The Maturity of Edutech and Balancing Innovation with the Role of Educational Institutions

The Maturity of Edutech: Balancing Innovation with the Role of Educational Institutions

At the risk of sounding too hyperbolic, education is what moves our civilisation forward. We as a species have decided to give formal education to children in a government-sanctioned and structured manner. While the content may differ and the accessibility leaves much to be desired in many parts of the world, all societies consider child education to be something of paramount importance. In a time where technology has taken over almost all aspects of our lives, education should not be any different. However, unlike the other aspects, education is something we should be extra careful when we integrate it with technology.

The most important aspect of introducing smart technologies to an otherwise “dumb” field, among other things, is the maturity of required technologies. Taxis as a service existed for many decades, maybe even centuries. But for people to embrace and use a service like Uber, GPS technology had to be accurate enough. With this innovation being mature enough, the introduction of the technology was a “disruption” in the field. When COVID hit, all the educational institutions switched to online learning and quickly switched back to physical classes. The “disruption” did not stick as the technologies involved were not mature enough.

The biggest pitfall when driving towards more advanced edutech is a general misunderstanding of the role educational institutions play in society. While educating the next generation is definitely a major part of it, an undeniable and often underappreciated role is acting as a place for children to make social connections and learn about how society works while acting as a day care for children while parents are away at work.

Completely focusing on remote learning and delivery of lessons via modern means as EduTech innovations miss the point of our current institutions as they are betting on technologies that are not yet mature enough for the task. The focus right now should be streamlining the rest of the administration tasks for the educators so they can focus on their actual job of educating the next generation.