Four-education-trends-to-watchLast week, Brisbane’s Convention and Exhibition Centre played host to EduTECH, an annual event which explores the future of education and how to be a driving force behind positive change. This year, the number of teachers, speakers and exhibitors was so high that EduTECH is now the LARGEST education event in Asia-Pacific and the Southern Hemisphere. Check out some of the stats from this year’s event:

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As we mentioned previously, Jacaranda was in attendance and had the chance to display samples of our new digital resources for 2017. Keynote speakers Aaron Tait and Dave Faulkner were also featured at the Jacaranda booth where they answered teachers’ questions about changes in education and how to unleash innovation in schools.

Didn’t make it to EduTECH or some of the keynote speeches? No need to worry – Jacaranda Sales Consultants were on the floor for the whole event to bring you the best insights. Here are four key education trends to watch:

  • In a presentation by Google Education, it was noted that the top 3 skill requirements in the future workforce are problem-solving, communications and teamwork. The panel discussed how schools need to look at how to develop these skills in their students in addition to teaching content.
  • Multiple presenters and exhibitors had a focus on ‘joint learning’; a concept that involves parents and the community to enable continued, collaborative learning outside of just school hours.
  • Student engagement was also a big focus, specifically emotional, cognitive and behavioural engagement. This implies that traditional ‘front of class’ teaching methods will need to be phased out in favour of more captivating methods.
  • Gamification in education was an exciting topic at this year’s conference. Discussion centered around how there is a lack of engagement in some key learning areas for students and how gaming can bridge this gap. When it comes to gaming, engagement can be customised, motivated and measured so that it produces enthusiastic learners.

An interesting exercise also revealed the overall sentiment of attendees. One of the workshops conducted a ‘physical survey’ whereby attendees were asked to stand based on a scale of two dimensions. The first question asked whether they felt the future of education is positive or negative. There was a good spread across this spectrum but with most tending towards positive. Attendees were then asked to move forward or backward based on a scale of whether they felt super powerful or not to influence this outcome. Interestingly, most spread towards the uninfluential side.

While this was an informal survey, it is interesting to see that the majority of participants felt optimistic on the future of education, but unable to have much influence. Empowerment of educators is therefore critical and this is why Jacaranda is working with organisations such as Education Changemakers, which focus on teacher-led innovation.

Did you make it to EduTECH? If so, what were your key takeaways? Stay tuned for more around trends in education, including a blog post about games-based learning in education and how best to implement educational games in a classroom.