Is COVID-19 the EdTech Pivot?

By Charles McIntyre, IBIS Capital

We live in interesting times, as they say, with little understanding of what will happen next week let alone next year.

The fluctuations of COVID-19 cases, make it hard to get any sense of when we might return to normal or even a “new normal”. The question is can we make a virtue out of necessity, and improve on what we already have?

We are in the midst of the largest mass experiment of distance learning that there has ever been; the EdTech acceleration has advanced mass digital usage by up to 10 years. EdTech is now mainstream, no longer the twinkle in the eye of early adopters, but the here and now of education. That may sound exhilarating and the dawn of a new digital age, but it is laden with challenges. Challenges we need to take on, otherwise we will squander the chance to reshape our old-fashioned educational systems.

What has happened so far is a Zoom Boom. We have moved the classroom to video. The result is that we have proved we can learn at home, we don’t always need to be in a physical classroom. We have extended the reach of the classroom to wherever video conferencing will go. But what we haven’t learnt, is that this is not real EdTech. The world of EdTech is about how we enhance the learning experience and efficacy. How we take advantage of a digital world where we can address individual learning sensibilities on a bespoke basis at scale. Providing the visual learner with different content to the kinaesthetic student and the time to focus on particular problem areas. Responding to the way we learn, is the opportunity.

Teaching has always wanted to give the student the personal attention to allow he or she to bloom, but has never been able to. That is until now. The digital tools are out there and they are being used more than ever. The challenge is one of leadership, leadership prepared to embrace change.

It is self evident that if left to its own devices, the educational system will not change. Post COVID-19, it will slip back into the comfy armchair of yesteryear’s teaching pedagogy. How do we know this? Just look at the last 200 years, you will not notice much change in the classroom. We now have a catalyst for new thinking.

The strange thing is that the consumer, the learner, is ready and willing. They already use interactive AI driven media in lots of areas of their lives, just not so much in education. There are not many industries where the end user is already engaged, just waiting for the supply side to respond. So how do we get the supply side to respond?

Behind teachers, schools and universities sits the educational policy of government; curriculum, exams, facilities and funding. And government is generally frightened of change (for all the rhetoric) until pressure is brought to bear. COVID-19 has placed a huge amount of pressure and although governments really wish things to return to the way they were, now is the time to look at how we can reshape the educational approach.

To start with, we need policies that dictate a minimum level of digital interactive content within schools and universities, teacher training programmes to share knowledge on the best use of digital tools and funding allocations to manage the switch. The list isn’t long for a reason, it is there to prime the pump. Once the direction of travel is set, we will be amazed at what follows. Change in education has always been slow because of the number of gatekeepers involved: teachers, schools, governors, districts and government. But with a little push from the top we can finally create an education system fit for the 21st Century. Now is our time, let us all come together to make it happen.