The 9th EdTech Forum: Bridging EdTech and Sustainability in Modern Education

In the evolving landscape of education, the?9th?annual?EdTech Forum was?hosted in November 2024 by the Hoffmann Institute at?INSEAD.?The two-day forum served as a critical platform to discuss the intersection of?Educational?Technology (EdTech) and Sustainability.?

Adrian Johnson,?Adjunct Professor at INSEAD and the Programme Director of the?INSEAD Summer?School,?noted the forum brought together faculty members and learning design specialists from over 50 different academic institutions, as well as a number of EdTech entrepreneurs, to work with INSEAD professors and VR specialists on finding solutions to the?sustainability challenge.?He?opened the forum by explaining how EdTech?has been normalised thanks to the global pandemic, which?put online learning on the map for many institutions. However, as?institutions increasingly adopt online learning, integrating generative AI (GenAI)?in a sustainable way?into educational offerings remains a frontier yet to be fully embraced.?

The?Dean of INSEAD?Francisco Veloso, followed Johnson with?opening remarks. He?spoke to the?power of collective behaviour by stating that integration?is not just about individual effort but a collective movement towards engaging students, sharing knowledge, and encouraging them to develop innovative solutions.?He emphasised the?need to embed?and integrate?sustainability?into the?curriculum?and include novel?technologies to help solve this pressing issue.?

Defining EdTech and Sustainability

The forum opened with the?panel?‘Defining EdTech and Sustainability’. To set the scene, the?panellists?were asked?by moderator and conference organiser,?Alastair?Giffin?to share their?definitions of edtech and their definitions of?sustainability.?

INSEAD’s Professor?Ithai Stern?stated that simply put EdTech is any technology designed to enhance teaching and learning. He raised the point that edtech doesn’t just have to include digital tech with software and hardware. He gave the example of King’s College London using boardgames to gamify and better explain economic inequality.? Following on from Stern was?Professor?Peter?Zemsky?who reframed the?question, asking instead ‘What should good edtech be about?’ ‘What is the aim of Edtech?’ and ‘What is objective of using Edtech?’.

He emphasised, much like Stern, that the?aim of edtech is to make learning more effective and raised the question but how do you measure more effective learning? Does this mean faster learning, deeper learning, or cheaper learning? He noted it's important to keep this in mind as getting value out of tech is hard and getting value out of tech in the education sector is even harder.?He?emphasised that the true value of edtech lies in making learning more effective, efficient, and accessible. Despite its potential, the education sector is traditionally slow to adopt new technologies, though the fit with GenAI currently appears promising.

The panellists?were then asked to expand on?the ‘what’ edtech for Sustainability?means to them. Panellists?highlighted?the dual-edged nature of technology in sustainability. While edtech can combat misinformation and enhance accountability, it also poses environmental challenges due to its energy demands.

Business Schools' Role in Sustainability and EdTech

The following panel?brought together faculty and staff at leading business schools across the global. The panel highlighted the opportunities and challenges in engaging stakeholders to ensure that sustainability is embedded into the?core of everything their school does.?

Kim Wilkinson from the Hoffmann Institute at INSEAD explained the?4-pillar?strategy?that his institute has been using to integrate?sustainability?into?everything?the school does. He noted that it is a case of doing the basics wells and creating a solid sustainability foundation across the school.

Charmain Allen?of?Cambridge Judge Business School?and?Kathy Harvey?of?Sa?d Business School, University of Oxford both expressed how being a business school part of a university they benefit from wider research capabilities and a wider reach through incubators and other initiatives.?Allen noted that being in this unique position the business school can be a bridge between the corporate and academic worlds. However, it is not without challenges. Harvey explained it be hard to connect the business school to the university. To solve this problem, Sa?d Business School developed a community of interested staff, faculty and associates to look at new products, programmes and ways of working related to bringing sustainability into the classroom. This resulted in a climate bootcamp at beginning of the year where they invited the rest of university into the business school so students could listen to arguments and research across university.?

Harvey found at the end of this bootcamps there were two camps of students: those already walking the talk and those interested in everything except sustainability.?Julia Marsh from London Business School echoed this experience.?

Business schools must engage in funding, events, and networking to drive conversations around edtech and sustainability.?The recruitment of PhDs focused on sustainability research and the cross-collaboration between faculties are crucial for embedding sustainability principles into business education. Educators are the engines driving this transformation, ensuring that students retain and apply their learning beyond the classroom.

Participants then gathered in small groups to discuss the first sessions, followed by a networking cocktail and dinner.

Company and Startup Perspectives

The second day of the forum featured insights and pitches from companies and startups like JETLearn, Headspring, Elsevier, and PRENDO, which are pioneering in the edtech space.?Anitha Alappat spoke about INSEAD’s own lifelong learning app, the Learning Hub.?These short presentations demonstrated how digital solutions can enhance learning experiences, support startup projects, and simulate real-world challenges to prepare future leaders.?

“The annual EdTech Forum addressed the question of “How Education Technology can play a positive role in Sustainability". It confirmed our conviction that EdTech does indeed have a major role to play in one of society’s key challenges, but that there is a long list of success factors to be achieved in order to do so.” – Alistair Giffin

Case Study: Beyond Sustainability - Redesigning Regenerative Systems

The?participants?then got to experience an INSEAD VR case. Each participant donned a VR headset and were?able to experience the?case?‘Beyond Sustainability at Blue Hill?Farm’, taught by Professor Nathan Furr, which showcased the importance of combining sustainability with innovation. The regenerative approach to agriculture and education emphasized the need to give back as much as we take, fostering a culture of empowerment, experimentation, and vision-setting.?The?ever-changing?menu at?Blue Hill Farm underlines the respect?for seasonal food, making it easier for the earth to also naturally regenerate.?

The forum was rounded out with an AI companion presentation by participants from IESE and a fireside chat held between Peter?Zemsky and?Chaitanya Kalipatnapu (INSEAD MBA’06D) who spoke about Eruditus, his EdTech startup. Eruditus, which runs the Emeritus Institute of Management, has raised US$650 million and makes high quality education affordable and accessible. He spoke about the role of not being a thought leader but an enabler for universities and how this partnership has reached 86 universities and 600,000 learners in 80 countries.

Conclusion

The?forum?highlighted that the integration of edtech and sustainability within education is not merely a trend but a necessity. Business schools and educational institutions must continue to adapt, ensuring that they remain relevant and impactful in shaping future leaders who are equipped to tackle global challenges.