Welcome to the latest edition of Education Technology, one that is very close to my heart. In this issue, we focus on various social issues surrounding tech, and how education can try to address them. From cyberbullying and wellbeing, to equality for disadvantaged students, we ask some of the bigger questions in edtech, and reach out to experts in the education and tech sectors to hear their perspectives on how they might work together to improve approaches to issues that extend far beyond the classroom.
Our feature on page 52 investigates how edtech can help level the playing field for disadvantaged students, and the well-talked-about issue of student and staff wellbeing is addressed in our feature on page 47, where we ask what tech is available to help ease the stresses of teaching and learning.
We don’t just stop at those working in the edtech sector, however. In our feature on cyberbullying on page 32 we discuss how education can work as prevention instead of cure, and speak to a real-life victim of cyberbullying about how his life has been affected, and in our profile on page 60, we chat with Dr. Jess Wade, a postdoc researcher in materials science at ICL, and avid campaigner for the rights of women in STEM. The great thing about social issues in tech is that is these people who are on the ground – our teachers, activists, and students themselves – who can have so much impact on the change we hope to see across our society.
There is also a lot about social equality and happiness that we can learn from other countries. On page 21, we report on Helsinki’s Dare to Learn event, and how a solid and society-wide education system is key to helping Finland be the happiest country in the world, as calculated by the World Happiness Report 2018.
We also continue to bring you the latest news in schools and HE (pages 8 and 13), and our illustrated timeline of personal computing in education, which you can see on page 58. As always, we also have some great opinion pieces from industry experts, covering topics such as how to keep universities safe from hackers (page 5) and how technology can address the ‘word gap’ in education, and improve chances for disadvantaged students (page 29).
Although there are many challenging topics discussed in this issue, we remain positive that tech can be a force for positive change in the world, and that starting with education makes for the best possible foundation.
All this, and lots more inside the mag!
If you have any thoughts on this edition of ET, or anything you’d like to see in future issues, please drop me a line at charley.rogers@wildfirecomms.co.uk
Yours,
Charley Rogers
Editor
Education Technology
