Digital education strategies around the world: practices and policies

ABSTRACT

Technology is omnipresent in our rapidly changing digital world. Capitalising on these technologies is paramount for education systems to support a modern workforce. This study presents a review of 10 countries, highlighting how different public education systems have integrated digital technologies for teaching and learning. These education systems were selected based on their high performance and continuous improvement in international assessments. Four main themes emerged as key areas of focus from our analysis: improved and enhanced teaching and learning; digital maturation, including tackling the first and second digital divide; data-driven decision making and evidence-based education; and AI in education. Our findings will help benchmark current approaches and uses of digital teaching and learning, including perceived challenges and opportunities that can be used to inform the development and implementation of digital education policies.

KEYWORDS:

• digital learning
• education policy
• digital education
• educational technology

Acknowledgements

This article is based on a project funded by the South Australian Department for Education. We would like to thank Professor George Siemens for his insightful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Florence Gabriel

Dr Florence Gabriel is a Lecturer in STEM education and a Fellow at the Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning at the University of South Australia. She completed her PhD in educational neuroscience at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the University of Cambridge. Before joining the University of South Australia, she was a policy analyst on the OECD Education 2030 project. Dr Gabriel studies the cognitive, metacognitive, motivational and affective factors that influence students’ learning and academic achievement. She is particularly interested in mathematics anxiety, self-regulated learning, and learning in digital environments. Twitter: @DrFloGabriel

Rebecca Marrone

Dr Rebecca Marrone is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning at the University of South Australia. She completed her PhD in Educational Psychology, where she investigated the role of creativity in encouraging female students to study mathematics. Dr Marrone’s research focuses on initiating and directing projects in the fields of creativity, educational psychology and human and artificial cognition across varying educational contexts. Twitter: @becmarrone

Ysabella Van Sebille

Dr Ysabella Van Sebille is a Senior Lecturer at UniSA Online and an affiliate member of the Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning. Ysabella completed her PhD in Medicine at the University of Adelaide. She is the Chair of The Digital Health Group for the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, and her research focuses on Digital Health in Oncology and Digital Education. Twitter: @YsabellaVan

Vitomir Kovanovic

Dr Vitomir Kovanovic is a Senior Lecturer at UniSA Education Futures and a member of the Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning (C3L), working in the area of learning analytics. Vitomir obtained his PhD in Informatics at the University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom) in 2017. Currently, Vitomir serves as the Co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Learning Analytics, Associated Editor for the Higher Education Research & Development Journal (Taylor and Francis) and Academic Editor for PLoS ONE Journal (Public Library of Science). Twitter: @vkovanovic

Maarten de Laat

Professor Maarten de Laat is co-director of the Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning (C3L) at the University of South Australia. His research focuses on learning and value creation in social networks. He uses practice-based research methodologies to study the impact technology, AI, learning analytics, and social design have on how social networks and communities work, learn and innovate. Maarten is co-chair of the international Networked Learning Conference and editor of the Springer book series on Research in Networked Learning. Twitter: @maartenfdelaat