During the past decade, the role of technology in education has grown significantly. From classroom technologies such as interactive screens to solutions that support administration and wider school life, edtech is being used more often and in more creative ways than ever before.
We’ve seen classrooms become more collaborative through interactive front of class solutions, and teachers gain access to engaging lesson planning and delivery tools that are bringing the curriculum to life in all-new ways. But, do we know what’s next for technology in education?
In recent months, the radical shift towards distance learning and the technologies needed to support students learning from home was a situation that very few schools were fully prepared for. Although this was an unprecedented and temporary arrangement, it has shown how important it is that we think about the future of technology in education.
Tracking education technology trends
Last year, our first State of Technology in Education Report looked at how edtech is really being used in Australia and considered future trends for the sector.
We found that 95% of our respondents believed that technology is a great way to engage students, and among the most commonly accessible technologies for educators were handheld tablets (94%) and interactive front of class displays (91%).
We have a good idea of the current situation in relation to edtech, but how this may change is equally important.
Over 80% of our respondents suggested that technology will continue to be combined with traditional resources and teaching methods over the next few years. What’s more, the technologies predicted to see the most significant growth were online and cloud-based resources including online assessments and cloud-based lesson planning and delivery.
Given what the education sector has experienced this year, it’s fair to question whether schools’ priorities will have changed. Will school leaders have identified new areas for investment, or new technologies that will be necessary in the coming years?
To address these questions, Promethean is preparing to launch a new State of Technology in Education survey for 2020 – enabling us to draw real comparisons to last year’s findings, and track whether educators’ opinions have changed as a result of recent events.
Our new survey will be opening soon, but in the meantime you can read the State of Technology in Education Report 2019 to get an idea of how educators were feeling about key topics including schools’ strategic priorities, budgets and staff training when we reached out last year.
Download the report now.