A student's perspective on the Edtech world we now live in....

Does an ever-changing tech world really help our students?

Times have changed in the last 5-10 years…we’re getting older, technology is progressing, and I can hardly keep up! As a university student myself, I have experienced non-technological ways of learning through primary school, followed by a half-assed approach in secondary and finally a fully online degree at university, which we can thank Covid for!

While the youth of today get taught using new game-based learning platforms, we suffered from textbooks, handouts, and ink-stained whiteboards which, let’s face it, no one couldn’t be bothered to clean properly so they just ended up being blackboards again!

The initial introduction of projectors also had their downsides, with teachers spending half the lesson lining up bits of paper to make sure it all fit on the screen… what a waste of time that was! I must stop roasting these projectors though because, now fully developed, they have actually increased student interactivity and engagement, boosting the effectiveness of teaching.

The highlight of all our weeks: Kahoot, Quizlet, MyMaths and Duolingo encouraged us to use our imaginations and bring out the inner child while learning, such as thinking of quirky team names - a few personal favourites of mine: “nice kahooters”, “I wanna kashoot myself”!

Since beginning my university studies, I have been introduced to multiple data collection platforms, such as Qualtrics and Survey Monkey… how exciting! Although this topic doesn’t sound particularly thrilling, these EdTech platforms have significantly improved the convenience and speed of primary data collection, making our essay writing a lot easier. Then there’s the heart of the University software: Blackboard Learn, what a lifesaver! it has everything a student could possibly need in one place.

“personal favourites of mine: ‘nice kahooters’, ‘I wanna kashoot myself!’”

- Lauren - Brave Technology Group

The increasing use of the online platform ‘Teams’ for recorded seminars and lectures takes me to the best part for most university students: we no longer need to travel to campus at 9am for lectures as we can watch them comfortably in bed, hanging out of our asses with a cup of tea and a packet of digestives… who says studies have to be difficult?

Overall, some developments in EdTech worked, while some didn’t, but ultimately the E-Learning industry is a very successful one which is constantly expanding. Would you believe the industry is expected to reach a grand total of £375 billion by 2026 and become the 4th largest sector… crazy! I think we can all agree we are loving this online learning; however, it would be nice to see my teachers occasionally!

Will all this help me? Yep, of course it will! It’s exciting, fun, and keeps even the technophobes amongst the student body on our toes and capable of moving into the future with confidence and knowledge to show our prospective bosses a thing or two when we get there!

Lauren Barry, Brave Technology Group