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Devorah Akhamzadeh
CST 300 Writing Lab
September 11, 2016

Educational Technology Industry Summary

With the rapid growth in technology, it has become a necessity to integrate it into our

educational system. Today’s youth thrive on multimedia, multitasking, and social environments

for every aspect of their lives, and if not incorporated into their education, students fail to engage

in the lessons. Determining new learning styles and developing software and hardware to meet

the educational methodology and teaching strategies is crucial to the continued advancement of

our educational system. (Rosen, 2010) Led by the federal government, the United States is in the

midst of a massive effort to make affordable high-speed Internet and free online teaching

resources available to even the most rural and remote schools.

Educational technology is comprised of the study and ethical practice for facilitating

learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological

hardware and software. Emerging technology can be powerful tools in helping schools meet the

needs of increasingly diverse student population. With the myriads of startup edtech apps, field

experts have devised a classification model to properly categorize the countless educational

software programs. As of now the four arenas of educational technology tools are that of content

software, instructional support software, management systems, and niche/ special categories.

(Chen, 2016). Included in these classifications are hundreds of software programs and tools that

can be utilized in educational systems.

The content field, commonly utilized through interactive software, encompasses any

software used as a means of learning or covering material. MOOCs, massive open online

courses, are a huge player in this arena. In 2012, Harvard and MIT, rival colleges came together
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to create a joint EdX, a joint MOOC collaboration. (Carey, 2015). The EdX courses are set up as

weekly learning modules consisting of short videos and interactive learning exercises where

students can immediately practice the concepts from the videos. Mimicking the traditional

classroom setting, yet in an online format, EdX courses typically includes online discussion

forums, online textbooks as opposed to paper copies, and many of the lab classes incorporate

virtual online labs. (Breslow, L. , Pritchard, D. E., DeBoer, J. , Stump, G. S. , Ho, A. D. ,

Seaton, D. T., 2013). Additional MOOC leaders include Coursera, created in April 2012, by two

Stanford CS professor Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, who partnered with universities in

preparing and offering MOOCs, and Udacity, founded by Sebastian Thrun. Moving forward

from 2012 the MOOC field has garnered millions of subscribers, with more than 4 million

students enrolled in Coursera MOOCs; both Udacity and DdX have enrolled over a million

students in their MOOCs. Hence the year 2012 was coined “The Year of the MOOCS.” by Laura

Pappano a NY Times writer. (Pappano, 2012).

The field of instructional support, commonly known as testing and productivity tools, is

flooded with companies like Quizlet, Socrative, and ClassMarker, each with their unique product

twist. Quizlet, founded in 2007, advertises itself as a study center where students can create

flashcards, practice spelling, play learning games, and test their knowledge, . (“Quizlet,” n.d.),

Yet Socrative, a cloud-based student response system developed in 2010 by Boston-based

graduate school students, main goal is to allow teachers to create simple quizzes and activities

that students can take quickly on laptops, tablets, or phones. The quizzes can be true/false,

multiple choice, or short response, and the activities can be used as discussion board or student

paced, as exit tickets. The results from the Socrative activities can be displayed live with
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anonymous student identities, as a form of facilitating classroom discussion, while at the same

time allowing the teacher access to the students’ data.

Softwares such as Schoology, Alma, and Google Classroom, bridge the gap of learning

management systems. These software help teachers and or administrators keep track of their

online courses, through documentation, tracking and reporting. Schoology was created in 2007

by Jeremy Friedman, Ryan Hwang and Tim Trinidad, while still undergraduates at Washington

University in St. Louis, MO. Schoology services include attendance records, online grade book,

tests and quizzes, and homework dropboxes, and its software can be integrated with existing

school reporting and information system. Similarly, Alma aims to provide a classroom,

curriculum, and lesson planning tools, as well as interfaces and dashboards tailored to different

users.

Niche or special category software consist of software and applications geared towards

supplemental learning. Supplemental software is software used to support a course, but not as a

means of delivering the core instructions and material. The teacher still designs and delivers the

material, and only after do students use supplemental software to add to their understanding of

the material being taught. ST Math, a game based software developed by MIND Research

Institute, is a prime example of niche learning. Designed to be integrated with classroom

instruction, ST Math’s objective is to boost math comprehension and proficiency through visual

learning. (Franklin, 2012).

Although the four categories seem to clearly delineate the types of software in each

category, in reality the lines are somewhat muddled. The field of educational technology is fairly

new and ever changing. Over the past two decades technology itself has made great advances.

The edtech sector covers a range of companies with diverse focuses. As time passes, companies
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add to their software in different directions creating cross-referenced software. Classifying them

by their most used functions, helps narrow down the units, but it is necessary to remember that

these technologies can be utilized in functions other than what they are intended for.

In addition to the categorization of software and apps included in them, the term

education technology encompasses the technological hardware utilized in the educational

system. These hardware can run the gamut of interactive whiteboards, tablets, and personal

laptops. Commonly known interactive or digital whiteboards are the SmartBoards, where users

can display their computer screens to a touch sensitive board. Through the SmartBoard, users can

integrate video clips into their lessons. Using the SmartBoard in conjunction with its specific

software, Smart Notebook, users can compile notes, images, and other media into virtual

notebooks which can be projected and edited using the Smart Board itself. Epson’s Brightlink a

competing interactive SmartBoard, can be connected with Apple TV and wirelessly display any

Apple product’s screen to the Epson Brightlink interactive board. Teachers can have student

share their personal screen with class to model an activity, or present a project to the class.

Khan Academy, a non profit organization, is an innovative 2004 edtech startup and in the

span of a few short years has managed to become an industry leader. Throughout its growth,

Salman Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, has held strong his original mission of

“provid[ing] a free, world‑class education for anyone, anywhere.”(Khan, 2012). Khan Academy

offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that enables

learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. Khan Academy is essentially

a massive database of free online tutorial videos, geared towards students of all ages. Although

the lessons were conceived primarily for self-education, they are suitable and have been used in

many classroom settings. The Academy’s tutorials are organized with the intent of mastery
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learning, building knowledge one concept at a time. Throughout the series of short

lecture/tutorial videos, interactive assessments crop up, to maintain the student's level of

understanding. The users can then keep record of their progress and pick up where they left off.

Khan Academy is also currently experimenting with the “flipped classroom” where students

prepare the class material at home through Khan Academy and then discuss and practice the

material in class. Although regarded as one of the proponents and driving forces behind the

integration of technology in the traditional classroom, Khan makes a point to distinguish that his

ultimate school “would embrace technology not for its own sake, but as a mean to improve deep

conceptual understanding, to make quality, relevant education for more portable”. (Khan, 2012)

Khan continues to explain that he in no way wants to hand over the teaching to technology,

rather he is attempting to “[free] them from the drudgery and [allow] them more time to

teach”(Khan, 2012).

Working as a hedge fund analyst in 2004, Salman Khan, a Harvard and MIT graduate,

volunteered to remotely tutor his twelve year old cousin using Yahoo’s Doodle Notepad.

When many of Khan’s family and friends sought his tutoring and academic aid through similar

remote interactive methods, Khan decided to distribute his tutorials via YouTube. Receiving

much appreciation and accolades, Khan took the step of quitting his job and focused on

promoting his tutorials, creating his nonprofit organization Khan Academy

As of 2015, Khan Academy has expanded to 30 million registered users, utilizing its over

5,000 courses ranging from math, history, healthcare, medicine, finance, physics, chemistry,

biology, astronomy, cosmology, American civics, art history, economics, music, computer

programming and computer science. At the last count, Khan Academy has a full staff of 105

employees ranging from developers, to software engineers and marketing and finance specialists.
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In addition to their regular team, Khan Academy has approximately 200 content specialists who

create, edit and upload the content, and 100 interns in similar fields to the Academy team.

Although their paid staff only ranges around 100, the costs of running the nonprofit academy in

2014 totaled $19,119,453.(“Khan Academy,” n.d.) To offset the costs Khan Academy has had

numerous generous donors and backers such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Broad

Foundation, Google, the O’Sullivan Foundation, Skoll Foundation, and other philanthropic

organizations. In addition to the donations, some companies gave grants to Khan Academy on

condition they focus on a cultivating certain course aspects. In 2013, the Mexico-based Carlos

Slim Foundation made a donation to Khan Academy to allow it to expand its Spanish library of

videos. And in more recent years, AT&T contributed $2.25 million to fund development of a

new mobile learning platform and app.

Although the advent of technology was initially slow to progress, in the past two decades

its progression rate has accelerated tremendously. In a research study conducted by UCLA,

researchers noticed that it took the radio approximately 40 years from its inception to reach 50

million consumers, the telephone 22 years, Facebook three years, and YouTube merely one year

to reach that 50 million consumer level.(Rosen, 2010) The rapid integration of new technologies

has lead to a new generation of children raised only knowing the technologically immersed

world they were born into. As such, integrating those technologies into the classroom has

become a necessity instead of the luxury it once was. The children of this generation are so

technologically advanced that simple adaptations to technology and or media in the classroom is

deemed not stimulating. Society needs to adapt to the changing worlds and create the proper

technological tools to teach the youth of today. Thankfully educators, school officials, and

political leaders have grasped the situation and are working on expanding the education
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technology sector. In 2013 the edtech market totaled $8.38 billion recent year , up from the $7.9

billion the year before, and up 11.7 percent from 2009. (Chen, 2016). As part of the White

House's Connected initiative, which seeks to provide high speed internet to 99% of the nation

classrooms by 2018, the government has increased its funding for the E-rate program which

provides discounts on telecommunications and Internet services for schools and libraries. The

ordinary annual cap for the E-rate initiative was $2.4 billion and in 2014 has been increased by

$1.5 billion to now total a budget of $3.9 billion annually. (“FCC Continues E-rate Reboot to

Meet Nation’s Digital Learning Needs,” 2015)

The field of education and the field of technology are both crucial to our society and

future. Combined the two fields wield much power. As such, I would hope to one day have a

career in this industry, working as a software developer/ engineer to create applications and

software that enhance learning systems. However, having a degree in computer science is not

sufficient to obtain a position in this field. Many employers are looking for employees with

teaching credentials and additional informational technology degrees or certificates. While some

classes at CSUMB, such as software development, software design, and introduction to

databases can provide the informational technology background, further education is required.

To that extent, I have already taken a yearlong course and obtained a teaching certificate from

the Israeli Ministry of Education. I have also worked as an elementary school teacher for the past

two years. Additionally, I worked with the director of educational technology in Gindi

Maimonides Academy, a private elementary school, to initiate and implement a one-to-one iPad

initiative in the lower school classrooms. We experimented with integrating many edTech apps

like Socrative, Nearpod, Math XL, KidBlog, Google Classroom, Quizlet, Explain Everything,

Apple TV, and the Epson Brightlink Interactive Whiteboard into the fourth and fifth grade
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curricula. The demand for educational technology professionals is increasing and the field is a

promising and innovative one. With the continuous advancement and indispensability of both

technology and education the industry will only increase.

References

Breslow, L. , Pritchard, D. E., DeBoer, J. , Stump, G. S. , Ho, A. D. , Seaton, D. T. (2013, May).

Studying Learning in the Worldwide Classroom Research into edX’s First MOOC.

Retrieved September 10, 2016, from http://www.rpajournal.com/dev/wp-

content/uploads/2013/05/SF2.pdf

Carey, K. (2015). The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of

Everywhere. Penguin.

Chen, A. (2016, September 10). Here’s How Big the Classroom-Tech Market Has Grown.

Retrieved September 10, 2016, from

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/11/quantifying-classroom-tech-

market/414244/

FCC Continues E-rate Reboot to Meet Nation’s Digital Learning Needs. (2015, December 10).

Retrieved September 11, 2016, from https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-continues-e-rate-

reboot-meet-nations-digital-learning-needs

Franklin, J. (2012). Getting Smart: How Digital Learning is Changing the World by Tom Vander

Ark. Journal of School Choice, 6(2), 306–307.

Khan Academy. (n.d.). Retrieved September 11, 2016, from ht//www.khanacademy.org/donate

Khan, S. (2012). The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined. Twelve.

Pappano, L. (2012, November 2). The Year of the MOOC. Retrieved September 10, 2016, from

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/massive-open-online-courses-are-

multiplying-at-a-rapid-pace.html

Quizlet. (n.d.). Retrieved September 10, 2016, from https://quizlet.com/

Rosen, L. D. (2010). Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn.
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Macmillan.