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What do you like about your role?
I feel blessed to work closely with people from the full learning life cycle- dedicated students, educators, entrepreneurs, VCs, and other EdTech stakeholders. It’s truly inspiring to see transformation in action all around the world, driven by people who share the common goal of creating a better learning experience. Another exciting part of my role is being able to nurture innovative ideas and support the global EdTech ecosystem to ultimately change the way the world learns.
Share three predictions on the future of Edtech.
- Strength Identification. What requires more attention is the potential that technology has in uncovering one’s true opportunities. In the same way that understanding our children’s genetic makeup leads us to make better-informed decisions about their medical care, understanding our students’ varied strengths is crucial to enhancing their learning experiences.
- Lifelong Learning. As life expectancy continues to improve and more tech-literate people join the top of the population pyramid, we will see a greater demand in learning opportunities for those in the senior segment.
- Lowering the Language Barrier. Translation technology and other language-learning systems will eventually be good enough to better mitigate the language barriers, making it even easier for us to continuously connect and learn from each other.
What technologies do you believe have the potential to transform the education industry?
One exciting application of artificial intelligence and measurement tools is to analyze students’ behavioral data utilizing cross-disciplinary data point methods.
Looking at the key trends over the past 5 years in edtech, what would you say have been the key areas of change that are impacting edtech today? Anything unexpected that surprised you? Trends that were overhyped and never met their expected potential?
We still see a gap between the city and rural areas, and between the rich and the poor in terms of accessibility to education. EdTech was anticipated to help bridge this gap by delivering quality education to those who previously had no access. We have a long way left to go. There needs to be more focus on delivering qualified teachers as well as quality content to those that do not have access.
I also see Online Learning as another field that hasn’t met its anticipated potential. One challenge (and opportunity) will be to break down the language barriers that limit or prevent people from accessing online content.
Why is it important for all players in the edtech ecosystem to continuously connect, network and learn from each other?
In the EdTech ecosystem, everyone is eager to learn from each other’s expertise, which flows from their respective regions/countries to constantly improve current conditions and spark new ideas. I would argue, however, that we must reach outside the EdTech ecosystem to trigger disruptive innovation in education and learning.
When you think about joining EdTechXAsia this year, what are you looking forward to? What makes you excited about our event in Singapore?
I’m looking forward to joining other EdTech thought leaders from Asia and Europe for mutually beneficial discussions of ideas- listening to their perspectives and sharing mine! By widening our world perspective, we can forge into the next phase of innovation together!
Join Yoshi and our 150+ thought leader speakers at EdTechXAsia 2017 on 31st October-1st November 2017 - reserve your place now >>
