A New Era in EdTech: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically expanded the increasingly important role of educational technology ("EdTech") in K-16 education. EdTech is "the introduction of information and technology tools in teaching and learning" (Ganimian et al., 2020, p. 5). Examples of EdTech include audio-visual aids, computer-assisted learning, mobile devices, smart technologies, and virtual reality (Huang et al., 2019). One sign of the growing importance of technology in schools is the rapid increase in EdTech investments, which tripled between 2019 (pre-COVID) and 2021 (during COVID; HolonIQ, 2022). Nonetheless, inequality in access to technology remains a barrier for students in underserved schools (Chapman et al., 2010;Dorn et al., 2020).Educators swiftly incorporated new technologies and identified innovative strategies to continue delivering instruction during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, when most schools had stopped providing in-person instruction (e.g., Kim et al., 2021). While schools have moved most instruction back to in-person, it is clear that existing and new technologies will continue to be