Supporting great educational outcomes – we discussed this important topic at the Northern Education Business Forum

The second session of the Freeths sponsored Northern Education Forum was held in Leeds on 17th September with industry leaders from across the sector. Freeth’s Business Development Director Simon King led the conversation with our guest Michael Forshaw of EdTech impact intently listened to by a panel of commentators – Narinder Gill of Elevate all primary MAT, Sarah Ledger of Lexonik and Tony Staneff of White Rose Education. 

Here are some of the learnings from the event.

What is notable about EdTech Impact?

Michael reflected on the many business failures in the sector – the cause frequently being a failure in products offered to schools not addressing the specific needs and expectations of the customer. Common demands are to be able to consider products alongside alternatives, to understand interoperability and whether the product is SEN supportive.

Noted was the tendency for schools to look to their peers and what impact the product was achieving and desire for conversations with leaders in schools of similar character was always present.

A series of metrics originating through work with UCL commissioned by EdTech Impact supports  impact evaluation providing developers and publishers with the ability to select the specific metrics considered most important to evaluate - EdTech Impact generating user surveys to secure relevant feedback.

What should EdTech developers and publishers focus on in product development?

The answer was swift from Michael. Access to data is the number one request from schools and providing that through the learning tools made available will always impress. MATs, in particular, are hungry for data, building their own dashboards to analyse and support decisions taken.

How does EdTech Impact help schools assess their use of EdTech?

It came as no surprise that Michael would highlight the fragmentation in the use of EdTech across multiple schools within a MAT. Many MAT leaders find that schools are providing their students with education using differing EdTech products notwithstanding efforts to develop a coherent system of learning across the MAT. EdTech Manager has been devised by EdTech Impact to enable schools to inventory their use of EdTech - this allowing the team at the centre of the MAT to evaluate important issues such as data protection compliance within the products and to move towards more alignment based upon impact led evidence.

Are we moving to a standards led schools EdTech market?

With evaluation frameworks emerging globally it was clear to Michael that there remains scope for continuing a process of developing a UK framework for impact evaluation. Michael noted that the US has advanced to the stage of promoting standards for impact evidence and similar initiatives can be seen in India and Australia. He noted the work currently being undertaken by DfE and its current efforts to develop an EdTech Evidence Board but with the query that an initiative of this kind should be driven by an opportunity to drive the sector forward through a skilled team of researchers working to establish the framework of standards.

What did the panel think?

There was recognition that Schools do require support in the vital process of deciding on selection of EdTech – with large multi-academy trusts well placed to make decisions in a way that cannot be achieved by others.

The DfE decision to set up a Board was welcomed but with the qualification over membership – DfE frequently looked to the same voices in initiatives of this kind. Diversity in the composition of the board will undoubtedly be looked for.

We returned to the subject of data and the increasing demands made within schools and of schools (by DfE and Ofsted) for data. Much of the demand is quantitative based but Michael Forshaw has noted a changing focus to qualitative data being important.

Many EdTech products adopted within schools do not have the reporting functionality that schools would wish to see. There are also circumstances where perhaps too much data is produced leading to added workload and confusion over what really is important with teacher struggling to analyse outcomes effectively.

An interesting point that emerged was the importance of recognising the potential benefit of training. Many products in the market may provide little if any training. Publishers need to think carefully about the value of delivering training in the use of products and providing access to that training not just at the point of purchase can be important to achieving excellent education outcomes.

The session touched on adoption of AI with recognition that technology can play a very important role in teaching and improving teaching. There was recognition within the panel that when AI features are built into educational products care is needed in presentation. An example discussed was the promotion of a product as time saving when the purpose was actually to improve the quality of teaching.

The next meeting of the Forum is scheduled for 28th November.

If you would like to receive an invitation to attend please contact frank.suttie@freeths.co.uk.