The Latest EdTech Research — Here at Last
This past year, the education technology community took a crucial step forward in its quest to improve the quality and availability of research across the industry, and we at EdinLabs are proud of our contributions and involvement in this process.
From May 3rd to May 4th, our company, upon invitation, collaborated with hundreds of other researchers, academics, entrepreneurs, university leaders, investors, and teachers in Washington, D.C. at the inaugural EdTech Efficacy Research Academic Symposium.
The importance of this Symposium cannot be overstated, as it was undeniably successful in bringing together people from all corners industry who previously have been unable to collectively pursue their common goal. Additionally, the Symposium, headlined by the papers released by the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education, Digital Promise, and the Jefferson Education Accelerator, uncovered specific structural problems and inconsistencies plaguing current efficacy research. Now, all of that research is available here.
These papers, the final drafts of which were released on July 19, importantly demonstrate that the efficacy research for which everyone is clamoring has been inadequately funded to this point. This lack of funding has hindered the companies and educators involved from understanding how and why certain products succeed or fail depending on environment. Without this necessary knowledge, educators lack the information required to make effective purchasing choices in the EdTech space, and thus, the education of students is effectively impeded upon.
Furthermore, as the recently released papers portray and as our fellow Symposium members articulated, there is a major collaborative problem at play when it comes to EdTech efficacy research. Although every party involved wants the research for themselves, there is little incentive to collectively invest in larger scale research that benefits the entire populace of students.
In addition to the holistic impact that the Symposium and its accompanying papers has had in directing the path of future EdTech research, our experiences working with fellow companies in Washington have helped to provide EdinLabs with its new direction. Now, we at EdinLabs are focused on completing one important piece of the EdTech research puzzle. After listening to the complaints and concerns of the Symposium’s fellow invitees, we realized that, even with increased and improved efficacy research, major structural problems in the industry will persist, as the matching process between educator and company is yet to be sufficiently addressed. So, our goal is to improve this process by which teachers discover EdTech products for piloting and use in the classroom. To accomplish this objective, we will introduce a data-driven matching/discovery platform for K-12 teachers so that they can now fine-tune their searches to increase the likelihood of matches.
Over the next few weeks, our company, in an effort to make the accrued research more consumable, will be writing short summaries of the significant topics. So, if you’re looking to stay up to date on the latest in EdTech research, be sure to follow us on Medium.
