coursera platform for their learners. Prior to the pandemic there were 30 universities subscribed to “Coursera for Campus”, now there are more than 4,000 universities subscribed. And of course Coursera also offers more than 4,000 industry micro-credentials and professional certificates through ‘Coursera Campus for Industry.”
There was much more, and I have summarised my notes on my website.
Claire Field spoke to CMM’s Colin Simpson (Monash U) about EdTech in Australian universities and VET providers on the latest episode of the ‘What now? What next?’ podcast