Education Technology: A Complete Guide to EdTech

Education technology might sound as if information technology is inserted into education. The truth is that education technology, or Edtech, covers a wide range of subject areas.

Through technology in education, teachers and students can better understand and work on rapidly changing requirements and skill sets and manage classrooms effectively. Edtech has opened new areas for educational opportunities to flourish, irrespective of location.

Therefore, today's educational institutions and their members need to understand what is Edtech and how it can be applied in the educational process.

The use of educational software in the classroom increases teaching and learning experiences through innovative approaches. It prioritizes honest exchange and engagement while shaping students for the ever-changing digital world, as one size doesn't fit all. The way everyone learns and communicates is different. Everyone has their own space.

So, what is Edtech? How does it work? And how it is shaping our understanding of education?

In This Article:

What Is Education Technology (EdTech)?

Edtech is an architecture that utilizes the reach of the internet, which delivers customized learning and training adjusted to the individual's learning abilities. It utilizes big data to understand effective ways to progress.

Educators and institutions continually refine the Edtech definition as technology evolves. The term "Edtech" is derived from a mixture of two words: education and technology. Accepting hardware and software solutions aims to enhance teachers' teaching instructions and students' understanding.

Educational technology explores the analyzing, designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating of the instructional environment, student learning materials, and learners to improve teaching and learning.

The meaning varies from user to user. For example, for an educational institution, Edtech can be a modern solution to bridge the gap between a teacher and a student, while from a business perspective, it can be a new industry for investment. Even better, installing a CRM system could be advantageous. CRM solutions for higher education institutions are customer relationship management systems. They also feature various capabilities for streamlining business processes.

Meanwhile, if you’re unsure about your tech stack or need a complete revamp or a full tech solution from the ground up, using CTO as a service (CAAS) can be a good starting point.

How Does EdTech Work?

Modern information technology can transform classroom-based education holistically. It impacts the students' and teachers' engagement and empowers students to control the learning process as per their learning capability.

Education technology helps students cooperate, access information, assess their academic performance, and communicate with teachers. Classroom participation is a vital aspect of the learning experience, fostering engagement and interaction among students.

Interaction and engagement between parents and teachers is a critical aspect that molds students' learning. Technology makes it accessible for teachers to communicate and coordinate with parents effectively.

With the advent of Edtech, students feel motivated through technology in the classroom, whether for academic purposes or for improving interpersonal skills.

Educational technology makes learning effective and interesting.

Engaging, personalized learning methodology is far more fascinating than simply taking notes during lectures. Educational technology makes lecturing way more effective and beneficial than traditional instruction methods. Where the traditional method was more about writing down the content, educational technology surpasses it by stressing more creative problem-solving and critical thinking so that deeper understanding can be formed.

Educational technology devices customize learning conditions.

School information systems allow teachers to adjust their teaching content while keeping the student's requirements in mind; at the same time, they give students an option to design and structure their learning. Educational technology plays a crucial role here. It helps teachers understand each student's learning potential and design and assign resources to individuals or groups of students.

There are several myths and fallacies around the benefits and downsides of Edtech and Edtech development. When making a critical development choice, be sure you don’t neglect these misconceptions. Now, you understand how the Edtech structure works. Let's look at its types.

Types of Educational Technology

There are five types of educational technology:

With these essentials in mind, you might ask how it can assist every group of users.

How Does EdTech Help?

EdTech is a sought-after innovation these days as it makes lives easier and learning better. See how it can help individuals in different ways.

Each group benefits from Edtech and can create a perfect learning space for themselves, but what are excellent examples of educational learning implementation?

Examples of Successful EdTech Companies

You have seen how the industry is growing and the changes it has brought to the education system. Meanwhile, e-learning is expanding in the healthcare industry as a means for professionals to maintain momentum, network with peers, deepen their expertise, and even acquire a formally recognised credential.

At the same time, as demand grows, health and technology businesses are collaborating to make treatment more accessible, driving the rising demand for therapeutic applications. There is little question that counselling will be a lucrative sector as mental health awareness rises.

However, you might be wondering about its real implementation and examples to illustrate it better. So, here are some top examples of Edtech companies.

It is a Boston-based fast-growing company that merges the power of education with a SaaS platform used by hundreds of school districts across the US. Panorama Education is a data analytics company for K-12 education. They assist school districts, charter networks, and state governments in conducting surveys of students, parents, teachers, and staff. Their classroom research collects responses about individual teachers, and their school surveys gather information about the school environment and administrators.

Udemy is an online learning platform that helps students, companies, and governments acquire the marketable skills needed to progress in their careers. Udemy's mission is to create new opportunities for people everywhere by connecting them to the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in a rapidly transforming world. The Udemy marketplace platform, with thousands of up-to-date courses in multiple languages, provides the tools learners, instructors, and enterprises need to reach their full potential.

It is an online learning and e-learning platform for global enterprises, SMEs, governments, and educational institutions. Its products include SkillChoice Multi-Modal Learning Solutions, which provide aids to support formal training and informal performance support needs; SkillSoft Dialogue, a virtual classroom platform designed to assemble and deliver live and on-demand learning sessions; and KnowledgeCenters, which are prepackaged learning portals that allow learners instant access to content. SkillSoft is located in Nashua, New Hampshire.

These are just some of the finest companies ruling the Edtech space. Edtech might appear to be a goldmine now, but that's not the case. Let's see the challenges in the Edtech world.

Pros and Cons of Using EdTech

Just like every modern technological advancement, Edtech has its own pros and cons.

As we have seen, there are pros and cons to every form of technology, but it is important to understand startups' challenges on their journey. Let's look at some of them.

How to Create an Education App

Follow these main steps to develop an educational app:

Search for an idea

There are several types of educational technology apps you can create. Once you zero in on what you want, it's easier to decide the features you want it to have.

Conduct EdTech market research

Now that you've chosen an idea, you need to know how well it will do with potential users. To do that, perform market research. Check out similar apps, how they work, and what people say about them.

Test it

You have to test your app before releasing it; this is done to remove any glitches from the app so your users have a smooth experience.

Plan a minimum viable product (MVP)

This is done by developing certain core functionalities to help early users adapt.

These are the main components of building an Edtech app. You should also have helpful features in your education app.

What Are Some of the Must-Have Features of an Education App?

Without high-value content, you will not have returning users. From audio effects to visual and written, you should make sure your content is of the best quality.

• It should have a very strong information database.

• It should have an engaging and interacting user interface for every party.

• It has to contain a dashboard and easy one-step login, which makes things easier by keeping everything in one place for an easy login process.

• It might provide users with customizable features such as "day/night mode" or background.

• It should contain interactive learning sessions.

• It has to provide users with progress tests and reports to track and monitor students' progress.

• It should contain integration with social networking platforms. This is a great idea because students like to showcase their academic merits and achievements; this kind of integration makes it easier for them to do so.

Once you choose the features you want in your app, you need to create an appealing design. TypeScript is now gaining popularity because it enables developers to design powerful large-scale applications easily. TypeScript's key feature is that it provides static typing. It enhances the code's quality and understanding while making it simpler to detect errors. As a result, it can be beneficial for designing an Edtech application.

Educational App Design

The design should be fun and attractive, with education being the most important factor for interactive learning. Here are a few good examples:

Now that you know the fundamentals of building a language-learning app, you should also learn how much it costs to build one. You can hire an individual developer or an app development company. 

How Much Does It Cost to Create an App?

The cost of developing education apps will depend on a lot of factors, including the features you want in the app and the number of hours the developer has to put into developing it. On average, this is what it costs to develop an app:

Cost for one app
(iOS or Android):

Cost for two apps
(iOS or Android):

Cost for one app
(Flutter):

These are basic prices for developing an app with basic educational technology features. If you want more, you may have to shell out a bit more. If you want to make an app at the best price, get in touch with Geniusee.

Categories of Educational Apps

As mentioned above, there are multiple types of Edtech apps you can make. Here are the types of learning platforms you can choose from:

The following are different types of learning apps you can build depending on the type of subject:

Apps with video content

Apps with training exercises

Apps with multiple e-books
and libraries

Chatbot-based apps

Here are a few educational games that can be included in the app as well

• Finding clues
• Hangman
• Studying contest
• Charades
• Secret investigator and many more

LMS, or learning management system, is a unique training system with a plethora of study material that can be accessed from anywhere in the world with the internet. For example:

• SkyPrep
• Mindflash
• Rippling
• MasterStudy WordPress

These are a few examples of classroom educational technology apps. These apps can be used in a class to teach a large number of students at a time while providing an immersive experience:

• Apple Classroom
• Google Classroom
• Vivi
• iDoceo and many more

The following are some great educational apps for kids:

• Khan Academy (for all age groups)
• ABCmouse.com (preschool students)
• Busy Shapes (for toddlers)
• Prodigy (for elementary school students)
• Hopscotch (for teaching kids)
• Google Arts and Culture (for teens and tweens)
• Quizlet (for teens)

This is all you need to know about Edtech apps and their development. But how well will the Edtech industry do in the future?

That's a question many people ask, and the answer is simple, it will do well. In fact, it's on its way to transforming the education system into a much more effective and efficient one.

EdTech Trends

With the opportunity to significantly improve the learning experience for hundreds of thousands of students, the educational technology market is revolutionizing the game — here are a few trends in Edtech for 2024 that will bring about a massive change:

These are some of the most important Edtech trends you need to know about, as these factors will play a gigantic role in shaping the future of educational technology.

Future of EdTech

Technology is undoubtedly taking education to a whole new level. But what is educational technology role in evolving the future? 

With platforms to help teachers track progress/customize their teaching methods and provide immersive learning experiences, Edtech will soon be everywhere.

A lot of leading brands and influential people are supporting the idea of Edtech. Truth be told, education technology has a lot of vocal support, and a lot of brands are doing their part to add to the EdTech industry; here are a few great examples:

• Bill and Melinda Gates have released a website, "Teachers Know Best," to promote Edtech further.

• Google has already launched several Edtech tools for education.

• MasteryConnect by Facebook is a tool that helps track a student's academic goals.

• Future Trends states that "Edtech is shaking up the fundamental teaching model and traditions of the education industry.

• A lot of leading brands and influential people are supporting the idea of Edtech. Truth be told, education technology has a lot of vocal support, and a lot of brands are doing their part to add to the Edtech industry.

Here are a few ways education technology will help educational institutions:

• Virtual learning systems allow educational institutions to boost their population of students.

• Modern classrooms help teachers connect with students outside school hours to offer lessons.

• Online students can connect with each other to discuss group projects and subject material via online forums and platforms; this promotes peer-to-peer learning.

• Educational institutions can offer digital certificates or badges for students to showcase their participation in projects and courses.

• With the help of several adaptive learning tools like interactive e-books/courses and interactive tools (calculators, etc.), schools/colleges can even help special needs students improve their learning process and experience.

• Students can now learn while on the go; with Edtech apps, students can use their smartphones to access all the study material they need and even attend real-time classes; this means they don't have to be in one place to study. They can carry their education with them anywhere in their pockets.

It’s not just the students who benefit from Edtech there are several career opportunities for teachers and developers in the field of education technology.

Careers in Education Technology

As you are aware, the Edtech industry is on the rise, and the COVID-19 pandemic helped fast-track it. The US Edtech market is expected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 11.2% by 2031.

Edtech not only offers great educational technology tools and software to enhance education, but it also provides great job opportunities as well.

There’s a list of a few Edtech job opportunities:

When an industry is growing, it is evident that the requirements for candidates with relevant skills also increase. Here's a list of a few Edtech skills that Edtech companies are constantly looking out for.

These are just a few of the many career options Edtech has to offer.

Conclusion

By now, it should be quite clear that education technology is here not only to stay but entirely reform the education system. From making it more interesting to rendering the learning process efficient, education technology will grow in the future.

It has the potential to impart education to every kind of student out there, and it can customize their learning experience as well.

Investing in educational technology is investing in the future of kids' education and growth, promising a brighter future.

Are you looking for the best Edtech companies to work with? Your search ends here, contact Geniusee, and we’ll help you get in touch with the Edtech corporations best suited for you.