Doha, QatarAnd December 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — New research published today by The Economist Impact and commissioned by Qatar Foundation shows that most education leaders are making personalized learning a priority for their schools — and that COVID-19 has accelerated its adoption. However, to ensure personalized learning reaches its full potential, more work is needed to develop new forms of performance measures, enhance collaboration between classrooms and educational technology companies, and secure student and parent purchases.
The international report and survey of hundreds of educators and education technology executives, was launched at the WISE Summit 2021 in Doha, Qatar, explores how Covid-19 has affected attitudes towards in-person learning in the United Kingdom and the United States. The report examines how technology can support personalized education, what its adoption can mean for educators, and whether it can lead to better learning outcomes for students.
Our findings also show that while educators feel that an increase in educational technology is inevitable, funding can affect the quality and effectiveness of solutions that schools and universities can use, while concerns also surround student privacy, data use, and ethical considerations.
“The shutdowns that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic have created an unprecedented dependence on education technology,” he said. Abeer Al-KhalifaHead of the Pre-University Education Department at Qatar Foundation, which oversees 13 public and specialized schools.
“This new research by Qatar Foundation confirms roughly what was expected – that the use of technology in education systems will increase – but that there are still concerns about funding. It also demonstrates the need to ensure that technology is designed around teaching and learning, rather than the other way around, to avoid the adoption of low tools. Cost but fails to bring us closer to the ultimate goal: improving the learning experience for students.
“We hope this report is just the beginning of a conversation about how we can ensure that eventually widely used EdTech tools are designed to make learning more personalized, rather than trying to use software as a way to increase productivity.”
The report found that 92% of those surveyed make providing a personalized learning experience a priority in their schools, with nearly all feeling that COVID-19 has accelerated EdTech adoption, and the widespread belief that school budgets for personalized learning will increase.
The majority of survey participantsNSHe also feels that personalized learning will benefit low-achieving students more than their high-achieving peers, and those with disabilities more than those without, while 95% are confident that customized learning technologies will help ensure teaching methods are designed to meet the needs of the most marginalized groups of students.
However, students and parents are less supportive of personalized learning than teachers and principals, and a quarter of respondents said student response was a major obstacle to delivering EdTech-enabled personalized learning. Meanwhile, 98% feel that the sudden shift to distance learning during the pandemic has created too much focus on the technology side of personalized education, with nearly half of teachers concerned that students are over-reliant on technology, and 61% fear increasing personalization may reduce Learning from student-teacher interaction impedes social development.
The full report is available for free download at https://www.qf.org.qa/the-economist-intelligence-unit-report/pre-university-education
Qatar Foundation is a non-profit organization established in 1995 that supports sustainable development in the world Qatar Through programs and initiatives in education, research, innovation and community development.
Source: Qatar Foundation
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