Category: LATAM

EDT&Partners announces its strategic partnership with WSA

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EDT Partners

EDT&Partners announces its strategic partnership with WSA for the award category “Learning & Education”

EDT&Partners, has signed a strategic partnership with WSA, a unique award system, that selects and promotes local digital innovation to improve society.  WSA is an international platform for cutting edge examples of how ICTs can impact society in a positive way. Both EDT&Partners and WSA will work together supporting and promoting the winners of the WSA award category “Learning & Education” by sharing best practices, learning & recommendations.

 

 

The Learning & Education category comprises solutions that:

  • Provide intelligent solutions for easy & low threshold access of education for everyone
  • Address the learning needs of every level of learner and creating interactive e-learning communities & interactive, personalized and distributed education resources online
  • Support knowledge transfer and skills gain in a complex and interactive fashion
  • Help teachers to enhance and simplify teaching & material creation & find new methods and innovative teaching solutions using ICT’s
  • Enhance corporate training & lifelong learning
  • Foster global collaboration in science, provide measures to promote science and demonstrate results and value to society
  • Eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations
  • Provide child, disability and gender sensitive education tools and safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments

WSA was initiated in 2003 in the framework of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (UN WSIS). It has 18 years of international experience working in 185 participating countries. EDT&Partners is a global, purpose-driven consulting firm, dedicated to imaginiging, inspiring & improving education helps education institutions, EdTech companies, publishers, startups, NGOs and governments in the education space accelerate digital transformation, in order to develop concrete action plans and objectives.

In addition to working together on the “Learning & Education ” award category, WSA and EDT&Partners, will also look for additional partnerships and areas of collaboration with corporate entities or public institutions.

Pablo Langa, EDT´s Managing Director, says, “We are delighted to sign an agreement with WSA and work together on improving education and access for vulnerable communities through technology.  We look forward to achieving great things together.”

WSA Chairman Prof. Peter A. Bruck: “Over the last years, the category “Learning & Education” has proven to be a gem in terms of content richness, digital creativity and forward thinking. Even more so it is necessary to build a strong support network to foster this quality content. WSA and EDT& Partners have built a strong cooperation. With this partnership, we have set another step in the mission to foster connection and exchange, supporting entrepreneurship for sustainable development.

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About EDT&Partners

EDT Partners is a global, purpose-driven consulting firm dedicated to the business of education. EDT helps edtech firms, publishers, NGOs, universities, and governments accelerate innovation pipelines, grow sustainably into new territories and consolidate plans for organic and inorganic expansion. EDT currently has presence in the USA, Mexico, UK, Spain, Singapore and China.

About the WSA

With its worldwide, multi-stakeholder community of social entrepreneurs and digital innovation enthusiasts, WSA focusses on international knowledge exchange, collaboration, and the contribution to the UN SDGs. Founded in 2003 as part of the UN World Summit on Information Society, WSA awards yearly 45 outstanding best practice local digital content with a high societal value. WSA spans its community in over 185 countries, a network unique in its passion and reach, holding close cooperation with UN agencies, academia and the private sector alike. 

 

More information

WSA Media contact:
Manuela Wagner
manuela@wsa-global.org

EDT&Partners Media contact:
Mireia Valldecabres
mvalldecabres@edtpartners.com

 

 

 

EDT&Partners launches Exams for Zoom

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EDT Partners

A non-invasive solution for online exams that both institutions and participants can trust, in a familiar Zoom environment. The initiative is led by education technology industry leaders and backed by millions of dollars and years of research.

Today Exams for Zoom announces a solution that marries the simplicity and ubiquity of online video conferencing with the transparent and non-invasive deployment of advanced technologies (with features like sentiment analysis, computer vision, artificial intelligence), with the ultimate goal to better inform and support online assessments.

 

The secure exams sector has evolved out of necessity, often presented with an almost Orwellian type of control. “We recognized an opportunity to disrupt with a new sub-segment in the online exams industry because both universities and students dislike most proctoring solutions, however they are forced to utilize them for accreditation and certification purposes,” says Pablo Langa, CEO at Exams for Zoom.

“Exams for Zoom provides the foundation for trust, academic integrity and modern assessment methodologies,” said Alan Greenberg, Chief Solution Evangelist at Exams for Zoom and former EMEA head of Education at Apple. The initiative focuses on providing real time, behind the scenes metadata so that great assessment experiences can stand out from average ones, all in a Zoom-like environment that both institutions and participants are familiar with and trust.

Built for Zoom with a global mindset, Exams for Zoom is launching today with a set of industry partners in K12, Higher Education and the corporate space, that combined touch millions of users in different corners of the world. These early adopter partners are helping inform the product roadmap as it heads to its first general availability version later this fall.

As former Global Education Leader at Zoom and current Senior Advisor to Exams for Zoom, Anne Keough Keehn claims that, “There is an increasing need for more sophisticated synchronous use cases in education. We are extremely excited about Exams for Zoom and its simplicity to bring trusted online exams to all, on Zoom.”

The solution has been inspired by European research activities that started in 2016, funded by the European Union with more than $8M USD, involving more than 22,000 participants and 450 faculty in 10 countries (An Adaptive Trust-based e-assessment System for Learning).

Interested institutions, corporations, schools, policy makers and educators can learn more at examsforzoom.com and request further information and product details.

Exams for Zoom
Trust. Academic Integrity. Better Assessments.

 

 

B2B2C the changing ecosystem of education engagement. Distributed networks

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Alan Greenberg
Venture Partner at EDT & Partners

From 3 to 83

A series of articles from EDT Partners on the subject of education technology that embraces all aspects of education from preschool, to lifelong learning, to workplace, and everything in-between. That looks at the technology and the impact both within academia and outside of institutions. Distributed networks, online resources, formal and informal learning engagement, and fundamentally “where does learning happen”? From 3 to 83 is a personal perspective and reflection on education, that by default and at the same time is unfair to 2-year old’s and 84-year old’s.

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On March 10, 2020 I returned from my office in Central London and set myself up to work predominantly from home for the next few months. Being of a certain age, and in remission from cancer, I do not consider myself to be particularly vulnerable to the pandemic, but it did seem practical to step out of the way, or at the very least mitigate risk to myself, family and colleagues. Little did I know that I would still be sitting here twelve months later, today with my first vaccination completed.

It has been an interesting twelve months. Frankly never busier, conversations and propositions that I have been advocating for since joining Apple Education in 2004, are more relevant today than they have ever been. One of the earliest impressions at Apple in 2005 was influenced by an observation (nurtured by two mentors for whom I remain most grateful, Professor Stephen Heppell and Lord David Puttnam). That schools are responsible for efficient administration, for empowering and developing teaching staff, so that they can engage, promote and support the teaching of children and helping them fulfil their learning aspirations. However, this was then, and there still remains something missing, the empowerment and engagement of parents. Parents as mentors, parents as advocates for education of their children, and fundamentally a joined-up system whereby parents have access to and engagement training in leveraging digital assets and resources to complete the four-part collaboration in education being Administration, Teachers, Students and Parents that completes the circle and truly fulfils the potential and aspirations of each cohort. Back to today, homeschooling is now a necessity not an option, and even as schools open up again, is it not time to meet the challenges of a joined-up process for the four cohorts? Why waste a pandemic, when the opportunity, the need, the aspiration of all can be deployed and escalated to improve learning outcomes for all school students. Which is fundamentally why I advocate anything less than a B2B2C (Business to business to consumer/student) engagement for education technology is less than desirable.

We will return to this B2B2C model numerous times. Education technology has generally been built for institutions, fundamentally because they are the major budget holders or decision makers. However, in today’s world of distributed networks, homeschooling and extending teaching and learning beyond the classroom is there not a challenge to put the pupil, the student, the learner, at the centre of education technology build, development and deployment? There will be many voices shouting at me at this point, “of course we do that”, “we have always done this”, when in fact few education companies have achieved this objective. There are some examples of ones who have achieved this or are being built to deliver better engagement in this challenge.

Utter. Utter is an English language APP, India engagement and deployment, with over 5m users, each with a personalised learning journey. The technology is predominantly a “smart chatbot”, mobile deployed, agile and intuitive. Where they as a company excel is in their deep understanding of “Digital Pedagogy” (a subject we will revert to in future articles under impact audits). Consider also how this plays to TELCO companies, the distribution model at scale, light, easy to deploy and infinitely scalable into other subject and domain opportunities.

Kahoot. A Digital APP and platform established commercial education business, extensively deployed, and a mainstay in education technology engagement worldwide. I am privileged to be friends of the Founders who I met at the earlier stages of their roll out (and questioned whether this would scale). They have more than delivered against their promise, as one of, if not the leading personalised education application deployed worldwide.

SalesForce Education Cloud. Really impressive development in the current education ecosystem whereby their robust and proven CRM model, established in Enterprise, is now being deployed at scale to manage the Digital Identity of the student. By default providing the student with a secure, managed and evolving management of their individual and personalised learning journey, records and resources. Consider also that SalesForce has Tableau Software as a portfolio business, then you have the most powerful and flexible data analytics modelling capability as a powerful resource.

There was a really interesting interview with Prof. Scott Galloway at ASU/GSV Conference in the fall (Sep 24, 10:30 AM-11:15 AM PDT: A Conversation with Scott Galloway). Where he made the case for the dispersion of students at University or at Colleges (predominantly in the USA, but applies globally), with their education being better managed remotely rather than on campus. Many Universities and Colleges are still grappling with this challenge, although technology development to support this distributed network has existed for some years. The problem that I see in this area is predominantly to do with a deep understanding of engaging digital pedagogy, which I touched on previously. Together with what is increasingly becoming a major problem, that being the wellbeing and/or the mental health of students. The later point has always existed, whether on campus or within remote learning. There is a significant movement addressing what are generally referred to as soft skills, together with the cognitive understanding of students within their personal learning journey. Which brings me back to the central discussion of building B2B2C technology, with the “C” being the critical touch point. An example of a technology business meeting this structure:

Area9 Rhapsode™Capable. Area9 is a successful and significant Adaptive Learning platform, an LMS capability with a superior and powerful adaptive engine. In development in 2020 and beginning to scale into market in 2021 Capable is their next generation product-market-fit platform engineering. I and colleagues at EDT Partners believe Capable solves two critical challenges. Firstly bringing adaptive learning to the individual student more efficiently than other similar platforms. Secondly, within the technology stack the technology monitors and impacts on the wellbeing aspects of the individual, the soft skills personalisation, and ultimately the digital identity management and remarkable personalisation of education for the student within the institution, and remotely for distributed networks. Deployed within Education Institutions, equally immersive and engaging for Enterprise and their distributed networks, when many of us are not actively returning to the office.

Whether you are a school, university, college, business school, medical school, publisher of education content, a dedicated training company, or professional development organisation, an Enterprise, there is a strong case to answer and a huge opportunity to leverage, construct, deploy and engage your student or workforce adopting a B2B2C model and application. With the consumer, the student, engaged, providing them with their personal learning journey, their dedicated repository of knowledge, and contextual search.

We at EDT Partners work closely with many companies at the cutting edge of these technologies. As the author of this brief perspective I welcome constructive feedback, and would be pleased to discuss these assumptions, views and research, in debate on Clubhouse, or privately. Feedback always welcome.

 

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***Disclosure: All the opinions here are solely those of the original author. From time to time, there may be companies and initiatives mentioned here that are either partners or that have engaged with EDT Partners or its consultants at some point in time. Salesforce.org and Area9 belong to this category. Alan Greenberg is also an advisor to Utter app.

 

 

 

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This is a space to share our vision of education globally, in a personal way through our knowledgable and experienced team members, thus allowing you to imagine, inspire and improve your educational vision.

Follow us for more insights on LinkedIn.

 

 

Re-thinking Assessment

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EDT Partners

Covid-19 has changed our modern lives in a way that we are only just beginning to understand. We are in an environment that we have not experienced before, where we are learning day by day, assimilating data that quickly emerges in this new world, and uniting patterns that arise from reflecting on relevant questions.

Unprecedented global shock

We are now living in a world that, in many ways, seems to be more aligned with life from another era, with the difference that now we are globally connected in a 24×7 flow of information.The health contingency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the world has impacted everything about our way of life, including in education.

This worldwide period of emergency remote teaching in education is an anomalous and (hopefully) temporary situation, but it is nonetheless forcing education providers to re-think most of their expectations, as it is hard to imagine going back to where we were before this happened.

 

There are signs that some educational institutions are recognizing the challenges ahead, and we at EDT Partners, have been identifying a diverse and broad perspective on the patterns and questions that affect the Future of Assessment.

As an example, some of the data shared by Times Higher Education triggered us to approach this topic with a new perspective:

Stop the damage; build a better future

The immediate response has been to adapt classroom activities to a virtual environment with different levels of interaction with teachers synchronously or asynchronously. The first reaction for some teachers was to transfer all the content and the face-to-face experiences to the virtual environment without further adaptation, as if it were copy and paste. But it is evident that this doesn’t work, and that the change of environment is also a change in the rules.

Up until now, the appropriation of digital culture in education has mostly consisted of replicating the pedagogical experience of sharing knowledge that is packaged and non-interactive, designed for a uniform set of students, to be used at the same time, in the same space.

In digital culture, less is more. Would this be also applicable for assessing student learning?

In recent years, we have witnessed a progressive evolution of assessment processes that has changed the focus of attention towards students’ strategic and lifelong learning.

Start by asking the tough questions

Based on that, here are some questions we believe are going to drive the transformation going forward in terms of assessment:

  • Do we still need summative and high stakes assessment during this period
  • How can we use assessment to identify the external conditions in which students have learned during the pandemic?
  • Will the COVID19 influence help educators to establish new and better aligned mechanisms of evaluation and assessment?
  • How shall we integrate and ensure equity and safety conditions in our assessments?
  • Is Proctoring really needed, or do we give trust another chance?
  • Are existing assessment technology tools ready for massive concurrent levels?
  • At an institutional level, how will we measure learning outcomes and impact?
  • Do we modify our previous processes to better assess knowledge, skills, and attitudes from the combination of experiences that our students have experienced during the pandemic?
  • Is it right to have parents assess their own child’s work, and can they be unbiased?
  • What approaches can we think of for post-covid assessment that generates evidence that relevant parties will find credible, suggestive, and applicable to decisions that need to be made?

We are convinced that there is not a right answer for every level, every subject, every country, every institution or every student. With that in mind, our proposal is to promote a broad and diverse discussion by which we can guide a transformation in assessment.

It is all about what we value most

Assessment threatens to be an exercise in measuring what’s easy, rather than a process of improving what we really care about. We must resist the temptation to simply reach for the most common or convenient assessment format available.

The quick change of pace will transform the nature of the skills demanded by labor markets, favoring adaptability and flexibility. In turn, academic institutions will need to use assessments that are more flexible and adaptable to a changing environment.

Assessment practices currently tend to focus on what students know. Students are typically assessed, above all, on their understanding of some domain of specific knowledge within the subject area they studied. Progressively, the emphasis has been refocused on what students can do and the value of transferable, generic or essential skills, that is, the skills and competencies that all students should develop.

At stake are the future lives of many millions of young people, and the competitiveness of entire economies. The crucial thing to focus on now is how to learn. Future skills will not only encompass those meant to help students find gainful employment in the future.

It’s now common for a group of classmates to be pursuing wildly different activities given their own home context where everything is interdisciplinary. Judgement on assessed skills during the pandemic needs to be fair and equitable; it is vital that we rethink our competence in the practice of assessment.

  • Which ones best demonstrate our aim for skill development?
  • How do we develop new tools for identification or discernment of standards (and what is the new standard)?
  • Can we apply these standards to a given student?
  • Which new techniques for calibrating judgement are valid?

The future of assessment

The assessment strategy should now emphasize less tangible creative and analytical skills, such as leadership and entrepreneurship. Trial & error and iteration are the hallmarks of the innovation era and not easily taught through traditional methods. There is a strong influence of context, including cultural context, on developing and assessing these skills.

There is an opportunity to optimize learner performance with technology that offers flexibility to craft a more immersive assessment experience for learners. Relying on technology that lets authors quickly create interactive assessments for a more engaging, personalized learning experience would accelerate this transformation.

We must keep students engaged with dynamic, adaptive assessments that adjust question difficulty according to individual learner performance and estimated ability. It is important to get a deeper understanding of learner progress across individuals or groups of all sizes with reports, live tracking, and specific item analysis. Institutions must also control how assessments look, feel, and perform.

Formative feedback is facilitated by technologies such as connected classrooms, videography, online formative quizzes, and manuscript multi-draft editing. Technology-assisted formative assessment represents a powerful option to promote improved classroom communications that support formative assessment practices for teachers in twenty-first century classrooms.

Change in teaching and/or learning strategies for either individual students or for the whole class completes the formative assessment cycle.

The assessment of student learning begins with educational values. There is a disconnect between what institutions value and what they measure.

Assessment is not an end in itself but a vehicle for educational improvement. Educational values should drive not only what we choose to assess but also how we do so. We recommend that assessments from now on are constantly questioned and permanently integrated into a valuable student experience.

Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.

REFERENCES:

Adachi, C., Tai, J., & Dawson, P. (2018). A framework for designing, implementing, communicating and researching peer assessment. Higher Education Research and Development, 37(3), 453–467. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2017.1405913

Ajjawi, R., & Boud, D. (2017). Researching feedback dialogue: an interactional analysis approach. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 42(2), 252–265. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2015.1102863

Ajjawi, R., & Boud, D. (2018). Examining the nature and effects of feedback dialogue. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(7), 1106–1119. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1434128

Bearman, M., Dawson, P., Bennett, S., Hall, M., Molloy, E., Boud, D., & Joughin, G. (2017). How university teachers design assessments: a cross-disciplinary study. Higher Education, 74(1), 49–64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-016-0027-7

Boud, D. (2014). Shifting views of assessment: from secret teachers’ business to sustaining learning. In C. Kreber, C. Anderson, N. Entwistle, & J. McArthut (Eds.), Advances and inovations in university assessment and feedback (pp. 13–31). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd. https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748694549.003.0002

Boud, D. (2016). Current influences on changing assessment: implications for research to make a difference. In EARLI SIG1 Conference. Munchen.Boud, D., & Falchikov, N. (2007). Developing assessment for informing judgement. In D. Boud & N. Falchikov (Eds.), Rethinking assessment in higher education (pp. 181–197). London: Routledge.

Boud, D., & Molloy, E. (Eds.). (2013). Feedback in higher and professional education. London: Routledge.

Boud, D., & Soler, R. (2016). Sustainable assessment revisited. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 41(3), 400–413. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2015.1018133

Boud, D., Ajjawi, R., Dawson, P., & Tai, J. (Eds.). (2018a). Developing evaluative judgement in higher education. Assessment for knowing and producing quality work. London: Routledge.

Ahren, T. C. (2005). Using online annotation software to provide timely feedback in an introductory programming course. Paper Presented at the 35th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Indiannapolis, IN. Available at: http://www.icee.usm.edu/icee/conferences/FIEC2005/papers/1696.pdf

 

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This is a space to share our vision of education globally, in a personal way through our knowledgable and experienced team members, thus allowing you to imagine, inspire and improve your educational vision.

Follow us for more insights on LinkedIn.

 

 

6 essential areas of work for true digital transformation in Higher Education

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Pablo Langa
Founder & Managing Partner at EDT & Partners

Similar to other industries in the past, the whole tertiary education segment has its ground-breaking open. Tier-I institutions will navigate this shift differently than the rest of the industry (if you haven’t read Prof. Scott Galloway on this topic, click here). However, for most of the 19,400 higher education institutions (HEIs) recognized by the International Association of Universities (IAU) around the world, the work ahead is uncertain and it will require a relevant shift in its engagement format and value perception.
Here is a list of 6 key areas of work. We consider 3 of them foundational, or that provide the foundation for future sustainable growth. The other 3 are more competitive in nature and aim at providing institutional differentiation.

 

Foundational Workstream #1 — Smart, Sustainable & Social Campus

These days, a competitive HEI needs to reference a smart, tech-enabled and data-rich infrastructure that favors green and sustainable growth. Campuses can vary significantly in size from small to “city-sized”. HEIs need to rethink how they optimize their resources and the vast amount of data they produce and how that affects their objective of closing the overall GAP to reach the 2030 SDG Goals.
A smart, sustainable and social campus also needs to impact teaching & learning by promoting more informal and hybrid learning, becoming an engine for innovation and entrepreneurship, and ensuring their students’ wellbeing and safety.

Foundational Workstream #2 — Big Data & AI

An increasingly-competitive landscape requires looking further than just the core LMS and student engagement portals to leverage data for quick decision making and greater agility.
Big data and AI-enabled universities will be able to actively prevent dropouts by developing new and engaging programs and initiatives that respond quickly to market needs. They will also be able to apply AI to provide resource and experience optimization in almost real-time.

Foundational Workstream #3 — Interoperability and Cybersecurity

Interoperability and cybersecurity are often listed within the top 10 Higher Education IT issues and challenges. With ever-increasing data sources — including but not limited to biometric, financial and health information — HEIs need to set the standard for privacy and data security.
Avoiding silos of information and securing the institutional data and reputation are transitioning from issues that IT deals with to being strategic differentiators. All the systems, infrastructure and knowledge generated by a higher education institution need to be accessible in a safe format to the different constituents of the university community.

Competitive Workstream #1 — Digital (and Social) Experience

During their HE selection process, prospective students are more likely to be influenced by Instagram, Twitch or TikTok than that of a great library or institutional websites.
HEIs need to think both about the back-office and front line student experiences from the digital perspective over the entire student lifecycle. HEIs have the opportunity to transform into a lifelong capital and skills development service provider, rather than just a one-off undergraduate or graduate experience. For this, HEIs need to ensure a simple digital experience throughout the entire student journey and meet their constituents where they are most active (i.e. WhatsApp, Messenger, WeChat, Instagram or other social media platforms).

Competitive Workstream #2 — New Methodologies

Digital infrastructure and software investments do not guarantee a relevant teaching and learning experience or overall educational impact.
Competitive HEIs needs to be thinking about different models of engagement and competency/skills evaluation. Initiatives like virtual labs, project-based activities, AR/VR/XR experiences, global perspectives & interactions, and increased peer collaboration should be standard in all disciplines and part of a more sophisticated and relevant learner experience. In a world where online and hybrid delivery methods are crucial, this is an essential focal point for any HEI that wants to remain relevant.

Competitive Workstream #3 — Digital Competencies

It is very difficult to prepare digitally-enabled leaders of the future while a university lacks a holistic technical and digital vision.
Aspiring, impactful HEIs need to be laser-focused on teacher and staff professional development, looking beyond its walls to secure industry partnerships and interactions. Ongoing evaluation of internal capabilities and market trends should inform investments in this area. The ultimate goal should be delivering on the evolving employability and life-changing expectations that learners are placing on their higher education service providers.

 

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This is a space to share our vision of education globally, in a personal way through our knowledgable and experienced team members, thus allowing you to imagine, inspire and improve your educational vision.

Follow us for more insights on LinkedIn.