W:
edtechnology.co.uk | T: @Educ_Technology
body of expertise that exists in our universities and colleges. The UK government’s Education Technology Action Group has been receiving evidence from educators across the country about effective use of technology in education, and is busy creating a road map for sympathetic and constructive use of edtech to enhance teaching and learning. A particular challenge for us is how to best help young people who are not in employment, education or training (the so-called NEETs) to pick up the digital skills that are increasingly crucial in the modern workplace.
James Penny: The UK continues to lead the world. We have a broader understanding of how technology supports outstanding schools. Our teachers are leading a rapid reform movement and embedding technology into the learning proceeds.
Shaun Wilkinson: Developments in education technology tend to be global collaborations so it’s just a question of when and not if each nation’s educational establishments adopt the latest technologies. That said, the UK education sector is certainly not shy when it comes to investment in education technology. UK consumers are some of the world’s fastest
adopters of new technology – the rate of tablet take-up is a good example – and with BYOD blurring the boundaries between consumer tech and ICT in education, this definitely helps the UK to be a front runner. The UK also has some of the most knowledgeable school IT managers in the world, which allows new technology to be adopted quickly. At UTAX we have the advantage of being able to
offer the latest solutions from our Japanese-based parent company which is at the forefront of global development in educational and business technology. Our unique HyPas system that is resident on all of our MFPs and printers, enables numerous education- specific apps to be installed. All of these apps are designed to save time, enhance security and make life easier for pupils and teachers.
What have we learned about edtech in 2014 that will help us develop next year and beyond?
George Burgess: Preparedness is essential. Having spoken to many schools over the past 12 months, one of the things we've seen is that schools who dive into an edtech project unprepared (say, rolling out a 1:1 device scheme) encounter all sorts of problems. Those schools that take a fully researched and thought out approach tend to do much beter. We're seeing an incredible community of teachers evolve around some of these topics and they are all sharing best practices and learning from one another.
Shaun Eason: When you go to educational shows such as BETT you get an idea about what the next big thing might be in edtech. I thought it was computing and the use of devices such as Raspberry Pis to develop the learning of programming languages. I wonder whether we may move away from the Microsoft environment when teaching computing in years to come. The market for educational information resources is massive and growing. In terms of development, programming will have a significant impact next year and beyond.
ABOVE: Raspberry Pi
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