AI-generated summary
The coronavirus pandemic has profoundly disrupted education worldwide, with over 1.6 billion students unable to attend in-person classes at the peak of the crisis in April 2020. This led to interrupted learning, exam delays, and cancellations, affecting formal, informal, and non-formal education systems globally. However, the pandemic also accelerated the development and adoption of educational technology (Edtech), which had already been gaining momentum since 2019. Technology companies and startups have stepped up to create innovative solutions for all educational levels—from primary and secondary schools to higher education—offering smart textbooks, interactive content, and personalized digital support to enhance learning experiences.
Investment in Edtech has surged, with a 15% increase in funding, totaling about €6.4 billion compared to the previous year. Notable examples include the €8.3 million raised by GoStudent to expand online schooling across Europe and MyTutor’s €4.4 million raised for its interactive one-to-one teaching platform. Despite these advances, challenges remain, such as ensuring interactivity is tailored to individual needs, effectively integrating gamification, addressing limitations in AI-driven assessment, and considering the social and emotional well-being of students. Overall, educational technology is reshaping how students learn, presenting both significant opportunities and risks in the evolving educational landscape.
The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the development of educational technologies (edtech), which are essential to guarantee access to education.
With the coronavirus pandemic that is still with us today, there are many changes and habits that we have been forced to make in our daily lives. One of the areas in which it has affected most severely has been education , where Edtech has been developed. To give some data that allow us to see the magnitude of this, we can point out that in April 2020, one of the peak moments of the crisis, thousands of schools and educational centers closed around the world. It is estimated that more than 1,600 million students stopped attending classrooms in person. The consequences: interrupted learning, delays and cancellations of exams…, all with a very negative impact on education systems around the world, but also in the field of informal or non-formal training.
However, this sad reality has opened the door to new ideas and projects to try to minimize that impact. The COVID-19 crisis has been an important catalyst to improve the learning process not only for students and educators, but also for investors and edtech startups. A process that, although in this last year has accelerated and consolidated, was already going strong in 2019.
Faced with this new scenario, it only remains to ask: what and how is changing in the education sector?
From Early Learning to Higher Education
In this way, technology companies, large and small, are working to make a new paradigm possible. In primary and secondary education, some startups, such as Kognity or Lix Technologies are helping with course materials, using smart textbooks, engaging video content, slideshows, activities, and assessments.
In higher education, companies such as Graduway or Teacherly allow students to access and obtain digital support that is tailored to their specific needs.
An increase in investments in Edtech
In a way, educational technology has long been considered a kind of little sister of technology applied to the health sector or the world of finance. However, the new times are changing this reality and more and more funding is directed towards promoting educational technology.
The need to find solutions to the problems that education has encountered throughout 2020 led to an increase in investment in educational technology of around 15%, or in other words, of about € 6.4 billion compared to the previous year.
For example, in higher education, Vienna-based GoStudent raised €8.3 million to bring its school online with the aim of offering its services to the whole of Europe.
In the field of school education, MyTutor, based in the UK, has developed a platform for interactive online one-to-one teaching for secondary school students. In order to meet the needs, last June it raised around 4.4 million euros.
Some keys: challenges and opportunities
The current pandemic has accelerated the transformation of education and technology startups in this sector have grown exponentially, which means that educational technology is here to stay and the way students learn will no longer be the same.
This scenario, of course, poses great opportunities, but also risks. These are some of the keys that can define the new environment.
Interactivity. Internet-connected devices in classrooms provide access to many interactive resources,
Gamification. Gamification can be a very powerful learning tool, especially when accompanied by a clear learning objective. Studies suggest that its use can significantly increase student motivation .
Artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is a very interesting technology. And, as such,
Social and emotional impact. While there are many positives to educational technology, the impact it has on emotional well-being must be considered. Many students, especially younger ones, are very capable of understanding the functionality of their technology, but are not aware of the impact it can have on their mental health.
