EdTech Impact’s CEO joins advisory group for new EdTech Evidence Board

Michael will bring his expertise in educational technology (EdTech) as an advisor to the UK Department for Education’s new EdTech Evidence Board (EEB) project.

Over the past five years, EdTech innovation has expanded rapidly, driven in large part by the mainstream shift toward technology-mediated learning necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, many EdTech products fail to deliver on their educational promises. Despite substantial investment, student learning outcomes remain inconsistent. Additionally, EdTech can occasionally lead to unintended negative consequences, such as reinforcing ineffective learning models and exacerbating learner exclusion.

An Evidence-Based Approach to Evaluating EdTech

The EdTech Evidence Board project has been established to build an evidence-based approach that can reliably evaluate the effectiveness of EdTech products and services.

The advisory group, composed of experts from the education and EdTech sectors, will provide specialist input to inform the EdTech Evidence Board’s approach. As the project progresses, the group will help define evaluation criteria and develop guidance to support EdTech companies in demonstrating the efficacy of their products.

The EEB aims to drive critical thinking among schools and EdTech providers about the impact and measurement of EdTech products, helping education settings feel confident that they are choosing products that work well for them and for their classrooms.

By working with experts across education and EdTech, the project aims to ensure that the evaluation process is practical, meaningful, and beneficial across the sector:

“This collaborative approach will help to ensure that guidance and processes are useful to all, and that gathering evidence of impact can ultimately be incorporated into product development and testing across the EdTech sector.”

Bringing Industry Expertise

With 18 years of experience deploying, managing, and evaluating EdTech in schools, Michael brings deep industry expertise to the advisory group.

As CEO of EdTech Impact, he leads the vision, strategy, and framework behind the UK’s largest EdTech marketplace, a trusted platform used by over 600,000 educators annually to discover high-potential solutions and assess value for money from existing investments.

Alongside his work at EdTech Impact, Michael co-leads the Global EdTech Testbed Network, a collaborative initiative focused on advancing best practices in EdTech co-development and evaluation.

We are delighted that Michael has been invited to contribute to this initiative and look forward to seeing how the EdTech Evidence Board raises standards across the sector.