Startup Digest Education - EdTech Funding & Remote Learning Struggles

There’s no question that data analytics is critical for student and staff success, particularly during remote learning. But to have a strong, long-term data analytics strategy, school leaders will need to know what type of data to look for, how to analyze it and how to use it to provide ongoing support and guidance for educators.

Online learning is not evolving as quickly as it should despite the growth of the edtech industry. This is due to an emphasis on scaling up rather than on increasing quality, as well as a preference for technological innovation rather than pedagogical innovation.

The COVID-19 crisis has been a major catalyst in enhancing the learning process not just for students and educators, but also for investors and edtech startups. The year before the pandemic saw already high growth and adoption in education technology, with global edtech investments reaching €15.87 billion in 2019.

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technology in education with global edtech investment on track to grow by 15% in 2020, a predicted €6.4 billion. At its peak in mid-April, the virus caused nationwide school closure in 190 countries, impacting 90% of total enrolled students, almost 1.6 billion people globally.

After a decade of researching ed tech, and many more years spent teaching with tech in schools, Justin Reich concludes that ed tech works best as a supplement – not a replacement – to good teaching, despite proclamations otherwise.

In the past week alone, giant asset managers UBS Wealth Management and Germany’s DWS have built up EdTech investment cases as a key part of what the UBS report rather grandly dubbed the “Future of Humans”.

The investment case centres on two areas of education whose expansion the pandemic is expected to accelerate.

It is estimate EdTech’s share of global education spending will rise from just 2.6 percent in 2018 to 4.4 percent in 2025.

Those who specialize in technology-driven remote education think that the rough situation is a golden opportunity to improve learning methods in Israel and researchers studying what is being done during both lockdowns draw encouragement from the significant changes they are beginning to identify in teachers and schools.