Skidmore, Chris

English

Digital Education Resource Archive

Tell us whether you accept cookiesWe use cookies to collect information about how you use GOV.UK.We use this information to make the website work as well as possibleand improve government services. GOV.UKDepartments Worldwide How government works Get involvedConsultations Statistics News and communicationsSpeechScience Minister outlines the UK'sworld-leading role in EdTechChris Skidmore spoke at the BETT Show about theimportance of global collaboration to drive EdTechinnovation in classrooms, staffrooms and lecture hallsFrom:Published 22 January 2020Department for Education and The Rt Hon Chris Skidmore MPDelivered on: 22 January 2020 (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it wasdelivered)Accept all cookies Set cookie preferencesHome Education, training and skillsSearchGood morning, everyone, and welcome to Bett 2020. It’s an honour tobe here this morning to open this event, which showcases the very bestthat the EdTech industry has to offer, at a time when education sectorsall over the world are trying to seize the opportunities of a technologyrevolution. Right here, under this magnificent ExCel roof, you can find allthe latest digital tools, software and devices that are transformingclassrooms across the world.There are robots, I understand, that pupils themselves can build, codeand instruct. Scanning pens that read books out loud, to help childrenovercome reading difficulties, and electronic textbooks that follow apupil’s progress over computer, phone and tablet. It’s a greatopportunity to sample new products, whether you’re a teacher, a schoolleader or an innovator. I hear there’s even an escape room, which youcan try, if you dare. I haven’t had a chance to this morning, but I’vechallenged my department’s Permanent Secretary, Jonathan Slater, tohave a crack later this week, so we’ll see how he gets on. Hopefully hewill be able to escape!I have the enormous privilege of opening this event at a vastly excitingtime—both for the industry, and for the UK as a whole. This country isproud to be a world leader in this sector, with investments in the UK techindustry placing us 4th globally, behind only the U.S., China and India.And as the Secretary of State reiterated at the Education World Forumon Monday, which I’m sure many of you attended, we intend to continuethis international leadership when the UK leaves the EU in just over aweek’s time.For us, Brexit represents an opportunity: a new era of globalcollaboration. We’ll be looking to forge even closer ties with partnersacross the world in all areas. But especially in EdTech, so that we canlearn from each other and drive innovation forward everywhere.But first, let me talk a bit about what we’re doing in the UK to supportboth the industry and the education sector.This time last year, our previous Education Secretary stood on this verystage and outlined the government’s overall vision for EdTech. Thatvision was formalised in the publication of the EdTech Strategy, whichthe Department published in April.The vision and indeed the mandate of the EdTech Strategy is asimportant today as it was a year ago, and our main aims remain thesame: to support better use of technology where it helps teachers,school leaders and pupils, and to make sure that technology helps liftthe administrative burden on our teachers, vitally not to add to it.And we made a number of specific pledges as part of the EdTechstrategy.So, a year on, how are we getting on?We said we’d push ahead with connecting more schools to full-fibreinternet connectivity. And we have. Aiming for a target of gettingeveryone on a gigabit capable connection by the end of 2025, we areworking with local authorities, trusts and schools to fund the installation ofnew full-fibre internet connections in approximately 1,700 schoolsacross the UK—hundreds of which are to some of the most difficult toreach, rural parts of the nation.We said we’d focus on building the capability and skills of educators.And again, we have. Over the past year, 4,500 education professionalshave been able to access free online courses produced by our partnerthe Chartered College of Teaching. If you’re an educator here today,listening, I encourage you to do the same and benefit from this year’snext round of free courses.We said we’d seek out those schools and colleges that are alreadyexcelling in EdTech and help spread their knowledge through ademonstrator network. I’m delighted to announce today that we havenow appointed a consortium to lead that network, made up of theLondon Grid for Learning, the Education Foundation and the SheffieldInstitute of Education. As a result, the demonstrator programme will nowbenefit from some of the best EdTech minds in the country, who willhelp schools and colleges navigate new tech that could help themreduce teacher workload and support teachers and pupils alike.We said we’d support and nourish innovators—the people who are tryingto push the boundaries in EdTech, who come up with new andsometimes unusual, remarkable ideas.So, in 2019, working in partnership with Nesta, we launched innovationfund competitions for technology that is paving the way when it comes toassessment, essay marking, timetabling and parental engagement, in adrive to improve the workload and effectiveness of these areas of work.Nesta have already announced the winners of the first round, and theyinclude what I believe are some really great products.Like Pobble, an online platform that allows teachers and pupils to viewreal examples of other children’s handwritten work, to help teach writingat primary school. Pobble are here today, so go take a look at their stall ifyou have time. First Pass was another winner, developed by BoltonCollege, which I had the opportunity of visiting just last week, and whichuses AI to analyse students’ questions and offer real-time feedbackwhen they need it.I know from my own personal experience as the United Kingdom’sHigher Education Minister how technology is transforming the universityexperience, too. During my regular visits to university campuses, it’sbeen great to see how universities are using the best of Britishinnovation to really grasp the breadth of opportunity of EdTech. Whetherthat’s the use of virtual and augmented reality in teaching, or indeedsoftware that helps better care for their students.Nottingham Trent university, for example, are already making use of awellbeing dashboard, which can be used to help spot students who maybe struggling in the new environment, and who may be at risk ofdropping out altogether. That kind of technology could make a realdifference to a student’s future— helping them avoid a decision thatcould impact negatively on the rest of their lives. If technology like thewellbeing dashboard saves just one student from dropping out whenthey shouldn’t, it will have helped, I believe, demonstrate EdTech’sworth.Again, the government has also begun to invest in a number of similarproducts. Last year, we supported the launch of two pioneering digitaltools that help prospective university students make informed choicesas they consider which institution to attend. One, called ThinkUni, is apersonalised digital assistant that pulls together data on universities,courses and their financial outcomes. The second is a game called,TheWayUP!, which simulates different real-life graduate paths forstudents according to the choices they make in its virtual world.Those are just some of the EdTech products that are transformingBritish classrooms and British lecture halls, and they show the greatprogress we’re making here in the UK.However, I also believe that the challenges we are trying to tackle withEdTech in this country aren’t unique to us. They are the same challengesthat teachers and students face in classrooms, and staffrooms, andlecture halls worldwide. Challenges like workload, or challenges likecheating.So I’d like to talk a bit about what we’re doing on the global EdTechscene, and how we intend to strengthen our international partnerships sothat we can all tackle these challenges together.Those efforts form part of the UK’s broader International EducationStrategy, which was also published last spring, and which sets out ourambition to increase international activity across all our education sectors—by increasing the value of our education exports and promoting theUK’s reputation for excellence in education.I believe that EdTech can play a fundamental role in increasing theprofile of UK education abroad, and that’s why some of the EdTechgoals feature so prominently as part of our International EducationStrategy, and will continue to do so as we look to refresh the strategy forthe future.So what are we doing to tackle EdTech’s global challenges?Well, I talked about cheating earlier. Take the use of essay mills, whichhave the potential to undermine the integrity of Higher Education acrossthe world.We have started to play a role in tackling this threat. I’m pleased toreport that our universities are now forming partnerships with internationalsoftware developers like Turnitin to develop and trial new plagiarismdetection software that will help beat the cheats worldwide.In other areas, UK innovators aren’t simply partners; they themselves arethe world leaders. Take University College London’s EDUCATEprogramme, which I’m sure many people here will already be familiarwith. EDUCATE has worked tirelessly over the past three years tosupport the development of 270 EdTech companies in the UK. And nowthey’ve decided to go global. Over the next 12 months UCL EDUCATEwill begin franchising their mentoring and consultancy programme to anumber of international universities, like CY Cergy Paris University. Asthey do so, they themselves will be building an impressive new digitalEdTech support community that I believe will benefit everyone involved.Likewise, the government’s EdTech testbed programme, developed inpartnership with Nesta, is attracting worldwide attention. The first wave ofthe testbed, launched with Durham University, will match schools andcolleges with leading EdTech products created to tackle specificeducational challenges, like homework marking, or parentalengagement.The testbed will not only help schools and colleges understand whattechnology works within its given context, but will also support EdTechcompanies to better design their products in ways that meet the needsof teachers and students—so that it works both ways and has thatpositive feedback mechanism built into it. We’ve already had questionsfrom countries as far and wide as Qatar and Italy about the project.However, we think that our testbeds can and should go even further.That’s why I’m pleased to announce today that in 2020 we intend toachieve a world-first, and develop a new Assistive Technology testbedaimed at transforming learning for pupils with special educational needsand disability. The testbed will help identify technologies that can helpremove barriers for these pupils, allowing them to access the curriculumin ways that simply weren’t previously possible.Harnessing the power of modern technology can help us change andtransform lives and unlock the potential of every child.With technological advances happening at increasingly breakneckspeed, it is only right that we ride the wave so pupils in our classroomswith special educational needs are given all the support they need anddeserve.We’re sure that the Assistive Technology testbed is likely to generatejust as much global interest as the first wave, and we look forward toworking with other countries to help all students access a world-classeducation, no matter what obstacles they face.Which brings me on to the great promise of modern technology, which isabove all its capacity to tear down boundaries and bring us all, no matterwhich country we come from, closer together, regardless of who we areor where we’re from. Those boundaries can be within the UK. But theycan also be further afield.That’s why the UK government is collaborating internationally to usetechnology to boost education in some of the most marginalisedcommunities in the world.My colleagues in the Department for International Development havethemselves been pioneering the use of EdTech to help improve thecore numeracy and literacy skills of young people in some of thosecommunities—like in northern Nigeria, for example, where our TeacherDevelopment Programme gives schools access to a mobile phone appthat offers advice, support and free classroom materials.We want to make sure we’re helping these communities in the best waywe can, which is why in June this government announced £20 million offunding over eight years to form a global “what works” EdTech Hub. Andwe’ve joined forces with the World Bank, British universities, researchersand global education experts to create this hub, which forms the largestever EdTech research and innovation project. Today I am also delightedto announce that the Gates Foundation will be joining the leadership ofthis exciting global initiative. And we will look to launch this later this year.The team has a stand in the cross-government section, so again, go andhave a chat with them if you’d like to find out more about this amazingproject.So, as you can see, the UK is doing a number of things on a variety ofdifferent levels to lead on the world stage—and to forge ever closer tieswith other countries so that we can make the most of the technologicalrevolution together.What about the future, though? The UK intends to keep its place at thetop table of EdTech, and to do that, we plan to focus on two key areas ofinvestment in the coming years. First, we are investing significantly tofund the next generation of digital innovators in this country—starting atthe very beginning in our classrooms.At the school level, we’ve put more than £80 million to create theNational Centre for Computing Education, to improve the quality ofcomputing teaching across England and to encourage more girls to takethe subject. In fact, no government has ever put more money into asingle national computing programme, and we’re aiming for no less thanto make computer science the fastest growing subject in England.And on the college level, we’ve established the National College ofDigital Skills, better known as Ada. Ada is named, as I’m sure you’reaware, after Ada Lovelace, the mathematics and computing trailblazer,and will provide young people with the skills they need—and, crucially,the skills that employers actually want—in the future, for a wide range ofdigital careers.We have also started to open the first 12 Institutes of Technology(IoTs), backed by £170m of government funding, to offer highertechnical education in key sectors including digital. The South CentralIoT in Milton Keynes, for example, will focus specifically on cybersecurity, fintech, digital and ICT. We’re also tackling the higher leveldigital skills gap through our Institute of Coding, a consortium made upof more than 60 universities, businesses and industry experts.Together, those measures should help create an army of new digitalinnovators and entrepreneurs.But what about the cutting-edge businesses and start-ups who havealready made the UK’s digital tech sector the strongest in Europe?There are countless such businesses here today, flying the British flag,and our second focus of investment must be on them.This country’s tech sector is already in a very healthy place. But we wantthe UK to be an undisputed global science and research superpower.So we have pledged to massively boost public research anddevelopment investment, with a commitment to reach 2.4 percent ofGDP, both public and private, spent on R&D by 2027. We’re also goingto double Government investment in R&D. We’ll use some of thatmoney to invest strategically in cutting-edge science and fund high-risk,high-reward research, and we’ll also look to reduce bureaucracy for ourbest scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs.We continue to support start-ups and other innovative tech-ledbusinesses through a range of grants, innovation loans and businessdevelopment support provided through InnovateUK. And we’re ensuringthese businesses can access the finance they need to grow, through ourinvestment in the British Business Bank.All in all, this increased investment and support should ensure the UKremains one of the best places to start and grow all types of digital techbusinesses—including, of course, leading EdTech businesses. So ifyou’re a budding innovator with dreams of creating VR software that cantransform a history classroom into a medieval castle or even an Egyptiantomb, you have a welcome home here. Or, if you’re an entrepreneurwho’s had a eureka moment about EdTech, and how it can be used toreduce teacher workload, you have the environment to put that idea intopractice, right here in the UK.The future looks bright, then, both for the UK and the EdTech industry asa whole. And, as I have outlined, it will be even brighter if we can worktogether in partnership to serve the teachers, the school leaders, butabove all to serve students, who must be at the heart of our schools.Some of those teachers and school leaders will be in this audience, solet me call on you too to share your own learning and experiences, bothhere at Bett and over the coming years, so that we can realisetechnology’s full potential.Thank you very much.Published 22 January 2020Explore the topicEducation, training and skillsFind out more about BrexitBrexitBenefitsBirths, deaths, marriages and careBusiness and self-employedChildcare and parentingCitizenship and living in the UKCrime, justice and the lawEducation and learningEmploying peopleEnvironment and countrysideHousing and local servicesMoney and taxPassports, travel and living abroadServices and informationHow governmentworksDepartmentsWorldwideServicesGuidance andregulationDepartments and policyIs this page useful? 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Speech: Chris Skidmore, Science Minister, at the BETT Show, 22 January 2020

https://dera.ioe.ac.uk//34884/1/Science%20Minister%20outlines%20the%20UK%27s%20world-leading%20role%20in%20EdTech%20-%20GOV.pdf

Speech: Chris Skidmore, Science Minister, at the BETT Show, 22 January 2020

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Digital Education Resource Archive