Advantages and Disadvantages of Living in a College Dorm

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July 15, 2022

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As 2022 continues to see technological innovation, cloud tech creation specialists, Revolent, asked school pupils to draw their predictions for the future, with the shortlisted entries brought to life by a professional 3D designer.

The results revealed a car that will fix the climate crisis and a bin that turns rubbish into solar energy.

Rubbish Converter Design Idea

Future-Prediction-Research Despite what is put inside it, this bin is far from rubbish. With the power to turn our waste into solar energy, there’s no doubt this invention could reinvent life as we know it. If it is ever possible for this pupil’s drawing to become a reality, there won’t be a house, street, or park in sight without one.

Statista predicts worldwide municipal solid waste generation is expected to hit 3.4 bn metric tons by 2025, and with technology like this, this could be creating mass amounts of renewable energy.

Flying Car that Stops Climate Change Design Idea

Childhood-Development-and-Access-to-Nature If you thought electric cars were futuristic, wait until you see this new ride. Not only can it fly, but it can also save the world. Forget a sports car, this new model will be all the rage, as it shoots through the sky on its way to refreeze Antarctica.

A study by Unicef showed that 95% of children aged between 4 and 18 were concerned about climate change, so it makes sense that the typical childhood dream of a flying car has been combined with one that can end the crisis.

With a vehicle like this, both wishes could come true.

These are only two of the creative designs that the younger generation is expecting. Despite the pupils being on opposite sides of the world, notable trends still popped up.

· A positive impact on the environment was the third most popular theme amongst all the drawings

· 1 in 10 drawings include eco-friendly features such as solar power and zero-waste delivery

· Children’s minds are focused on ways we can tackle environmental problems

You can view all 10 shortlisted entries here:https://www.revolentgroup.com/kidsdrawtech/

Why is Early Childhood Learning & Educational Psychology Important For a Child’s Development?

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Shirley Owen

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July 15, 2022

Child-Development-and-Educational-Psychology

“Children are like a little sponge”, a phrase that although it can be considered a cliché if analysed in-depth, is key to understanding that education from an early age is the key to a child’s training and development.

According to experts specialising in the Professional Master’s Degree in Educational Psychopedagogy children’s learning is key and will determine the way they relate to others in the future; therefore, the role of an educational psychologist is indispensable at this vital stage.

However, how would a person’s learning be impacted if they do not have good mental health from an early age?

And beyond being “teachers”, what other contribution could an educational psychologist make to education?

Early Childhood matters for further Development

The first 7 years of life are crucial for every human being, as they are in a formative stage of life, which will have an impact on their brain development, their health, their emotions, their learning and even their professional life.

On the other hand, a child who enjoys good mental health will be able to manage situations that generate stress, anger, or anxiety; there are several factors that can affect the mental health of a child: from hereditary mental disorders to external factors, therefore, knowing how to regulate and express their emotions will ensure good interpersonal relationships, as well as a healthy social and emotional development.

Most children and young people’s lives are generally spent in the school environment, so these environments should be places where they feel that their self-esteem, security and strength of feeling are not affected and they can develop their social skills and feelings, e.g., if after an exam students felt it was difficult to answer, they should feel confident in their knowledge and, in case the situation arises, they should know how to manage the failure.

Having a healthy childhood gives way to good mental health, these will affect the behaviour in different situations, and, as mentioned above, being mainly in educational centres, if these spaces generate discomfort, they will lose interest in the development of their learning, as well as the interest in attending classes, affecting not only the academic part, in the same way, their abilities to socialise, threatening their intellectual capacities and socio-emotional aptitudes, making their interpersonal and work relationships difficult in the future as they do not know how to communicate with others and have difficulty in expressing themselves.

Educational Psychologists: the key to developing Life & Learning Strategies

Educational psychologists play an important role for them as their second caregivers, therefore, in these scenarios they must look after their well-being. On the other hand, specialists have expressed that emotionally strong and happy child concentrates better and develops skills that will help them to manage their day-to-day effectively.

It is important to point out that studies show that infants who feel comfortable in their closest environments, learn better simply because the brain is more willing to receive all kinds of information, which gives room to be not only a great student but also an empathetic person and a great professional.

The use of efficient educational systems is part of their work, the use of which must be adapted to the needs of the students, along with the constant changes in society. The inclusion of people with diverse educational needs is the building of an empathetic and inclusive society; an important aspect of this work is that they can develop teaching programmes aimed at the different stages of the human being, with the aim of contributing to their education.

During the school learning process, it is natural that there are learning difficulties, whereby educational psychologists will identify these problems and apply strategies that help students to understand the subjects depending on how it is most comfortable for them, thus enhancing their abilities.

Finally, this professional, being the guide of the person in the learning process, will evaluate how the individual is performing in the various areas of the school environment, and, consequently, decide whether it is necessary for their mental health to be treated by another specialist such as a psychologist, psychiatrist, or neurologist, depending on the situation.

To conclude

The role of the educational psychologist is essential in society, as the application of methods that are adapted to the needs of each person is necessary to ensure that no one feels excluded during their training process and affects the development of their relational and cognitive skills, but also to create spaces in which children do not feel vulnerable.

On the other hand, mental health should take importance since the person is at a young age, as everything that surrounds them will absorb and define the personality in the future. That is why it is always necessary to monitor the behaviours and actions that they display because if the child’s education will be optimal and they will grow up as a skilled and confident person, they will perform well within society.

A Conversation with WuKong Education at the London EdtechX Summit: Without a good EdTech Product, Growth is unsustainable

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July 8, 2022

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The UK Education Blog met WuKong Education at the EdTechX summit in London and learned that it is an online EdTech company headquartered in New Zealand that is committed to providing a better learning experience for K12 students around the world.

Co-founder Cicy Ding was a speaker at the session “Scaling Internationally: Shared Experiences from EdTech Leaders” and was happy to provide more information about their EdTech company.

What stood out was that the company aims at making online learning easy, fun, and efficient. But many EdTech companies claim this, so we asked a few more questions about the EdTech products and services, but also about the EdTech business strategy.

1. Can you briefly explain what you currently offer?

We offer live lessons for students aged 3-18. The main subjects we provide by now are Chinese and Mathematics. WuKong’s Chinese online course was launched in 2018 and our Maths program started last year. New Zealand is our first stop, and later we successfully expanded our business map to North America, Europe, and Asia, which are our core markets now. The number of class bookings has increased 70 times from 2019 to 2021. There are about 300,000 students registered with WuKong.

2. Your goal is to let children discover that learning is not something to be hated, but something worth a lifetime of effort. How is this reflected in your programme?

Since our inception, we have invested a lot of resources in teaching and research. This is because the content and pace of Chinese teaching is very different for children from different countries and families, so we set the goal of tailoring our teaching to their needs from the outset, opting for one-to-one and small group teaching.

Similarly, we have spent a lot of time polishing the grading system to more precisely find the child’s target and to design their learning line for children from different backgrounds.

Our programmes incorporate New Zealand’s world-renowned Inquiry-based learning philosophy to truly inspire learners.

Specifically in terms of teaching sessions, if we are dealing with children from non-native English-speaking countries such as Germany, France, and Japan, our teachers must have the ability to teach in that country’s language. In addition, we match the teaching content to the environment in which the user has grown up.

To give a simple example: for the Chinese character “爱(love)”, WuKong’s teacher would first ask the children, “What does this character look like? Where have you seen such a character in your life?” and use a picture of a mother’s love to guide the children’s imagination and thinking. The children are then taken through the process of analysing and deconstructing the character, breaking it down into its radicals; next, they are told the pronunciation and semantics of the character, and then they are given words and sentences; finally, the children are asked to express love physically, to feel love, and to say “love” to those close to them.

This way, children use almost all their senses to learn, which is not only fun but also very memorable. It is a very touching process as the children at WuKong are slowly taking the initiative to speak Chinese at home and their parents can see the changes and growth in them.

3. What stands out in terms of the user experience WuKong offers?

We stay true to the roots as an educator

WuKong’s original mission is to “educate with love”. A large proportion of our staff are parents themselves, and their children are learning at WuKong, so we are both the

producers and users of our products. This is the biggest “secret” to the quality of WuKong’s products and courses, which is to test our products against the standards of parents.

We invest a lot of resources to polish the curriculum

Take the Chinese course for example, it takes 2000+ hours to develop a unit course in WuKong Chinese, going through 5 major stages, 20+ workflows and hundreds of trials to hone the course before it is finally put into formal teaching use.

We use the original 6A inquiry-based teaching method

To address the difficulties of non-native Chinese learners who are more passive and lack of interest in Chinese learning, WuKong has developed the WuKong 6A teaching model based on the inquiry-based learning method, which allows students to change from “passively being taught” to “active exploration” and enjoy learning Chinese. 6A includes “Ask, Analyse, Acquire, Act, Advance, Assess”.

We use the original WuKong 5C competency and literacy model

When responding to a students’ lack of interest in Chinese learning and poor Chinese vocabulary, WuKong incorporates interdisciplinary knowledge into the design of the Chinese curriculum and classroom presentation, creating the WuKong 5C competency model, which drives students’ interest in learning through innovative topics. We also integrate history, geography, biology, and science into the curriculum design, which comprehensively improves their interest and Chinese vocabulary. The 5Cs include: Critical thinking and problem solving, Communication and collaboration, Creativity and imagination, Citizenship and leadership. Citizenship and leadership, Cultural inclusion, and respect.

We develop a leading teaching and learning management system

Since 2019, our IT team has invested tens of millions of dollars in the research and development of our technology and data platforms to build an industry-leading teaching quality management system and an intelligent learning tracking and analysis system. We have also developed a set of relatively mature teaching content systems and technology platforms that meet the personalised learning needs of our users, based on our continuous expansion in the global market and the growing needs of our users. We believe that the most precious thing for most parents nowadays is their children’s enthusiasm for learning, and WuKong hopes to fully stimulate children’s interest in learning and their thinking in learning through technology-enabled means. Our app, applets and interactive courseware are embedded with lots of interactive features to move children from ‘passively being taught’ to ‘actively learning’.

Our aspiration is to help children grow happily and grow wisely in parallel, and to be a faithful companion in the learning process for families around the world.

4. How have these efforts been reflected in the success of WuKong Education?

Our investment in products and technology has ultimately driven growth. Many of our new students come from referrals from existing students due to their recognition of our products and services and are willing to spontaneously promote WuKong.

At WuKong, two out of every three new students come from referrals, which is the strongest brand power by word of mouth. In the last two years (2020 and 2021), WuKong has grown 70 times in global usage.

5. Which measures helped increase referral and renewal rates?

Enhancing the learning experience of students

We provide students with a stage-by-stage enhancement programme and personalised review services to enhance their learning experience and thus increase their retention rate.

Polishing teaching quality

We believe that visualisation of teaching effectiveness is the basis for increasing user trust, and that quality courses and teachers are the prerequisites for increasing renewal rates, so we invest a lot of resources in polishing our teaching products.

Dedicated follow-up

After stratifying our users, we take different guidance measures for different users in a rhythmic manner.

6. What would you suggest an EdTech business to do to prepare themselves to scale?

– Optimize the product market fit.

– Develop a sustainable growth strategy.

– If it’s strategically important but easy to enter the market, lower the cost and risk.

7. What’s the biggest barrier to growth you’ve experienced? How did you get beyond it?

We are targeting the global markets. We have experienced challenges like how to manage distributed teams and how to effectively manage market expansion costs.

What we do is centralize multiple core functions, such as human resources, IT department, service centre, curriculum design, teachers hiring and training. We roll out those centralized functions to global markets. This is more cost effective for the company.

We also build regional focused centres to be more responsive to local markets and have a deeper understanding of local customers.

8. How did you craft your original growth strategy and what objective underpinned it?

Product is king, committed to providing students with the best learning experience. Without a good product, growth is unsustainable.

Before starting my business, I hoped my naughty daughter would become a keen learner. She was very interested in her native language Chinese, but we lacked good Chinese teachers in New Zealand, so I thought of using the Internet to connect with the best teachers in China to teach my daughter. This is the origin of WuKong.

So, in the beginning, I was doing the course for my daughter, and now my daughter is still one of WuKong’s students, she is our “Chief Product Experience Officer”, and she really likes our Chinese and Math class.

Just like me, our team at WuKong are polishing the products with love for our next generation. Minimum Viable Product is so important. Do MVP first, iterate rapidly, then expand with a relatively mature model. It is necessary to focus at the beginning, to explore MVP models such as products, acquisition channels, sales and service models, etc.

From New Zealand to global markets, WuKong completed the MVP test in the New Zealand market back in 2019. In 2020 we entered the nearby Australian and further North American markets. Even later, we entered the European and Asian markets. Explosive growth doesn’t just happen.

It was a pleasure meeting Sasha, the head of BD at WuKong Education, at the EdTechX summit and to exchange a Q&A with Cicy online. If you want to learn more about the platform you can visit the website: https://www.wukongsch.com/en.

EdTechX Speaker Interview with the CEO of Code First Girls: Female Coders build Inclusive Technology for all

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July 7, 2022

edtechx-speaker-interview-ceo-code-first-girls

The UK Education Blog was excited to meet with the CEO of Code First Girls, Ms. Anna Brailsford, who also held a talk at the summit titled “How EdTech is solving the Tech Gender Crisis” here are some of our inquisitive questions she answered.

1. Do female students learn coding differently from male students or do you use specific teaching methodologies for female students?

“I wouldn’t say that female students learn differently or need different teaching compared to men but as we only teach women aged 18+ or non-binary people at Code First Girls I could not really make this comparison and I think it’s more about the individual and their learning style. However, what stands out from the work we do is that our students enjoy learning in a team or as part of a community.”

“We have now taught coding to over 70,000 women and all learning is project-based. This means that while our students learn to code they already work with a company in a dedicated team and experience exactly how it is to work as a coder. 55% of our students are fresh graduates or still studying at university and for them, it’s great to learn not just in theory but also hands-on. We have trained more women how to code than the entire UK university system as we work with 90 employers and over 50 universities UK-wide. Students are also mentored by the organisation they work with and we also offer lots of additional learning support.”

2. How can EdTech contribute to building more inclusive technology?

“By training more women to code we influence the tech industry. Our graduates have many options entering into tech with possible tech roles available such as software engineering, product design, full-stack development, cybersecurity, or machine learning. This in turn leads to more technology available in the market being created, developed, or designed by women, making it more inclusive. Many of these tech roles offer salaries above the average income and with 35% of our students being the first generation to attend university in their family or 27% have been eligible for free school meals at school learning to code offers them great opportunities to enter into this industry, making it more diverse, especially as over 55% are from underrepresented ethnicities.”

3. What are the challenges for female students learning to code?

“Many are unsure whether coding is for them initially or whether they could be employed in this industry. And obviously, expenses for learning to code are a hurdle. That’s why all our coding courses are flexible and free and we have experienced coding instructors that work full-time but offer their support. Some of them used to be our students and want to give back to our community. We offer short courses or refreshers for beginners over 8 weeks as well as intensive courses over 14 weeks and many can be completed virtually in the evening for example. So, if women have childcare duties, they can still access our courses when it’s possible for them. Because we offer sponsored course placements, we enable women on lower incomes to enter into coding and eventually switch careers. We have around 41% of students that are career switchers.”

4. Does Code For Girls also teach students about data protection – a hot topic at EdTechX?

“Yes, data protection and data privacy in line with current legislation such as GDPR is part of the training courses, because students work with companies and mentors who share best practices and how to implement this in their work as coders, developers, or engineers. As I said, all learning is project-based so students will be faced with such topics throughout the training. And cybersecurity is one possible career path so if students were interested in specialising in this field, they could.”

5. Can you share any career paths that Code For Girls graduates take?

“On our website we share different CFG member stories and testimonials. Generally speaking, we have women switching careers for various reasons, e.g. the pandemic or personal reasons such as starting a family. Because we offer different courses, women can choose what works best for them in terms of working towards their goals. Say a woman has a degree or a job in advertising and wants to expand her skillset with coding, she has many more options in the current job market such as front end engineering. With her new skills she can work in advertising, but also publish and design content on a website for example. So, our courses can help students refine and specialise in their existing careers or enter into a new career where their previous experience is also sought after.”

Ms. Anna Brailsford is also a Board Member of the Institute of Coding, and you can find more success stories from the CFG community here.

We thank her for her time and insightful answers.

Campus Advisor announces the 20 best Countries in the World for Higher Education in 2022 with UK in 2nd Place

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July 5, 2022

top-20-countries-with-best-education-system-in-the-world

TheCampusAdvisor.com is a global student review website that allows users to rate and review their university, academic staff, campus facilities, accommodation, as well as much more relating to their experiences of life at university!

Over the past year, we’ve also surveyed 17,824 students about the countries where they received their higher education degrees. The survey considered a range of factors including Quality of Education, Cost of Living as a Student, Graduate Career Prospects, Student Diversity, Social Life, and Arts & Culture.

The scores each of these categories received were used to determine the overall rankings.

We’re delighted to now reveal the 20 best countries in the world for higher education in 2022, determined entirely based on those ratings submitted by students! Here’s the link to the published rankings: https://www.thecampusadvisor.com/best-of/20-Best-Countries-in-the-World-for-Higher-Education-2022/Ranking/104.

In summary, the top 20 countries in the world for higher education in 2022 are

1st – United States
2nd – United Kingdom
3rd – Australia
4th – Germany
5th – Ireland
6th – Switzerland
7th – Canada
8th – Denmark
9th – Netherlands
10th – France
11th – Japan
12th – Czech Republic
13th – Austria
14th – Singapore
15th – Sweden
16th – New Zealand
17th – South Korea
18th – Portugal
19th – Belgium
20th – Malaysia

Across 6 categories, the United Kingdom achieved an overall score of 4.51 out of 5.

The categories that the United Kingdom scored best in were ‘Student Diversity’ with a score of 4.8 out of 5 and ‘Graduate Career Prospects’ with a score of 4.83 out of 5.

With a score of 4.83 out of 5, the United Kingdom ranks 1st in the world in 2022 for ‘Graduate Career Prospects’.

Here’s the full breakdown of the rating scores from 1 to 5 for the United Kingdom

Quality of Education: 4.79

Cost of Living as a Student: 3.54

Graduate Career Prospects: 4.83

Student Diversity: 4.8

Social Life: 4.59

Arts & Culture: 4.53

These are the top 3 countries in the world for each of the categories

The top 3 countries in the world for Quality of Education are:

1st – United States

2nd – United Kingdom

3rd – Switzerland

The top 3 countries in the world for Cost of Living as a Student are:

Joint 1st – Czech Republic

Joint 1st – Portugal

3rd – Australia

The top 3 countries in the world for Graduate Career Prospects are:

1st – United Kingdom

2nd – Denmark

3rd – United States

The top 3 countries in the world for Student Diversity are:

1st – Switzerland

2nd – United States

3rd – United Kingdom

The top 3 countries in the world for Social Scene are:

1st – Australia

2nd – Canada

3rd – Germany

The top 3 countries in the world for Arts & Culture are:

1st – Ireland

2nd – Germany

3rd – United States

The overall mission of ranking the best countries in the world for higher education is to help future students to make a more informed decision about what university will be the best fit for them and allow students to better prepare for the next chapter in their life.

– Ends –

Two-thirds of English schools are taking steps to be more sustainable by 2024 says new Pearson School Report

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July 5, 2022

Education-for-sustainable-development-report-by-Pearson School

Sustainable schools: A new in-depth study compiled by the leading digital media learning company, Pearson, explores the environmental, economic, and social activities taking place in the country’s schools – from ‘going green’ to future-proofing a curriculum with wellbeing and life skills at its core.

More than six in 10 headteachers (65%) are taking steps to be a more sustainable and eco-friendly school in the next two years, and a half (47%) are planning to teach climate change, according to the findings, released today.

The Pearson School Report: Schools Today, Schools Tomorrow – Views on education in England – 2022 and beyond, presents the views of more than 6,500 educators surveyed in English schools and sheds light on the impact of world events on classrooms across the country, as well as how education can be evolved to best serve learners this year and beyond.

It explores teacher insights on the future of education, school communities, and the national curriculum while considering core environmental, economic, and social elements; the key pillars of sustainability.

The release of Pearson’s School Report follows recent research by the UK body Public First, in which 50% of parents reported that climate change was the most important issue to their children.

Almost half of all teachers (48%) have seen an increase in awareness amongst pupils around sustainability and the environment over the past year, yet six in 10 (61%) do not think the current education system is developing sustainably-minded, global citizens of the future. Today’s figures suggest that most school leaders are working to meet that need.

Along with an increased focus on climate awareness, teachers responding to Pearson’s survey also expressed their wish to see a greater emphasis in schools on both social equity and supporting pupil mental health and wellbeing.

Two-thirds of teachers want to see core life skills, such as managing finances and communications skills, mental health/wellbeing (60%), social skills (54%) and responsible decision making (48%), incorporated into the national curriculum with as much time and emphasis as core subjects.

Almost half of all teachers (43%) want to see climate change incorporated into the national curriculum with as much time and emphasis as core subjects and a third rank climate awareness as one of the top characteristics that they would like a future national curriculum to develop among their pupils so that they can thrive in 2022 and beyond.

Speaking about the findings, Holly Everett, Education Programme Manager at Reboot the Future, a charitable foundation with a vision of a compassionate and sustainable world, said:

“It’s encouraging to see so many headteachers proactively taking steps towards becoming more sustainable, but it’s also important to highlight the need for a holistic, systems approach to embedding sustainability into schools. Everything is connected; sustainability is inextricably linked with wellbeing, responsible decision-making, life, social and relationship skills, and so each of these issues should be used as themes to weave throughout the curriculum and the school year, rather than addressed in silos.

“There are so many micro-opportunities in the day to engage students in ideas and actions for a better future, from the moment your students walk through the door.”
Headteacher, Sara Davies, of St Bartholomew’s Primary School in London, discusses their school’s existing approach to sustainability: “As a school, we take a broad, holistic approach to sustainability which includes wellbeing, financial education, the environment, and care for the planet.

“We have wellbeing ambassadors and an eco-council who contribute to our immediate environment and lead on initiatives to support our approach and our Year 6 run our savings bank which is well established, as is our approach to financial education.
“The children and staff acknowledge that every small change, from water consumption to recycling impacts on the big picture, and through this we are all responsible.”

Sharon Hague, Managing Director, Pearson School Qualifications, said:

“We are committed to supporting schools in their mission to become more sustainable and in helping to shape a future generation of sustainably-minded global citizens. Over the past few years, we have seen in both our project qualifications and wider initiatives like our World Changers competition, that there is a real thirst for driving proactive change in this space. We are excited to build on this passion and are working with key partners in the sector to support schools, students and parents to make education enriching for all learners.”

Other key findings from the Pearson School Report include:

– Eight in 10 teachers feel that pupils’ social and emotional development is as important as their academic development, yet six in 10 teachers spend less than 30 minutes of a working day developing pupils’ social and emotional skills. When asked, more than one in four (27%) stated that they spent no time on this at all

– Almost nine in 10 teachers (88%) thought that all children would benefit from a greater focus on emotional and social skills, particularly those with SEND or from areas of disadvantage

– 37% of heads are planning to embed life skills into their curriculum, whilst 38% plan to build space to explore current affairs, and 46% want to enact positive change in their community

– Almost six in 10 headteachers (56%) are planning to diversify curriculum topics to cover race/gender/disability

In the last year, teachers have seen a rise in pupils’ awareness and anxiety over global issues like global conflict, Covid-19, mental health, and climate change

The five most important characteristics that teachers would like the future national curriculum to develop among their pupils so that they can thrive in 2022 and beyond are:

resilience (63%),
kindness (61%),
self-esteem (61%),
tolerance of diverse opinions (58%),
and societal and cultural awareness (57%).
A third (33%) of teachers want a greater focus on climate awareness

Most teachers (92%) agree that wellness and mental health awareness should be introduced to students in primary school or earlier. Starting this in the early years (pre-school or infants) was a preference for 63% of educators. This aligns with additional School Report findings that show that the funding of a senior mental health lead across all schools was the most supported policy in the government’s recently released Schools White Paper, Opportunity for All (68%)

Three-quarters (73%) of headteachers are planning to embed mental health and wellbeing across the curriculum over the next two years

52% of all educators feel we need a better digital curriculum to prepare learners for an online world.

Speaking about the wider implications of the report, Pearson’s Sharon Hague continued:

“Today’s education system is delivered year on year by one of the most dedicated, compassionate, and vital workforces around – one that not only supports the varying needs of children and young people but also the ever-evolving communities and workplaces of the future.

“We know from this research and our work on the Future of Qualifications and Assessment that there is a desire, and need, for a progressive education system that promotes choice and provides a broad inclusive curriculum. This extends beyond just secondary level, but across all phases and stages of education.”

The full, embargoed report is attached and will be available for download on Thursday 30th June at http://go.pearson.com/SchoolReport2022.

Stay up to date with ongoing research and education news by following Pearson on Twitter @PearsonSchools and on Facebook @PearsonUKSchools.

EdTechX Speaker Interview with Chief Growth Officer at online tutoring platform GoStudent: Customised learning for confident learners and leaders

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July 5, 2022

edtechx-speaker-interview-with-gostudent-chief-growth-officer

The UK Education Blog was excited to meet with the chief growth officer of online tutoring platform GoStudent, Ms. Laura Warnier, who also held a talk at the summit titled ‘Scaling Internationally: Shared Experiences from EdTech Leaders’ and here are some of our curious questions she answered.

edtechx-speaker-interview — @petraeujanephotography.com

1. What are the key points in education requiring change that you focus on?

“I will give you an example: If you close your eyes and you think about a classroom what do you see? (I answer children at desks in room). If I ask your mum, the same question she will give me the same answer as she will have the same picture in mind. This shows that for years education has not really changed, and it is difficult to bring change about in education as many things remain as they were. A particular problem is that even today the individual student does not come first. Because it’s mandatory for children to attend school, there’s no need to change certain aspects.”

“The second focus is digitization in education and we’re working on making a hybrid model of online and in-person teaching and learning a reality. Through our GoStudent Education Report in 2021 we understood the challenges that arose during the pandemic and the feedback from many students and parents was that they missed the social interactions at school. We also learned that online learning needs improvements in terms of how we work with data to make the experience more customized and that governments differ in terms of their openness towards online learning. Spain had the lowest scores for learning gaps and the highest parental wellbeing index. In comparison countries like Germany scored highly for learning gaps and parental wellbeing was at the bottom. So, the key lies in using the education technology with caution, but effectively to ensure that teachers can do what they do best, which is to better understand and support their students.”

2. How can students worldwide access education to develop their full potential?

“Again, customisation is key here as the focus should be on the individual student and their choice of the learning intensity and the purpose depending on what they want to do later in life. At GoStudent we don’t dictate what students should learn, but the main focus is that they excel at what they learn to develop their full potential. Experimenting with Artificial intelligence helps us with testing and monitoring students’ performance to match them with the ideal learning interests such as hobbies and their learning style. Once we have a good understanding of their profile, we can match them with the most suitable tutor.”

“Because we realised how beneficial it is for the students to study with an online tutor they can connect with and that matches their profile in terms of common interests, personalities etc. Measuring success remains a challenge as this has been mainly established through testing with exams. But what if we can also include measuring happiness? Is it only about getting good grades or actually enjoying the learning experience? When we hear the feedback from parents after a trial online session, saying that for the first time they saw their child smiling after a Mathematics session, we know it truly matters as children don’t lie.”

3. How can digital education contribute to female students across the world developing entrepreneur and leadership skills?

“I think it is down to confidence. Being an entrepreneur is not a skill, but rather a competence and state of mind. It’s about being comfortable with taking risks and being ambitious, which is directly linked to confidence. Especially during the teenage years developing confidence is crucial as social media pressures and learning difficulties can cause certain insecurities and especially among girls this can be seen as they often don’t like to ask questions. So, in the classroom failure should be accepted as learning hence why it’s more about working on competencies than skills. And often female professionals don’t get the recognition as they may be more in the background doing really good work, but not putting themselves out there because they analyse every detail and feel they must be perfect.”

edtechx-speaker-interview-with-gostudent — @petraeujanephotography.com

4. How has technology or EdTech helped you to develop your career?

“To be honest I don’t think EdTech has helped me as I don’t remember using it much at school, only at university mainly. I think what really mattered was my environment and that I was told that education was important. I was expected to succeed at school and pass my exams even though I was able to follow my hobbies in exchange for good school results. Most of the learning at school is closely linked to the relationships and social interactions. I remember playing with older children and acting as their teacher, giving them exercises and I was correcting them. So, I was already showing some leadership and entrepreneurship competencies in those interactions. But the classroom of course gives you the basics in a structured manner.”

5. How do students, education systems and cultures differ around the world and how does GoStudent take this into consideration?

“We see similarities and differences in every country. Online tutoring is something everyone needs worldwide. But markets differ. In Germany for example tutoring is about solving a problem, namely getting better grades at school and this the so-called painkiller approach. So, parents will search for learning support for specific subjects hence why we get a lot of search traffic from Germany throughout the whole year, but even more towards the final exams.”

“In Greece tutoring is considered a normal part of schooling for just a few hours weekly to ensure the students are on the right track and thoroughly understand what is taught at school. So, here the demand is usually higher at the beginning of the academic year and then it decreases. It could therefore be considered more like an added vitamin approach. In Greece many schoolteachers also offer private tutoring. Overall, our message is that online tutoring is something positive and that nobody should be ashamed for using online tutoring. It should be used as a tool to improve a student’s confidence and considered a partner on the learning journey.”

6. What are the challenges of making education globally accessible?

“Obviously being able to teach online improves accessibility globally and makes learning more affordable. But of course, there are still accessibility challenges for the more disadvantaged children, and we don’t have all the answers for this yet as we’re still a young company. We must be profitable, but we are looking into how we can work with other companies or private foundations to get them to invest in the future generations and future leaders. We have acquired Seneca Learning, which is a tool that provides content for teachers and students. With the help of basic AI we experiment with users can go through questions related to their topics of study. It’s a freemium so users can access the free version and then if they pay 5 Euros a month, they have access to the full service. This is much more affordable while still offering high-quality education.”

**Ms. Laura Warnier referred to the GoStudent Education Report in 2021 in this interview and some interesting key findings can be found here that we touched on.**

gostudent-education-report-research-findings — https://educationreport.gostudent.org/static/images/educational_reports/GoStudent%20Educational%20Report%202021.pdf

We thank her for her time and insightful answers.

EdTechX Speaker Interview with Head of EC’s Digital Education Unit: Tackling Challenges in Digital Education through open Dialogues

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July 4, 2022

uk-education-blog-at-edtechx-with-head-of-digital-education-european-commission

The UK Education Blog was privileged to meet with the head of the digital education unit in the European Commission (EC), Mr. Georgi Dimitrov, who also held a talk at the EdTechX summit titled “Initiatives to Foster a Digital Education Ecosystem” and here are some of our burning questions he answered.

interview-at-edtechx-with-european-commission-head-of-digital-education — @petraeujanephotography.com

1. How come you are so passionate about digital education and what is your background with regards to this field?

“I have been working with the EC for 14 years and during my first year there I started working in digital education. I thought it could not be that impactful as this was in 2008 and the technology was not that matured yet. So, I focused on innovation policy and then I returned to initiate the Digital Education Action Plan, which I co-developed. It was an attempt to create a conversation around digital education. It was also not as ambitious as it was more like a pilot in the first 3 years. But when the Commissioner president Ursula von der Leyen entered office in 2019, she wanted to do a new digital education action plan and so I took this job to lead its development.”

2. Listening to your talk earlier, you touched on policy and the free market and how they can come together. Could you elaborate on how the EC can help to ensure education standards are met and outcomes are measured and monitored?

“I think it’s about initiating a conversation across two different mindsets. We are here at EdTechX as we’re looking at this globally. You can look at the US and China and you see a completely different picture. So, I think what we are trying to communicate is that any type of digital business would need to adhere to specific principles.”

“We have been proposing specific legislation over the past years such as the “Digital Services Act” and the “Digital Markets Act”, there is also an “AI Act” in the parliament and the council, and I would say these are fundamental principles which would need to be adhered to in the digital economy. Many entrepreneurs in this industry create a software or app with the goal to sell it. I would say that the key issue is not the software development itself, but other underlying factors which are not yet completely clear.”

“The second problem that can be identified is that there is a mismatch between the market and the supplier, and that more regulation and guidance could help, but we see in countries with a lot of autonomy like Estonia and Finland and in the results of PISA that this leads to good outcomes and innovation. So, we have a long-term mission to promote the dialogue between the industry and the policy and we want to allocate specific funding for these purposes, and this would be through Erasmus. Our goal is to see cooperation between national authorities and start-ups or SMEs as well.”

3. How can education providers offer high-quality learning content, user-friendly tools and secure platforms which respect e-privacy rules and ethical standards and how does the EC support them with this endeavour?

“I will say that we’re not there yet. The brief for the next 3 years will be to go into this direction. There are some limited attempts to move into national guidelines, however, there is currently not sufficient pedagogical research to use as a resource. Many member states are asking a lot of questions as they are confronted with all this expansive education technology and we have a well-established quasi standard which is called “Digital Competence Framework”, which was developed in the EC 11 years ago and today it’s well adopted in over 20 member states.”

“This framework underlines digital competence in schools and so on. But whether the software developers try to consider this framework for their products or not is outside of the EC’s control. I would say that education providers may want to use a solution that is in line with our digital competence recommendations, but given that technology changes and advances so quickly, there would need to be more guidance around data privacy and access, the pedagogical implementation and to my best knowledge, this has not happened yet.”

4. Do you have any recommendations for education providers or schools to effectively manage student data privacy etc.?

“This would be more of a member states responsibility and with GDPR in place, they would need to ensure compliance. We would need to go a bit further. We have set up a Commission expert group last year to develop guidelines on the use of Artificial Intelligence and Data in Education, which is aiming to address teachers directly as it’s a more practical document. Our expectation is that our commissioner will present these guidelines this autumn which may provide some orientation.”

interview-with-georgi-dimitrov-from-european-commission — @petraeujanephotography.com

5. In which ways can the EC ensure that girls and young women are equally represented in digital studies and careers?

“I think that this is a problem of society at large. However, we have a project I am very excited about to raise more awareness. It targets girls aged 14 to 19 years to develop their digital entrepreneurial skills which is called “Girls Go Circular” and here we have essentially an online training programme that focuses on specific areas of interest such as fashion or sustainability. We have offered 7000 slots in 2021 via an online platform which is currently available in 12 languages, and we conduct active outreach in the member states through schools and teachers.”

6. How can families be supported with using education technology at home and with teaching digital skills to ensure learning outcomes are achieved even when students must study from home as seen during the most recent pandemic?

“During our public consultation for the digital education action plan we have received quite revealing information from the public, which we’ve never received before or at least not during my career in this field, which was that around 40% of the respondents were parents, which was a clear indication for us that there is a problem. This issue is very much related to the Covid crisis, and we need to distinguish clearly what we expect from parents as it’s not their job to teach their children in the first place.”

“But it is of course desirable to equip parents with knowledge about data privacy and so forth. So, we are actively talking to parent’s associations at EU level, and they have been quite interested in the work we do. They were particularly interested in the topic “how to tackle disinformation”. Therefore, I would say that we can help to raise awareness of the more horizontal challenges in terms of the civic education process, but we should certainly not ask parents to be teachers.”

7. What can the EC do to help bridge the gap between the different approaches in digital education by member states?

“We must look at general conditions to enable digital education and this is about access to infrastructure, equipment, and teacher training and then there is how each country on a national level wants to develop digital skills by for example teaching computer science. Some member states integrate computer science into other learning areas. What we as a commission are interested in doing is to support the level playing field so that everyone has the same conditions to succeed. Obviously, the challenge lies in technology and policy moving forward in different speeds, but we are on it.”

Mr. Georgi Dimitrov has led the development of the first Digital Education Action Plan adopted in January 2018 and of the new Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027 that was adopted in September 2020. We thank him for his time and insightful answers.

meeting-with-uk-education-blog-and-georgi-dimitrov — @petraeujanephotography.com

Charity launches free Schools’ Workshop for Military Children this July

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June 13, 2022