How AI and edtech can help bridge the educational inequality divide

The Australian Network for Quality Digital Education aims to improve digital technology learning outcomes for disadvantaged students.

EducationDaily

Industry experts believe the tools created by educational technologies (edtech) may be usable in every classroom, to bridge the gap of educational inequality.

To support that vision, leaders from Australia’s edtech sector have united forces with social benefit and government partners to launch the new Australian Network for Quality Digital Education coalition. The initiative aims to help realise the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and other edtech to create a more level playing field for students.

Australian Network for Quality Digital Education chair Professor Leslie Loble, from the University of Technology Sydney, says the project is committed to exploring ways to leverage the potential to transform learning outcomes, particularly for students experiencing disadvantage.

“We know there is a deep-seated learning gap between the most and least advantaged students in Australia, and the digital divide exposed during the Covid-19 pandemic is set to become the next frontier in that challenge,” she told EducationDaily.

- Advertisement -

“There is a growing body of evidence that shows the potential for teachers and learners to use high-quality education technology, known as ‘edtech’, as another tool to help close the education gap. This suite of technologies can, in the right environment, help solve one of the education system’s most significant challenges: how to create targeted and compelling instruction for all students – but particularly disadvantaged, complex-need students, within the universal schooling system.”

Quality edtech governance is needed

But edtech, she says, “remains simply a targeted aid and needs to be well-designed, well-used and well-governed to make a positive impact”.

To help create the change needed, the Australian Network for Quality Digital Education will aim to work on key edtech-focused policy questions.

Professor Loble says AI goes beyond equalising educational opportunities directly in the classroom and can serve many purposes for students, teachers and systems, including teaching and administrative aids, data collection and analysis, and individualised student support.

- Advertisement -

“Adaptive, advanced edtech tools can be useful to teachers in gathering more precise data to diagnose and analyse learning progress,” she told EducationDaily.

“Other edtech products offer students personalised learning, support, and engaging ways to learn – which could significantly help vulnerable students who might otherwise fall through the cracks.”

The benefits of AI-led tailored skill-building for students

As an example, Professor Loble highlights how a primary school in an area of disadvantage struggling with literacy levels has used an adaptive learning technology platform as a tool to integrate personalised student skill-building into a teacher’s classroom program, as well as provide targeted learning resources and detailed data on both student and class-wide progress.

The Australian Network for Quality Digital Education is being convened with inaugural funding from the Paul Ramsay Foundation and sponsored by the Hon. Professor Verity Firth AM, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Social Justice and Inclusion) at the University of Technology Sydney. Three meetings are planned for 2024.

Paul Ramsay Foundation CEO Professor Kristy Muir welcomes the opportunity to support the network.

- Advertisement -

“Evidence shows that digital technology can be a powerful educational tool when used properly, but we need to make sure that this revolution does not widen the education gap,” she says. “Ensuring equitable access to quality edtech for students and teachers is critical. We need to ensure all children in Australia get the best from this rapidly advancing technology, setting them up for a lifetime of learning and other positive outcomes.”

David Gonski AC is a longstanding advocate for more equitable support for Australian students and also lends support to the Network. He describes it as “important way of creating momentum for change at a social and technological inflection point”.

“Edtech is a critical component of the educational environment,” Mr Gonski says.

“We do not ask whether schools should have computers because computers are part of the modern world,” he says. “We do ask – and we should keep asking – how can edtech be best used to improve teaching and learning, especially for the students who need it most?”

Share This Article