Welcome to the new school year, and to the latest issue of Education Technology. This month, we’re focusing on the ‘back to school’ period, and all the associated opportunities, preparations, and challenges. For instance, page 39 is home to our roundtable, where we ask four experts from the edtech sector about how the new computing curriculum is holding up almost four years after its implementation, and how it has impacted computing education in that time.
Our lead feature this month is a little different than usual, with an overarching theme of New Learning Models, under which we cast a spotlight on BYOD, flipped learning, blended learning, and MOOCs in turn, investigating how each of these learning models are continuing to innovate the learning space across the education spectrum. We not only look at how they’re being implemented, but why, and what industry experts and educators think of their impact. Check out this series of insights starting on page 46.
We also take time in this issue to take a look at one of the more contentious decisions in edtech’s recent history; the mass introduction of the interactive whiteboard. Now a familiar face in the classroom, the interactive whiteboard has evolved greatly, and today’s models no longer resemble their clunky forbears. On page 33, we ask what changes have been made, and whether interactive whiteboards can still be considered a classroom classic.
If you are interested in the history of the interactive board, and how it came to be adopted by the education sector, take a look at our ‘history of’ timeline, on page 16.
Page 30 brings Genee World’s Head of Training and Product Development Carl Sheen to the fore, where he talks about another classroom innovation – gamification – and how its use continues to engage students. In a similar vein, Naimish Gohil discusses digital transformation, and why digital literacy is so important for STEM on page 5, and on page 62, we have Instructure’s Rachel Matthews on Damian Hinds’ recent call for an education tech ‘revolution’, and her thoughts on what is needed in the follow-up to this announcement.
We have of course still got all the latest news in schools, HE, and internationally (pages 8, 18 and 13 respectively), as well as our chat with Ty Goddard of EdTechUK and The Education Foundation about what’s in store for the upcoming academic year, on page 61.
All this, and lots more inside the mag!
If you have any thoughts on this edition of ET, or anything you’d like to see in future issues, please drop me a line at charley.rogers@wildfirecomms.co.uk
Yours,
Charley Rogers
Editor
Education Technology
