Crestron
What do you think will be the main things we'll be seeing in ed tech in 2018?
The biggest change to ed tech in 2018 is going to be collaboration. Teaching is going to see a change from the normal seating set up with a teacher/lecturer at the front to a collaboration room or 'flipped classroom' as some call it. This will enable small groups to work on a subject together, allow all students to engage with each other and be able to display work through collaborative technology designed with this type of teaching in mind. There will also be a big increase in BYOD (bring your own device) teaching where students will be actively encouraged to bring their tech to the classroom as they are confident with it and can display their work for others to show in the collaborative rooms.
What do you think will be the main ed tech challenges in 2018?
There are two main challenges that always exist, one is getting the buy-in from the establishment leaders, those that make the decision. New technology needs people to become evangelists as the fear of getting it wrong exists and always will. This can easily be overcome as most companies who work with education establishments will happily set up a proof of concept room to allow the teaching staff to understand what benefit the new technology can bring.
The second and one of the most common problems we face is budget. Again, not something new but with new lease and finance deals available education establishments can make payments that will allow them to have the latest technology now and see a true return on investment over 3, 4 or 5 years. This has made it possible to roll out technology to more than a few classrooms and really engage students and teachers as a whole within an establishment.
Stand: D394