Education - Remote Learning Burnout & Transforming EdTech

Zero-trust approaches to cybersecurity don’t rely upon network location to determine authorized activity. Instead, they use strong authentication technology to confirm the identities of individual users and then grant them appropriate permissions, regardless of their location. Teachers working from a classroom, in an administrative office or at home would have the same security permissions, no matter where they are.

LearnPlatform, which develops tools that can be used by educators and administrators during the selection of edtech products, has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Small Business Innovation Research program. The grant will support the Learn - Implementation in Context initiative, which is intended to determine which edtech products work best in which educational settings.

A new wave of edtech companies is taking cues from gaming, entertainment, and abroad to reinvent the experience of online education entirely. If the past was marked by massive onscreen lectures, static, pre-recorded content, and a limited pool of teachers, the future of education technology will be consumer- and product-led: interactive, engaging, and propelled by a global pool of instructors and peers.

This moment is calling for us to transform the role of teachers into facilitators, advisors, and mentors who enable young people to navigate a rich menu of learning experiences, make sense of their learning, and build safe and loving home bases where youth can explore and contribute to the world and support one another.

We must rethink what young people need to know and be able to do, ensuring they develop the robust set of knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to lead meaningful, fulfilling lives. As we embark on this reinvention, we must build these new systems and opportunities in ways that ensure students of color and others marginalized by our current system receive what they need to thrive and excel.

SoftBank has invested $215 million in Norwegian education start-up Kahoot, taking a 9.7% stake in the company, as demand for online learning platforms skyrockets during the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s all about the general switch in mindset from digital tools being a nice-to-have additional set of features in schools and classrooms, to being maybe the most important toolkit they can use to create engagement.“