EdTech News - September

The summer holidays are well and truly over in the Northern hemisphere. As everyone goes back to school, I'm reminded of that wonderful TedX talk by Sir Ken Robinson on how our education system is undermining children's creativity.

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Robinson argues that creativity should be cultivated more in a classroom setting as children are all born with inherent creative skills.

At Makematic we champion encouraging a child's creative thinking, as it's very much linked to our focus on 21st Century Skills.

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you take a look (even though the talk is more than thirteen years old, it's still very relevant today).

‘My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status".

Watch the full video

What Kind of Promise Does the Future Hold for Teachers?

Continuing on the same theme, this interview with Karen Cator (CEO of a US non-profit organisation), focuses on the opportunity to learn through technology and research. She talks about how to include technology in teaching and why we need to change professional development for teachers.

‘It’s not about whether or not to include technology in education; it’s about how to do so in the most engaging and inspiring ways to support the desired learning outcomes.’

Read the full article

This Is What Educators Wish Edtech Entrepreneurs Knew

Finally, many EdTech companies will start planning for 2020 and beyond in earnest this month. I've found a useful article for all entrepreneurs in this space. It discusses the gap between educators in the classroom and the issues EdTech companies are trying to solve.

‘I've spoken with hundreds of edtech entrepreneurs and have found there is some confusion when it comes to understanding what teachers do in the classroom every day’

This Forbes article by Robyn D Shulman, is the second in a short series and provides plenty of food for thought.

Reading Robyn's article has also made me realise that at Makematic we're fortunate to not only do a lot of user testing in schools, but we are blessed with a dedicated Education Evangelist (Tara Walsh), who comes from a teaching background. Tara's insights are truly invaluable for us.

Read the full article