One of the aims of the EdTech Evidence Board project, funded by the Department for Education, is to support educators to make evidence-informed decisions about EdTech tools. 

In a crowded marketplace where products with big claims emerge rapidly, how can educators feel confident they’re choosing tools for their classrooms which will have a positive impact on their students’ pedagogical outcomes?

Here at the Chartered College we have an embedded evidence-first approach, and so we applied this to the process of evaluating EdTech products. We liaised with industry experts and conducted research to ascertain:

• How do you assess the evidence base of an EdTech product?
• What key questions do educators need to ask of EdTech products to interrogate their evidence base?

In this blogpost we share some of our findings and details of a tool we’ve created to support educators to make evidence-based decisions around EdTech products.

Three foundational areas

Decision-making around education technology is typically informed by three key considerations: 

These considerations are interdependent. If any one of these is overlooked, the decision-making process is likely to be flawed: 

• without consideration of context and needs, there will not be a clear rationale for decision-making
• without sufficient awareness of product features, there is no way of knowing whether the product could practically meet identified needs
• if there is no evidence supporting a product’s claims, it’s unlikely that a product would actually achieve what it claims to.

The following diagram captures this perfectly: 

Completing this kind of evaluation for every EdTech product can be a lengthy process, especially if you don’t know where to start or have limited evidence literacy experience. EdTech companies don’t always make it easy for educators to access this information, and how do you know what to look for if you don’t know what questions to ask?

The EdTech Check tool

In order to support educators to make better, evidence-informed divisions about EdTech products, we have developed the EdTech Check tool. We have presented the three-step structured framework in a step by step evaluation tool that educators can use to systematically evaluate evidence for EdTech products in order to inform decision-making about EdTech in their setting.

The tool is relevant for teachers, school and college leaders, business managers and governors and anyone else involved in selecting and using digital technology in education settings.

The tool is structured into three sections:

• Section 1 focuses on identifying your specific product needs in relation to EdTech

• Section 2 outlines practical questions that you can use as an initial starting point for discussions around specific EdTech products

• Section 3 provides a systematic framework that you can use to undertake a more comprehensive appraisal of the evidence-base for a specific EdTech product to evaluate its potential for enhancing teaching and learning in your setting.

Download the free tool today and let us know your feedback.

You can find out more about the EdTech Evidence Board project here.