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IOE’s EDUCATE programme highlighted in Government’s new education technology strategy for schools

11 April 2019

The work of the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) EDUCATE programme has been highlighted in a major £10 million government initiative to improve the use and development of EdTech in schools.

Person using a tablet

The Department for Education strategy aims to help schools improve and increase their use of EdTech in teaching and learning, as well as in practical ways to ease teacher workload, and to promote the effective development of EdTech by innovators.

Launching the strategy at the Schools and Academies Show 2019 in London, Damian Hinds, the Secretary of State for Education, said that EdTech was one of the “single most important elements in the educational arsenal”. But it also presented the sector with unique challenges, because it was often seen to increase, as well as decrease, teacher workload.

Mr Hinds said education needed to embrace technology the way other sectors had, or it risked being left behind, but it was also important for EdTech developers to “come up with more precisely engineered solutions for the education sector”.

The EDUCATE programme features in the strategy document under the chapter on ‘Developing a Dynamic EdTech Business Sector’, and outlines its work and unique focus on evidence-based EdTech development.

Dr Alison Clark-Wilson, UCL EDUCATE’s Principal Research Lead, said: “We welcome the government’s commitment to ensuring a pipeline of innovation and encouraging scale-up of proven products and services.

“Our programme aims to support some of the most imaginative and creative young companies to do just this, by helping them to think through how to gather the evidence that their products are working whilst they build them.

“Consequently, the proposed test-bed schools and colleges mentioned in the strategy are just what we need to enable this participatory research to take place, which will better ensure that the needs of teachers, lecturers, parents and of course, learners, are met.”

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