Introduction

Welcome to this first episode in a series produced by Professor Rose Luckin's EDUCATE Ventures Research, exploring 'Evidence-Based EdTech', and hosted on The Edtech Podcast. 

This mini-series connects, combines, and highlights leading expertise and opinion from the worlds of EdTech, AI, Research, and Education, helping teachers, learners, and technology developers get to grips with ethical learning tools that are led by the evidence. 

For this episode we examine the presence of EdTech in schools, looking at how we judge whether the tech ‘works’ or not.  We explore what makes for good evidence, why contextual use is significant, and how school CPD, infrastructure development, and staff capacity building are vital to making the most of the tools at our disposal. 

We are chatting to:

• Tom Hooper – Founder and CEO, Third Space Learning 
• Neelam Parmar – Director of Digital Transformation and Education, AISL Harrow Schools 
• Richard Culatta – Author, CEO, ISTE 
• Katie Novak – Strategist, Writer, Smart Technologies 
• Host: Rose Luckin – Professor of Learner Centred Design, UCL, Founder, EDUCATE Ventures Research 

Can our schools operate as testbeds for emerging technology, and is this an ethical or beneficial use of class time?  Why is an evidence-led investment and regulatory ecosystem so important?  What is a ‘research mindset’ for aspiring technology developers, and do users even care about the evidence?  

We'll be asking:

• How do we know EdTech works? 
• What does good evidence look like, and what can stakeholders in the ecosystem do to ensure it is high-quality?
• What are the biggest barriers to generating good evidence and getting it into the hands of the people in companies responsible for technology development, and into the hands of those using that technology? 

Thank you to SMART Technologies for sponsoring this episode, and for supporting the Evidence-Based EdTech series on the EdTech Podcast