Australian Educational Technology Trends

Welcome to the Australian Educational Technologies Trends (AETT) project.

Over 100 leading Australian and international educators and experts concerned with Australian education, drawn from schools (primary and secondary), school leadership, industry, government, and academia, were invited to be part of the report because of their ability to contribute in a meaningful way to our collective understanding of how Educational Technologies and the computing curriculum is currently being implemented in Australian schools, and the changes that may occur in the near future (5 years). The collective wisdom generated by the Delphi Method and Conjoint Analysis research processes provided detailed insight into what is occurring in Australian schools and the directions possible to improving Australian education.

The end result of this process was a report that shows how Educational Technologies are being used in Australian schools, how the Digital Technologies and Senior Computer Science curriculum are being implemented, and how these may change in the near future (5 years). Teachers, school leaders, governments, industry and researchers can use this report to assist in making decisions on the focus, support and funding of Educational Technologies and the computing curriculum in Australian schools.

The research process was supported by the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE) with funding from the Digital Careers (CSIRO) and Griffith University.

The intent is for this to become an annual process that builds a longitudinal understanding of changes in Educational Technologies and the Digital Technologies / CS curriculum.

The first stage identified participants and gained a consensus on the alternatives to be included in this years study, in four areas:

1. Which technologies related to the teaching Digital Technologies (F-10) and Senior CS Curriculum should we include?

2. Which Educational Technologies related to the diffusion of ICT General capabilities (students), instructional (teachers), and organisational (school) Technologies should we include?

3. Which challenges related to Educational Technologies should be included? and

4. Which trends related to Educational Technologies should be included?

Participants considered a wide range of possibilities and contributed additional alternatives for consideration based on their collective experiences with educational technologies and the curriculum.

This first stage was completed by the 6th of April, 2018 and took less than half an hour for each participant to complete.

The second stage gained a consensus on the relative importance of each technology, challenge and trend. It was completed via an extensive set of surveys taking 1-3 hours to complete.

The second stage was available from the 13th of April, 2018 and was completed by the 27th of April, 2018.

The third stage examined the consensus from stage 2 through online discussion where participants argued for or against elements in the presented consensus. This again involve an hour or two contributing to a shared document discussion over a two week period. The third stage was available by the 11th of May 2018 and completed by the 25th of May 2018.

The fourth stage briefly repeated the second stage survey to reflect any changes in views and took less than an hour but generated 15619 conjoint pair votes. The fourth stage was available by the 1st of June 2018, and was completed by the 15th June 2018.

The fifth stage involved preparing the report from analysis of surveys, discussions, and conjoint pair votes, and was completed by the 2nd of October 2018.

The sixth and final stage was to launch the report at the ACCE2018 Conference on the 3rd of October 2018 and publication in the Australian Educational Computing (AEC) journal summer edition (subject to peer review). Participants contributing fully to the first five stages were acknowledged as contributing authors to the report with randomised ordering after the lead researcher and research assistants. Those attending ACCE2018 were acknowledged at the launch.

Decision making over the increasing range of Educational Technologies available to support K12 education is complex, expensive and embarrassing mistakes are common. This research aims to use an expert consensus model to clarify the criteria for the selection of Educational Technologies, and provide an annual expert consensus view on what Educational Technologies are available, their rising or falling popularity, their value for money, and their impact on learning and teaching.

The research utilises the Delphi method, and presents findings in a format similar to the now discontinued Horizon Reports that popularised this field internationally from 2004 to 2017.

With the introduction of the Digital Technologies subject into the Australian curriculum, and a continuing focus on the integration of ICT throughout the curriculum, there is a need to provide considered advice on the use, purchase, and deployment of various Educational Technologies, as well as highlighting new areas of content and pedagogical approaches.

The focus is not only on prediction, but the identification of current practice and trends over time. This can enable projection of trends, but has limited predictive capability to identify unexpected new educational technologies, though it may identify opportunity gaps where these are likely to emerge.

This process builds on the trial conducted at the Leadership Forum of the Australian Council for Computers in Education conference in October 2016 and the New Media Consortium Horizon Report series.

Past contributing authors, AETT Reports, and de-identified data collected from each Australian Educational Technologies Trends project have been made publicly available on this Australian Educational Technologies Trends (AETT) website.

Ethics approval for this research has been through Griffith University (GU Ref No: 2018/282) in compliance with the the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (Australian Code) and the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research. In participating, participants acknowledge and agree to the conditions detailed in the projects Informed Consent.

AETT2018.pdf

2018 AETT Report (PDF)

AETT2018launch.pdf

2018 AETT Report Launch (PDF)

If interested in being included as an expert in future Australian Educational Technologies Trends reports, please complete the following:

Informed Consent: Australian Educational Technologies Trends

Informed Consent Document

AETT 2018 research supported by

Stage 1 Alternatives

The first stage in this process was to identify project participants and gain a consensus on four areas:

Which technologies related to the teaching Digital Technologies (F-10) and Senior CS Curriculum should we include?
Which Educational Technologies related to the diffusion of ICT General capabilities (students), instructional (teachers), and organisational (school) Technologies should we include?
Which trends related to Educational Technologies should be included? and
Which challenges related to Educational Technologies should be included?

Participants suggested other items not previously included at this stage.

This first stage was completed by the 6th of April, 2018.

Stage 1 open 19 March

Alternatives Survey by 6 April

Stage 2 Consensus Determination

The second stage gained consensus on the relative significance of the various alternatives identified in the first stage: technologies, challenges and trends.

Participants also contributed examples of exemplar use of technologies for inclusion in the report.

The survey and exemplar contributions took between 1 and 3 hours to complete and involved about 200 different alternatives.

The second stage was available by the 13th of April, 2018 and completed by the 27th of April, 2018.

Stage 2 open 13 April

Consensus Surveys by 27 April

Stage 3 Consensus Confirmation

The third stage examined the consensus developed from stage 2, with an online discussion to argue for or against the presented consensus.

This discussion involved an hour or two contributing anonymously to a shared document discussion over a two week period between the 11th of May and 25th of May 2018.

The third stage was available by the 11th of May 2018 and completed by the 25th of May 2018.

Stage 3 open 11 May

Consensus Confirmation discussion by 25 May

Stage 4 Consensus Validation

The fourth stage revisited the second stage survey to reflect any changes in participant views.

This should took less than an hour but generated 15619 conjoint pair votes and provided an import reflection on the Delphi process and a statistical check on perspectives.

The fourth stage was available by the 1st of June 2018, and completed by the 15th June 2018.

Stage 4 open 1 June

Consensus Validation Survey by 15 June

Stage 5 Analysis

The fifth stage involved preparing the report from analysis of surveys, discussions, and conjoint pair votes.

Stage 5 open 16 June

Draft available 1 Oct

Stage 6 Publication

The sixth and final stage was to launch the report at the ACCE2018 Conference in October 2018 and publication in the Australian Educational Computing (AEC) journal summer edition (subject to peer review). All participants contributing fully to the five stages were acknowledged as a contributing authors to the report with randomised ordering after the lead researcher and research assistants. Participants attending the ACCE2018 conference were acknowledged at the launch.

Stage 6 by 2 October

AETT Report available by 3 October

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