5 future edtech trends to expect in your classroom

Technology is now a fundamental element of education.

From the simplicity of the interactive whiteboard to the creativity of student-made films and the time-saving magic of self-marking homework, it’s hard to imagine 21st-century learning without tech.

Schools across the UK spend around £900 million on education technology each year, and, as the Covid-19 shutdown took hold, tech played a key role in enabling learning to continue, as teachers and students took to online spaces to share resources and create virtual classrooms.

But what’s next for edtech? We look at the innovations that could be making their way into your classroom soon.

Edtech and the focus on digital skills

Amid the excitement and innovation around our increasingly digital future, it’s important to consider if we are adequately preparing our young people for it.

Research from Microsoft UK found that 44 per cent of teachers didn’t believe that today’s classrooms were set up to facilitate modern learning. So how can we ensure that our students are able to navigate this new world?

English teacher Emma Pass recommends using Google’s free, online Applied Digital Skills platform, which includes lessons that incorporate not just digital skills but also soft skills such as collaboration and communication.

Meanwhile, Sarah Clark, a teacher at Queen Anne High School in Dunfermline, highlights the need to embed online safety within lessons.

“It is important that we are teaching children from a young age how to be responsible online,” she says.

“All teachers have a responsibility to reiterate that every time we go online. It’s about responsible digital citizenship.”

Blended learning

The advantage of this approach - which brings together online learning and face-to-face interaction - is that students can revisit tasks completed during lessons again and again and build on them at home by accessing related resources at their own pace.

Schools were becoming increasingly adept at combining online and classroom teaching to help embed learning before lockdown closed their doors, and once it did, spaces such as Microsoft Teams became essential meeting places, while online platforms, such as HP for Education’s Learning @Home, provided resources and software to keep students engaged.

And now, as schools gradually start to reopen, it looks like blended learning will become the norm. And so it’s vital to ensure that they are ready for what has been described as “potentially the biggest curriculum challenge of this century”.  

Virtual and augmented reality

A couple of weeks before schools closed, biology teacher Sarah Clark was teaching her students about the coronavirus.

The 2D diagram wasn’t quite working in bringing it to life, though, so she turned to a piece of equipment called Merge Cube. This allowed students to point a phone or laptop at the cube, which uses augmented reality (AR) to morph into a 3D hologram of the virus (or volcano, galaxy or any other object) that they can hold in their hands and explore.

It’s an engaging way to approach complex subjects, and one that is likely to be more and more commonplace as the costs of related equipment - such as headsets - come down.

However, Simon Luxford-Moore, e-learning coordinator at Erskine Stewart’s Melville Schools in Edinburgh and an enthusiastic advocate for virtual and augmented reality learning, warns that it must be used to complement lessons, not replace core teaching.

“If at the end the children say, ‘Thanks very much for the VR lesson’, then you’ve lost what you should be trying to do as a teacher,” he says. “The VR is just an added extra.”

Trade-in schemes

We all know that technology advances fast. And while it’s possible in your personal life to limp along on an old smartphone for a while, schools need to have the right devices to operate effectively - which can be costly.

That’s where trade-in schemes, such as HP’s Tech Trade In, can help. It offers schools (and parents) the opportunity to exchange their old devices (from any vendor) and receive cash or credit to put towards hardware, software, consultancy, e-learning or training courses.

Neil Sawyer, HP’s channel and education director, explains: “The most important and promising aspect of programmes like HP for Education is that schools no longer have the dilemma of choosing between hardware and software renewals. It gives them confidence they will have the resources to do both, ensuring they can capitalise on the latest educational technology.”

Trading in also brings sustainability benefits, meaning that old equipment can be recycled rather than ending up gathering dust or, worse, in landfill.

Artificial Intelligence

As we look further into the future, ideas that previously belonged to science fiction are set to become a fixture of school life. The rise of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics has been called the fourth industrial revolution, and classrooms are not exempt from its impact.

Companies are already developing AI tools for schools, such as tutoring systems to engage students in dialogue and provide feedback on where they need extra help.

A 2019 report from Nesta proposed that AI could help to reduce teachers’ workload by automating tasks (such as assessment, plagiarism detection or feedback), and there has even been talk of AI systems replacing GCSEs.

But AI is often presented as risking the future of many jobs - including teaching.

However, Rose Luckin, professor of learner-centred design at the UCL Knowledge Lab, says teachers shouldn’t fear these developments, as they will remain in control of AI, not the other way around. “‘It is teachers who will be the orchestrators of when and how to use AI education tools,” she explains.

It’s impossible to predict exactly how edtech will continue to change the learning landscape. But as it continues to evolve, schools need to ensure that they do the same, enabling their students to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

Matthew Jenkin is a freelance journalist