Märt Aro, co-founder of Nordic EdTech Forum and DreamApply
Marko Russiver, innovator
Anais Salson, innovation facilitator
Peter Fagerström, co-founder of TeachMillions
This document aims to look into the education innovation demonstrating the patterns and connections between the different types of solutions, and also answering the question - ‘Why is the ecosystem approach crucial in education development.’
To simplify understanding of interdependencies of education innovation, we have created the ‘Innovation in education pancakes model’. The pancakes are categorized into four layers. The model demonstrates that the upper layer of solutions cannot effectively operate without a solid foundation in lower layers. Hence it is important to look at the system holistically.
The following illustration represents the scheme of how the interdependencies work. The pancakes are placed on top of each other representing the education innovation layers.
Infrastructure layer
This is the foundational layer representing the accessibility to the Internet connection and digital devices. According to the European Council it is estimated that 18% of schools in the European Union do not have a proper Internet connection.
This layer also represents devices used in modern educational settings. Whereas some countries could afford to buy the necessary devices for all students, for most it would make sense to consider implementing a ‘bring your own device’ policy.
Not many specialised solutions for the education sector are seen in this layer. Large corporations can deliver the connectivity solutions and devices into classrooms.
Supportive layer
This layer represents the support factor. It aids educational institutions to better manage themselves. The solutions in this layer are connected to getting more out of the resources that the institutions have. The solutions range from administration management systems to team development tools.
Successful specialised solutions can already be seen on this layer. For example, DreamApply, a platform for university admissions management helping universities to save approximately 60% of admin time from the most tedious admin work. Furthermore, universities have reported a significant 50% - 100% increase in international candidates since implementing the system. The website: www.DreamApply.com.
Another great example to highlight is an e-diary system E-school. The system enables better communication between students, teachers and parents. Link to the website: www.eKool.eu.
Delivery
This layer represents the ways of how learning is delivered. Currently there is a stereotype seen that the delivery of learning is the sole responsibility of a teacher. Here are several reasons why this is not the most efficient way of thinking. The challenges become evident when looking at the following graph.
The graph shows Normal Distribution of learners in classrooms. For example, even when in each class the majority of students are average in maths, it is however seen that there are a few that struggle to keep up. Also, it can be seen that there are some that are more advanced than others resulting in often feeling bored (the last two examples represent students with special needs).
The same applies to all abilities. For example, the students that are excellent in maths might not perform that good in arts. And some of them that are average in math are great in sports.
In reality, of course, it would be great if students would focus most of their time in developing their natural strengths but this cannot happen due to the following issue:
The typical teacher in Europe who teaches students from 6th grade and above has usually 150 - 250 students to teach on a weekly basis. They have the following weekly schedule:
7h + 21h + 5h (the numbers are exemplary).
It is seen that an average teacher spends 7h for preparing the classes, 21 hours to deliver classes, and 5 hours to do testing and grading (giving feedback to students). One way to look at it is that we could divide 7h to 200 students it makes 2,1 minutes preparation time per student per week. Essentially this means it is difficult to deliver personalised learning when using the ‘teacher-centric’ model. Even if we would double the number of teachers, truly personalised learning could not be carried out.
In addition to previous responsibilities, the teacher also has to file paperwork, participate in meetings and trainings, communicate with parents, support students that show signs of having difficulties etc. Therefore it is easy to understand why the many teachers are chronically overworked already.
One way to support the teacher in delivering personalised learning ie to add an AI component that analyses students' learning traits and offers them the best learning materials and methods.
Let’s take a look at a few initiatives that help to personalise learning. For example, an AI based learning support system Claned, www.Claned.com (Finland) has shown good results based on a whitepaper made in Oulu University. The lecturers have claimed that after having implemented the solution their workload decreased about 30%, furthermore, the students developed better, and at the same time their satisfaction with the teaching quality increased by around 20%.
Content + Method
This layer is the easiest to explain as the layer represents the earning solutions that everybody can see and can relate to.
Unfortunately, until the teacher is not getting efficient support in matching the new learning solutions with students it is likely that the solution providers in this layer will cease to exist before getting into the hands of learners. This is because the solution providers are unable to reach out to the right students to help them with their learning process.
A few examples of solutions: Anatomynext, www.anatomynext.com -AR/VR based anatomy studies that enable you to zoom into any organ in great detail - video. Furthermore, Grapho Grame helps to learn reading and adapts to the learners level - video.
It is evident that the top layer is the easiest to approach. However, counterintuitively, in this case we should start eating the pancakes from the bottom up. As this is already cooled down and we won't burn our tongue.