Edtech In The Post COVID-19 Era – An Overview Of Trends And Predictions For The Future

Technology will continue to push the boundaries of education, both in a traditional and non-traditional setting. And that’s a good thing as many of the technological trends that shape education seeks to improve the student experience, school administration, information dissemination, testing, and other aspects of education. 

But as early as now, we need to be ready. So let’s take a look at the changes that education technology will experience post-COVID-19 and how we can prepare for that future.

Rise in Artificial Intelligence Applications

One of the more notable edtech trends post COVID includes the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Experts forecast artificial intelligence to grow by 33.2% in usage between 2020 and 2027, and it’s likely that school systems will not lag behind. 

There are countless applications for artificial intelligence. Automation can help school information systems discuss concerns faster by giving people access to AI-based chatbots to get more information on schools and their curriculum. 

Innovators are starting to launch teacher-centric systems that will automatically compute grades for their instructors, removing several hours per week of work to free them up time and energy-wise to reinvest back into students. 

Cloud-based School Management

The administration is a crucial aspect of education. Without it, faculty and student systems would be a constant pain. Trends in education point towards more cloud-based innovations to make it easier to collaborate and administrate. 

Gaining access to a cloud-based school management system has proven to deliver better solutions for school administrators and administration offices and staff to better manage finances, student records, schedules, events, activities, payables, and so on. 

There’s also the growing use of popular cloud-based technologies like the Google Suite at both the office and classroom levels. Gone are the days that students had to print out papers, saving significant amounts in printing costs. 

Cloud-based storage is also making it easier to share files and documents so teachers can better collaborate by sharing notes, lesson plans, studies, and so on. 

Promoting School Safety

Given the emerging trends in education technology towards promoting school safety, it’s likely that the post-COVID-19 education world will be a safer place for our students. 

For instance, fleet management software seems to be putting more effort into improving school bus routes and driver management to give parents real-time updates on their children’s whereabouts after school hours.

School management software also improves school safety by streamlining student attendance and accountability. These tech-based systems can also be set up where teachers are made aware of any unforeseen absences in the case of sickness or family emergencies.

Using Learning Management Solutions

Trends in online education that school systems and administrators should continue to look into further is the use of learning management solutions or LMS. The learning management software market is expected to balloon to a valuation of $22.4 billion in 2023. 

While LMS platforms have been used by non-traditional education companies to teach tech-based skills, there’s no reason why schools can’t start using the same system. 

By providing LMS platforms with databases of lessons, reading materials, and quizzes, students who miss classes can easily catch up from their own homes. The LMS solution market also proves to be a great solution for teachers as it gives them an online portal to manage schedules and lessons and assign homework with ease.

Online Community Building

Communities for student support and encouragement happen best in face-to-face scenarios, that’s true. But online communities can also be a great avenue to provide supplemental support. 

Schools will start turning towards services that help create exclusive platforms for students and teachers to create support groups for those who lag behind lessons or struggle with other issues like bullying, self-esteem problems, peer pressure, home issues, and so on. 

Schools can learn a thing or two from social media. While it isn’t a perfect solution to community-building, there is a growing use case of online communities which could provide more than useful in many cases and situations.

Benefits of Edtech to Learning Accessibility

It’s no secret that education has become harder to access for some people. The college tuition inflation and drop in economic activity make it hard for parents to keep up with dues connected to their children’s education. But technology can curb that rise by providing tools that could save the school money and time and thus give them a reason to give tuition increase breaks to students. 

Also, there will be a greater rise in remote learning as universities start launching online programs for students overseas, helping them save significantly given that they won’t have to move to another country to get an education. All that to say, technology will continue changing the face of education and bring us to new frontiers of learning and growth.