The Edtech Podcast

This week we welcome our first guest episode which is being released as part of National Apprenticeship Week! This week's podcast talks about how work and career prospects have changed over the last 10 years, delving into appropriate skills development, the views of educators and employers, and various tech and strategic solutions. This episode also looks at how edtech is being used to "supercharge" Apprenticeships, fast-track skills development and anticipate future demand.

Investment, procurement and innovation are the themes of this week’s podcast episode - the first of many recorded at Bett 2018. Find out more about Cool Initiatives, IMAILE and Edvinca. What investment is available? How are buyers groups influencing what edtech is developed? How can you access £10k of cash for your education idea? What companies are Edvinca looking to support and why?

This week we are in takeover mode with Lego Education exploring the maker movement with educators from pre-school to University. Listen to these recordings taken at the atmospheric Institute of Imagination in Lambeth, London during Bett week 2018. You’ll hear from MakerClub, Tufts University, Imperial College London’s Innovation Room, GeekMum and Happy Hours Pre-School. Plus hear about Lego Education's recent maker launch and how you can tap into their resources or enter their teacher prize.

This week we are throwing back to a WomenEd event in November where we discussed the importance of female digital leadership both within the education and edtech sector alike. You'll hear a live discussion looking at: a) Why digital leadership is important for female leaders (all leaders!) within schools b) Why we think more female involvement in edtech funding, design and development is important for edtech being developed for schools

What initiatives are supporting teachers and students to co-create games together? Hear from educators, gaming companies, and researchers on the evolution of games-based learning from “content” to “creation”.

What is personalized learning? What is it not? Is there an evidence base yet for personalised learning and what does the research evidence show us about the contexts where personalized learning works best? What is the role of student, software and teacher in a personalised learning context? What questions should we be asking?

How do we get beyond the tick-box or bubble filling exercise of exams and tests, whilst also measuring 'progress'? We delve into ideas around 'invisible assessment' and question who benefits from ‘traditional’ and re-imagined forms of assessment, including games-based assessment. Can ‘tests’ be fun and should they be? How do we measure collaboration?

We dip into the world of VR and mixed reality to uncover what high-cost, high-risk learning opportunities are being made more accessible to all by this technology. How are academics measuring the learning outcomes of VR and simulation and what are the quantifiable cost savings and impacts for various learning and training environments? When is VR right for education, and when is it superfluous? We also end our first five episodes with practical suggestions for educators

This week we are looking at language learning and tech. How we learn languages is changing. Apps, MOOCs, Chatbots and online tutoring services have all worked to reduce the time and investment needed to pick up and master a language. At the more extreme end some advanced technologies have even brought into question whether learning a language in the traditional sense will be needed in the future. And, should it be humans or machines testing second language acquisition?

This week we’ve got a throw back to a meet up in October of this year where we looked at demystifying investment in edtech. This episode is one for the start ups listening in, though educators may find it interesting to hear about where money is being spent and how start ups are going about building their innovations around the world. 

In this podcast, we hear from Jim Cooper, the President and CEO, of Maplesoft and Nicola Wilkin, Director of Education College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, at the University of Birmingham to explore benefits, challenges and a few best practice tips for online education (including co-creating edtech materials with students). 

In a paper by N V Scarfe in 1962 entitled “Play is Education” Einstein is quoted as saying “The Desire to arrive finally at logically connected concepts is the emotional basis of a vague play with basic ideas. This combinatory or associative play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought.” In this episode we explore what play-based learning means to one of the world’s biggest brands in play, an award-winning primary school leader and a human-centred design thinker.

Melvin Kranzberg, a past Professor of the History of Technology at Georgia Tech, famously said: “Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.” In this episode we look at how to maintain responsible and calm digital citizenship at a time of screaming headlines, whilst also looking at the necessary ethical and philosophical questions which come with advanced technology.

With global leaders tweeting about artificial intelligence or AI as the next arms race, and forecasts predicting the near-term decimation of existing jobs markets due to artificial intelligence and automation, episode 2 is a great time to explore the question: What is AI and what has it got to do with me and my students?

This week I’m in conversation with Nicole Engelbert, Director of Research & Analysis at Ovum Technology. Nicole used to work as a Director of Admissions, so is well placed to understand the HigherEd perspective, as well as the latest industry research on innovation within the HE sector.  We talk about what’s up and what’s down and the pace of change in HE.  For full show notes and references go to theedtechpodcast.com/edtechpodcast