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, each year are invited to be part of the development 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 provides insight into what is occurring in Australian schools and the directions possible to improving Australian education.
The end result of this process is an annual 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 first stage identifies participants and gaines a consensus on the alternatives to be included in the study for the year, 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 consider a wide range of possibilities and contribute additional alternatives for consideration based on their collective experiences with educational technologies and the curriculum.
The second stage gaines a consensus on the relative importance of each technology, challenge and trend. It is completed via an extensive set of surveys taking 1-3 hours to complete.
The third stage examines the consensus from stage 2 through online discussion where participants argue for or against elements in the presented consensus. This again involves an hour or two contributing to a shared document discussion over a two week period.
The fourth stage briefly repeats the second stage survey to reflect any changes in views and took less than an hour but generated 15619 conjoint pair votes.
The fifth stage involves preparing the report from analysis of surveys, discussions, and conjoint pair votes.
The sixth and final stage is to launch the report. Participants contributing fully to the first five stages are acknowledged as contributing authors to the report with randomised ordering after the lead researcher and research assistants.
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 are 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.pdfAETT2018launch.pdfIf interested in being included as an expert in Australian Educational Technologies Trends reports, please complete the following:
AETT 2019 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
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.
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 is to launch the report and publication in the Australian Educational Computing (AEC) journal Winter edition (subject to peer review). All participants contributing fully to the five stages are 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
