Having worked in and around EdTech in both industry for longer than most I meet.. a few themes seem to arise regularly that explain why so much of EdTech is stuck in the past., including hiring:
- academic institutions generally have leadership inept at understanding technology
- when academics try to make decisions by committee about technology when they are not competent in tech, it rarely works out
- few academics actually learn how to teach, let alone how to learn. But a degree will make someone an expert, I suppose.
- Education for hundreds of years has been linear, to match the linear nature of the factory floor and professional careers. Math hasn’t changed in 500 years. But, the world is no longer linear and the linear lenses that attempt to put tech, innovation in to linear paths will fail.
- The world is changing faster than any curriculum can keep up. Courses can take 1 to 3 years to update once, and in the meantime, entire industries are upended by Uber and Airbnb.
There are, many smart academics who understand this, but too many academic environments are far too toxic because they run like small countries who don’t answer or listen to their founders, students.
The gates and metrics being used to assess those capable of innovation in education, when the decision makers might be the ones most standing to be supplanted will be a large barrier.
If you’re interested to learn more about one academic has found ails academia, Tony Bates is worth a read.