Abstract:

The use of technology in the education system has been raising many hopes as the potential solution to the system's problems. The Extensive discussion regarding technology integration into the educational system revolves around two significant educational challenges:
(a) enhancing students' engagement;
(b) adjusting schools to the 21st century, i.e., a transformative pedagogical change from information-based agenda and teacher-centered practices to 21st-century skills and learner-centered pedagogies.

In recent years there has been dramatic growth in the educational technology industry, including the entrance of high-tech companies and startups, into the educational technology arena previously dominated by big publishers and non-profit organizations. This Ed-tech branch is accompanied by profit-driven investors who see the educational field as a potential market. This industry is gaining interest from decision-makers worldwide, and some see it as a possible source for fixing the education system's problems.

We examined Ed-Tech companies that offer pedagogically-oriented products to K-12 formal education from a pedagogical perspective, particularly what change they offer to school pedagogy. Data sources were the websites of all companies that presented at the ASU+GSV summit 2018.

Employing content analysis, we found that all companies except one declared their products would increase students' engagement. However, only a few products aim at a transformative change in the pedagogy; most companies aim at middle-order change, within which a component of traditional pedagogy is broken, yet the traditional pedagogy essence is maintained.

Our findings put up a warning sign regarding the expectations from the Edtech industry and place the responsibility on the client, the education system, to define how to change transformatively.

Keywords:

Edtech, 21st century school, Pedagogy, Transformative change.