8 IN MY V EWEDTECH ­ A FAST-GROWING BUSINESS SECTOR WITH THE POTENTIAL TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACEBY DAVID GLOVER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - PARTNERSHIPS, UNITEC INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, NEW ZEALANDOnce one of the last industries to engage comfortably with the digital world, education has now become an exciting source of innovation and technological advancement. This conservative, change-averse sector is being pushed into the modern world by a new generation of tech-savvy students, teachers and businesses.Perhaps as little as five years ago education technology was principally the domain of back office support staff in educational institutions, and was generally understood to relate to learning management systems.Today EdTech, as it has fashionably become known, is a multi-billion-dollar global industry ranging from ambitious start-ups looking to attract smart investors to large scale initiatives from tech giants such as Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft. It embraces gaming, publishing, AI, school and industry-based learning, multiple media formats, and more.EdTech has come of age only in recent times. When I attended the first ever New Zealand Start-Up weekend dedicated to education back in 2014, the room was populated by young coders looking for a cool project and a handful of people with educational experience. As an educational publisher at the time, I was invited to join a team that designed and produced Banqer, a financial literacy game simulation for the classroom. Banqer is now an award-winning platform used in hundreds of schools across Australia and New Zealand and its founder Kendall Flutey was recently named Young New Zealander of the Year.When I started the first EdTech MeetUp in New Zealand in November of 2014 just 18 people came along. Today the Wellington EdTech MeetUp has 852 members and there is a national association, EdTechNZ, representing the David Glover
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