EdTech

For this episode we examine the presence of EdTech in schools, looking at how we judge whether the tech ‘works’ or not. We explore what makes for good evidence, why contextual use is significant, and how school CPD, infrastructure development, and staff capacity building are vital to making the most of the tools at our disposal.

"If you prepare and train teachers, EdTech deployment will almost always go well. If you don't, it will almost always be a disaster" (24 min into podcast)

Market valuations of #EdTech firms are tumbling after the investment frenzy of the pandemic, with the emphasis shifting from "growth at all costs" to profitability

"There was a lot of investment activity in the past 2-3 years from people outside of education, driven by naive assumptions on just how quickly and how simply education would change in the long-term"

Venture capital helped take #EdTech to "an entirely different stratosphere in 2020 and 2021, as the demand for remote learning skyrocketed. As demand grew, so did investor appetite".

But this massive boost in EdTech investment "forced an overspending and overhiring spree that now requires a correction", and VC-backed EdTech firms are cutting back hard.