In the bustling world of educational technology, where every platform promises to be the next big thing, it often comes down to what works best for our unique needs. For your school, navigating between Microsoft Teams and Education Perfect (EP) has likely felt like charting a course through a sea of possibilities. Let’s distill this down to the essentials, focusing on why Microsoft Teams might just be the beacon guiding us home.

This blog article explains how using Education Perfect (EP), a single platform for all subjects, to improve student engagement and outcomes through EdTech consolidation. It also explores the benefits of using artificial intelligence (AI) to create personalised and adaptive learning experiences. The whitepaper that EP put forward in its of title ‘The Modern Hierarchy of EdTech Needs’; How schools can improve student engagement, (2024). Delivers edtech outcomes through using a pyramid framework, inspired by Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, to illustrate the different levels of EdTech adoption and how they can enhance teaching and learning. As this was something I studied long back in my degree at university, it was compelling for me to reflect on this paper in more depth and share.

Here are some main takeaways from the whitepaper:

• It proposes a pyramid framework for edtech adoption, based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, that consists of three levels: technology as substitution, one platform for all subjects, and redefining how we use classroom technology.
• It argues that using a single platform for all subjects, such as Education Perfect (EP), can provide significant benefits for students, teachers, and schools, such as personalised learning, adaptive assessment, holistic data, and resource efficiency.
• The whitepaper also explores the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the role of teachers, increase student engagement, and impact school culture, by creating new teaching possibilities and addressing individual student needs.
• This whitepaper aims to inspire educators to consider where they are on their edtech journey and what the future of that journey may look like, with EP as a leading example of a consolidated edtech platform.

Thinking about my school context, it becomes clear that Microsoft TEAMS could combine a mixture of both ideologies. Microsoft Teams, with its robust toolkit for collaboration, inclusivity, and communication, doesn’t just dip its toes into the waters of educational technology; it dives in headfirst. It’s like a digital agora, a gathering place where ideas flourish, and learning happens in real-time. The platform is a champion of connectivity, offering video conferencing, messaging for students, and AI-assisted learning tools that support independent learning journeys. What’s more, Teams takes a holistic approach to education, fostering not just academic growth but emotional and social well-being through activities that support social-emotional learning (SEL).

Teams goes beyond being a mere platform; it’s a comprehensive ecosystem. Its Assignments and Grades feature streamlines task assignment and assessment, making it easier for educators to track progress. Accessibility is another feather in its cap, ensuring that every student, regardless of their individual needs, finds a place within the digital classroom.

Now, turning our gaze towards Education Perfect (EP), it’s clear that EP brings its own set of strengths to the table, especially with its focus on personalized learning and adaptive teaching. EP champions the cause of a unified platform for all subjects, aiming to simplify the educational landscape with AI-driven insights and efficiencies.

However, when we consider the broader context of your school, the scales start to tip in favor of Teams. It’s not just about the features on paper; it’s about the doors these features open. Teams offers a veritable toolkit for collaboration, inclusivity, and adaptive learning without the added cost of procuring another platform like EP. It’s about getting the best of both worlds without stretching your resources thin.

Adopting Teams could mean embracing a platform that’s not only versatile across all subjects but also conducive to a vibrant, interactive learning environment. It’s about leveraging the collective strengths of Microsoft’s ecosystem, which could potentially synergize the educational philosophies of both Teams and EP, without the extra expenditure.

Microsoft Teams:

• Collaboration: Microsoft Teams provides a platform for seamless collaboration, allowing educators to set up virtual classrooms, keep assignments organized, and collaborate on Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files in real time.
• Inclusivity: Teams supports diverse learning styles of every student, from K-12 to higher education.
• Communication: It provides a secure digital environment for communication, including video conferencing and supervised messaging for students.
• Independent Learning: Teams offers personalized tools that allow students to practice and learn on their own, with help from AI-assisted digital learning coaches and built-in progress trackers.
• Social Skills Development: Teams supports students’ emotional and social well-being and provides a safe space to navigate feelings with age-appropriate activities that promote social-emotional learning (SEL).
• Assignment and Grade Tracking: Teams has an Assignments and Grades feature to assign tasks, quiz students, use grading rubrics, and track individual and class-wide achievements over time.
• Accessibility: Teams implements proven techniques that make the educational experience more accessible and inclusive for all students regardless of their age, language, fluency, or abilities.

Education Perfect (EP):

Education Perfect (EP), with its noble aim of offering a single platform for all subjects, brings forth an appealing proposition. It suggests a world where personalized learning and adaptive assessment are not just aspirations but realities. The platform’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) to tailor educational experiences speaks to a future where technology and teaching are inextricably linked. EP’s vision, reminiscent of the foundational principles laid out in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, proposes a pyramid framework for EdTech adoption that’s as ambitious as it is compelling.

• Single Platform: EP proposes a single platform for all subjects, providing benefits such as personalized learning, adaptive assessment, holistic data, and resource efficiency.
• AI Integration: EP explores the potential of AI to enhance the role of teachers, increase student engagement, and impact school culture.
• Adaptive Teaching: EP allows for adaptive teaching, addressing individual student needs and creating new teaching possibilities.

Comparisons:

Both platforms offer a range of resources and flexibility for teachers, and both have a focus on personalised and adaptive learning. However, there are some differences:

• While EP is a single platform for all subjects, Teams integrates with various Microsoft products and can be customized with third-party apps.
• Teams has a strong emphasis on collaboration and communication, making it a powerful tool for remote learning.
• Teams also provides more comprehensive features for assignment and grade tracking, which may be beneficial for staff agreement on setting and tracking assignments.
• The reflective nature embedded in the system of EP might provide a less prescriptive way of adaptive teaching.

Choosing Teams isn’t just a practical decision; it’s a strategic move towards creating a more connected, inclusive, and adaptive learning environment. It acknowledges the diverse needs of your students and educators, offering a flexible, cost-effective solution that doesn’t compromise on quality or possibilities.

In essence, while EP has its merits, especially in terms of subject-specific personalisation, Teams emerges as the ultimate platform for your school, promising a future where technology seamlessly integrates with every facet of education, enriching both teaching and learning experiences. This isn’t about settling; it’s about aiming for the stars, with Teams as our launchpad.

Both platforms have their strengths and can be beneficial depending on the specific needs and context of the school. It’s important to consider factors such as the school’s existing infrastructure, the comfort level of staff and students with the platform, and the specific educational goals of the school when choosing a platform. It’s also worth noting that these platforms can be used in conjunction to leverage the strengths of both. For example, Teams could be used for its strong collaboration and communication features, while EP could be used for its subject-specific resources and adaptive teaching capabilities.

In my opinion, the whitepaper presents a compelling vision for the future of edtech, but also acknowledges the challenges and barriers that may hinder its implementation. I think that using a single platform for all subjects is a desirable goal, but it may not be feasible or suitable for every school, depending on their context, resources, and preferences. I also think that AI has a lot of potential to transform education, but it also raises ethical, social, and pedagogical issues that need to be carefully addressed. Therefore, I think that edtech adoption should be guided by evidence-based research, stakeholder consultation, and continuous evaluation, rather than by a rigid or prescriptive framework.