It is impossible to exaggerate how much the edtech sector is growing – in fact, exploding might be a better word! The edtech market in the UK is now estimated to be £3.2bn following growth during 2020 of more than 70 percent.

This phenomenal growth ensures that the sector is newsworthy, but what are the key trends emerging? These trends are the ones to watch throughout the coming year–and probably the coming decade.

Personalized learning

The ability to connect with anyone anywhere on the globe, instantly, has been a game changer for the education sector. With vast tracts of the world’s knowledge available at their fingertips, today’s students benefit from an immersive and engaging experience that previous generations could only dream about. But things have moved on far more quickly than expected thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, and educators are making edtech an integral part of their teaching rather than simply a useful addition.

Today, teachers are beginning to use edtech to create individual lesson plans and personalized learning, taking each pupil on their own journey and at their own pace. Teachers can also tailor learning in response to the real-time data they are able to receive, with immediate evidence of where students are falling behind or moving ahead of the group. With this knowledge comes the ability to step in at an early stage to correct misconceptions or move the student on to more challenging work. 

Gamification

If you can’t beat them, join them–and that is exactly what some teachers are doing to increase engagement in learning. We all know the difficulties of persuading a child to stop playing on their device, so today many educators are taking an alternative approach and actively incorporating gamification into their planning.