February 2024: Edtech stories that caught my eye

Each month, I share my favourite stories that showcase something new, something great, or something innovative in edtech as it relates to international education and global education. 

Long-time LinkedIn connections would remember my previous focus - the BC tech and innovation community - which has since pivoted to international education and education technologies that change the way we work, recruit, and support international students. 

In the previous month, artificial intelligence and its impact on education and technology hogged the headlines. There's warning on how international students should prioritize learning writing skills before relying on generative AI. Reports also include how edtech ignites the parental rights movement (and, to a degree, how it gave rise to ghost students), and how it should be sustainable going forward.

Here are edtech stories from the previous month that caught my eye. 

These 5 key trends will shape the EdTech market up to 2030

The story: Over the next decade, the global education sector will see expenditure of $10 trillion. Set to play a key role in this booming market is edtech, a rapidly growing, dynamic part of the wider education economy. Mostly thanks to artificial intelligence and other new technologies, five key trends are shaping edtech, including upskilling or training the workforce of the future. According to the OECD, nearly 1 billion jobs worldwide will undergo significant changes due to AI within the next decade.

Why this matters: As the World Economic Forum (WEF) pointed out, prioritization matters in the edtech sector; it is important in creating “enduring businesses” and driving quality, effective education. Thus it’s critical that we look at the data, trends, and movements, and then assess what works for end users, whether using edtech platforms in the realm of learning (online or hybrid models), international student recruitment, or streamlining the admissions or student support systems in colleges and universities. 

How international students should think about writing, AI

The story: Learning new writing methods can be difficult for international students, warns Nat Smitobol, a counselor for a company that helps students prepare their applications for top-level American universities. This can be partly attributed to differences in academic culture; in the United States, for instance, most students have a basic understanding that they must give credit to, or cite, the sources of the words and ideas in their academic writing - something that can be new to those coming from other countries. 

International students might then be better off writing papers without the help of generative AI tools, which help change their grammar or make their writing more comprehensible. Counselors believe it is better for the students to struggle with writing and adding citations to academic work early in college than face the challenge later on. 

Why this matters: After its watershed year, generative AI - particularly as it relates to academic tasks like writing and creative design or video production - will only expand and become more sophisticated in its features and potential benefits. While it’s laudable for international students to be highly adaptable and use new technology like AI to their advantage, we have to address and hone basic academic skills like writing without the intervention of novel tech at the beginning - and then combine the resulting skills with AI and related tools (Big Data, machine learning, AR/VR, etc.) for enhanced outcomes. 

How edtech has fueled the parental rights movement

The story: While digital technology has benefited the education sector in many ways through enabling online learning and increasing student engagement, personalization, and efficiency, it has its downsides. This includes an “increasingly fraught relationship” of teachers with parents due to online gradebooks, thought to create a new class of parents intent on plowing “through obstacles for their children.” Online gradebooks are believed to increase the number of helicopter parents “questioning teachers about every grade they considered unacceptable” and not knowing when to stop monitoring their child’s progress. Online gradebooks may also be breeding inequality, as families without reliable internet access or for whom English is a second language are less likely to helicopter or snowplow.

Why this matters: Edtech may have been inadvertently fueling the parental rights movement, feeding distrust of teachers and education professionals who are supposedly the experts in their field. Another danger here is students’ grades becoming the be-all and end-all of studying, which can send them spiraling and more so if they are studying overseas. It’s only wise to be conscious of these consequences of technology - and how they can be abated: what can we do as institutions to help our teachers and students? 

Education technology must be sustainable, here’s what that looks like

The story: The United Kingdom’s Department of Education’s (DfE) updated its sustainability and climate change strategy last year, stating that it requires the education sector to “play its role in positively responding to climate change and inspiring action on an international stage.” With the UK currently working toward its net zero goals, industries such as edtech play a part in the sustainability initiatives by ensuring sustainable implementation in the technology they build and use, controlling energy and waste outputs as much as possible, and continuing investments in new ways to reduce their carbon footprint.

Why this matters: Edtechs, like higher education institutions, are uniquely positioned to share a sustainable ethos with students. These aren’t complicated practices at all; some key actions include energy efficiency methods and data monitoring for accountability, measuring energy consumption data via monitoring tools across touchpoints (e.g., student recruitment fairs, online counseling, etc). Community collaboration is also key, where stakeholders from universities to agents to government regulators can share resources to promote sustainability. 

What are ghost students, and how do they operate?

The story: Amid a looming enrollment cliff and a slow recovery from pandemic-related enrollment dips, colleges and universities across the US are looking for ways to boost applications. Yet they also face the disturbing rising trend of ghost students, or are aliases or stolen identities used by scammers and the bots they deploy to get accepted to a college (but not for the purpose of attending classes or getting a degree). 

With a ghost student, a fraudster completes an online application to an institution. Once accepted, they enroll in classes and can use the fake identity to act like a regular student, potentially abusing cloud storage provided by the institution, using a college-provided VPN or .edu email address to perpetrate other scams, or apply for and receive thousands of dollars in financial aid.

Why this matters: The ease at which these scams are pulled off is one disadvantage of technology; the start of the COVID pandemic and the transition to online learning fuel these acts as students no longer have to appear in person on campus to enroll. Community colleges are particularly at risk, given their online course offerings, simpler application processes, and lower admission standards. Ghost students can take spots away from actual qualified students and target further scams, so it’s contingent on institutions - and their recruiters and third party partners - to put a premium on cybersecurity and compliance.