The IPA’s Educational Publishers Forum met in London ahead of BETT – the educational technology trade show, and the meeting left me with some thoughts about the evolution of education.
We were very happy to have Mark West from UNESCO with us and he prompted good conversations about how technological change has always been a source of excitement and fear and what kind of pro-active approach can be taken to ensure that these new technologies serve our shared objectives of high eduactional outcomes in the best way.
That collaborative mindset is at the heart of the Educational Publishers Forum and the presence of the European EdTech Alliance at the meeting made for a constructive discussion. The presence of colleagues from Africa and Latin America also meant that those converations cover many different realities of education around the world. AI was obviously part of that converation and earlier in the week, the OECD held a webinar on Exploring Effective Uses of Generative AI in Education and published a report on the same topic.
The discussions we had were not only at high level, we were able to hear from members about the evolution of physical and digital educational resources in Italy and the UK. AI adoption by teachers is advancing, and a mix of physical and digital resources is a clear preference with pupils engaging increasingly with online content linked to a physical resource. But open educational resources are not a panacea, and government educational resources are also an increasing concern when they impact the range of resources available to teachers.
These meetings always leave me inspired by the phenomenal work by educational publishers around the world and show the value of conversations across countries and regions and with organisations representing other stakeholders in our sector. If this year’s International Day of Education is focused on youth, it is our duty across all stakeholders to work together to fulfil our collective responsibility to the next generations.
Finally, this week’s meeting was my last as Chair of the Educational Publishers Forum. I have been involved in the Forum for so many years and will continue to be engaged. It was an honour to chair the Forum and to work with these wonderful colleagues from around the world. The next chair will be announced soon and I wish the incoming leadership every success.