Edtechupdate.com is a robust website highlighting “industry insights your peers are reading.” It offers an extensive review of all things education including, but not limited to: industry trends, forecasted tech use, must have apps/software, social media trends through the lens of education, consolidated highlights from ed tech conferences, plus a variety of edtech surgery results of educational stakeholders. It is a fantastic resource that is updated daily with the intent of providing insight to the realm of educational technology.
Rather than download and read through entire reports (for example the 2018 Horizon Report) or register, travel, and attend an edtech conference (for example the annual ISTE conference) edtechupdate.com consolidates trends, information, highlights etc from these sources and events and publishes brief articles on a regular basis.
Based on the 2018 trends thus far page, the largest area of growth, or the “Two Hotspots in Educational Procurement Identified for 2018” were 1) educating students with special needs via digital learning tools and technology which grew at a pace of 32% of 2017 and 2) promoting digital learning (online digital courses, advancement placement courses and credit recovery coursers) which grew at a pace of 28 percent from 2017.
Knowing governments are investing big money in Edtech for special ed and online courses is an important step in understanding market demand and projections. This information coupled with industry trends such as the rise of AR and Adapted learning in Edtech can serve as a critical starting point in building / creating the a breakthrough educational venture.
Source:
https://www.edtechupdate.com/trends/
At first glance, the range of topics with which this site breaks down its sources is extensive and relevant. Each topic is then further broken down into specific subtopics making it quick and efficient to find what you are looking for. The organized, clean (limited advertisements), user friendly format of this site makes it easy to navigate, search, and browse.
Second, the value of this source is heightened as it brings together the most current sources of everything related to educational technologies all in one space. This is a great alternative for time pressed educators, as opposed to having to subscribe to multiple blogs, magazines, follow fellow teachers or edtech gurus, or attend PD and conferences, whose commitments are usually near impossible to keep up with.
I will definitely be seeking out future versions of this report for new technologies I am interested in, and I will be sharing it with other educators and tech coaches in my community. Unfortunately, the position of tech coach within our schools is an add-on to your current teaching position- meaning time is something you can never have enough of!
To further add to my review, another thing that stands out about this market projection is the section called ‘Trending Sources’ (located on the main page of the site). This section has merit for tech savvy educators who have preferred sources, educators, or authors, as you can then organize the results to only show a specific source. For example, a few years ago I was involved in a community of practice around the book resource called “Ditch That Textbook” by Matt Miller. I absolutely loved the PD and tried many of his ideas- I saw that his book/ blog is on the list of Trending Sources and was excited to see many more of his great ideas (which I will be sure to go back to later)!
This particular section is also worthwhile for emerging technology venturers as it provides them with a better idea of WHERE educators are going for their information. This can help them in their vast search for educational technology trends, by sharing and linking them to top sources directly.
I like that this site is aggregating the ideas and thoughts of a number of educators. The beauty of this is that you get different perspective from people who are actually applying the technology in their work / teaching.
This is a place I would look to learn about different educational technologies that educators are currently using and how they are using those technologies.
Aggregation Transparency:
Having a “one-stop-shop” for EdTech blog posts, webinars and resources is convenient, but I wish there was more transparency on how the content is aggregated. It appears to be a combination of “Aggregage”, which boasts using “…machine intelligence, social media and audience-driven data to bring the most relevant content to each industry’s professionals” and verified user submission.
Ease if Use & Focus:
However, it’s easy to browse the articles by category, identify trending content, and sign-up for daily and weekly emails. I see this site as a good way to verify market trend patterns through more of a bottom-up approach (starting with the data, and generating insights) however the content seems to be more focused on present challenges and solutions, as opposed to specifically forecasting or projecting.
Community Utility:
Still, this site should appeal to educators in public schools and higher education, and offer some insights to technologists and venturers through analysis of repeated topics and themes. The content might act as confirmation or contradiction to projections/reports.
Personally:
I’ve subscribed to the daily and weekly email to see what that’s about, and I expect to browse and search the site again throughout my career working in EdTech. I’m not inclined to recommend it to anyone yet, but I think it’s worthwhile for me to spend a bit more time revisiting it and exploring the daily/weekly aggregates.
Edtechupdate.com is a useful resource that provides high quality content for professionals in the EdTech industry and is updated daily with a collection of blogs, webinars, and downloadable resources. It is a site published by Aggregage and uses machine learning, social media, and data from readers to auto-curate the articles so that the trending articles get posted at the top. Readers have the option to sign up for personalized newsletters to have the most relevant content delivered to their inbox.
The site is user friendly. It has a simple layout that makes it easy to navigate and browse the 100+ “industry thought leaders” content each day which include opinions, insights, and analysis of important issues. It has a large set of topics which are neatly organized with a search bar that allows the reader to quickly look up particular topics of interest.
There are many EdTech resources available online and it can be challenging and time consuming to to sift through all the content to stay up-to-date. Edtechupdate.com does a good job in ranking and curating posts from hundreds of resources daily and allows readers to find what they need in one place.
From looking at different sources in the Market Projections Forum, not many include Assistive Technology (AT). This was one site that caught my attention as it included AT. I was also impressed with how it provided resources on trends up to 2030. This is one site that I will recommend to others and use to follow EdTech trends and the future of learning and work.
This resource is a bounty of information, especially for an educator who is not “entrenched” in education like me…! And, more vastly, it is appropriate to educators that are curious about educational technology, but have no idea where to start. The simple, accessible language works for a viewer from any background, the topics are chronological and appear to be sorted by “interest” of viewers, which keeps the interesting bits at your fingertips, and in general the content is condensed for quick updates. All of this makes for a great stop when looking for low barrier industry-information.
EdTech Updates chief benefit is that it is user friendly and presented in an engaging way that delivers information to the reader efficiently. Catchy headlines and graphics make it easy to scan for what would be directly applicable to the area of educational technology you are interested in examining. This market projection is especially valuable for educators and venturers looking for fast and accessible information. While it is useful as a jumping off point, once an area of interest has been identified, readers would more than likely need to seek our other sources for a more useful level of detail. I could see myself using this as a middle school educator to maintain a broad understanding of where educational technology is headed, as well as identify technologies that could be applicable in my classroom.
EdTech Update is a user-friendly resource for anyone who is interested in finding anything related to what is going on and what will be next in the current field of educational technology. The menu is very easy to navigate and it offers different types of information for users to explore, including articles, webinars, guides, etc. All the information is aggregated and it allows users to take in a lot in a short glance, which is quite efficient for users who cannot spend much time researching.
For educators who want to learn more about educational technology, EdTech Update provides a general overview of the current inventions and breakthroughs in educational technology since it focuses on all levels of education. The site does not merely focus on K-12 or higher education. Therefore, it is suitable for a broader community of educators to dig into topics they prefer. For learning technology specialists and ventures, the site curates the latest trends, thoughts and opinions on released products, so it is great for feedback, improvements and further investigations. For example, the article “How AI is Changing the Education Landscape” shed some light on the AI application in adjusting instructional language, which might be inspirational for solving other problems.
As a K-7 educator, I will check this website regularly to get updates on the latest educational technology and share that with my colleagues. I can also see myself using it as a starting point to get an overview of a certain topic or generate ideas for further explorations if I want to play around with a venture’s role.