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There’s no denying that the landscape of education is changing. With the advent of computers, the internet and mobile phones, there are so many technologies available today that were not present in the 1950s, or even five or ten years ago. A decade ago, the iPad didn’t exist. Now you’ll find them in millions of classrooms around the country.

These new technologies are completely altering the education landscape, from the way students learn to where they are physically located when they consume educational material.

In this article, we’re going to give you the what, why, and how regarding the ways education technology is reshaping the education world, including both the pros and cons.

What is Education Technology?

At a high level, education technology is any kind of technology that is specifically used to promote or enhance education. This could be software, hardware, devices, online programs, servers, cloud storage and so on.

Education technology, often referred to as “EdTech” for short, can be used in many different schools and locations and has been a growing force in education for years.

Re-imagining Potential

This week we have a guest post from the Ruskin Mill Trust a brilliant organisation who provide specialised bespoke teaching with a focus on practical skills as a form of therapeutic education. This form of education can be beneficial for those with a learning difficulty and certainly will help any student gain the self-confidence to find their place in the world.

‘The measure of success for a student at one of our Ruskin Mill Trust colleges is as wide and diverse as the range of issues and conditions experienced by the young people themselves.’

This is how Aonghus Gordon, the Founder and Executive Chair of Ruskin Mill Trust (RMT), introduced a recent talk about the Vision and Method of RMT, Practical Skills Therapeutic Education.

Mr. Gordon described three short case studies to show something of the diverse range of outcomes achieved by students at RMT colleges. The first, a student who experiences elective mutism and who continues not to talk who has now learned to express herself confidently through various alternative means of communication. The second, related to a story of a young man who, before attending a RMT college, had been through a series of placement breakdowns and had been a serial non-attender. The student progressed to attending college daily and engaging well with his Study Programme despite always struggling to start the day on time. For the final case study, Mr. Gordon spoke about a student who began his course at a RMT college with no qualifications who has recently graduated from university.