Edtech in the Nordics offers students alternative learning journeys

Reading through gameplay

One exponent of this notion is Poio, a company whose digital tool encourages reading through gameplay and has so far helped more than 100,000 Scandinavian children. The idea arose from the personal experience of the company’s founder, Daniel Senn, when his son was born with hearing difficulties and needed a more bespoke way of learning to read.

“Our vision is to encourage every child to master and enjoy reading, and the way you introduce the idea of reading is a key aspect of how that transpires, and how successful it will be,” said Senn. “This was a personal motivation that is also compatible with what every parent and teacher wants for children in their care.”

However, as Senn has found out, it’s not what every teacher or educational institution wants for children in terms of the learning methodology.

“Our competition is almost exclusively digitised schoolbooks, which are organised around pages and tasks and sequences,” said Senn. “We create a game in their place – characters and things you can play with and understand.

“Our books aren’t even readable to begin with but as the children learn how the game works, suddenly they learn.”

Senn says children at that age often find it frustrating and unconducive to be taught in formulaic, structured ways, and digital startups outside the educational system bring a sense of creativity and personalisation to the process – attitudes that both parents and teachers have been wary of adopting.

“I think it’s still a cultural shock for adults – and we still see this even though we’ve been a success,” said Senn. “School teaching is very traditional and centred around group learning, but companies like us in the edtech space can be bigger on personal learning, where students develop at their own tempo in line with their own individual preferences.

“We will hopefully go some way to reducing the friction between the two ideas, as there’s certainly room for both to give children the most rounded education possible.”

The edtech alternative

The question of whether edtech companies are complementing and improving the education system, or clashing with it, is relevant, but certainly not a deal-breaker in the Nordics. As both Senn and Warström emphasised, companies in this space are not setting out to champion a side or cause disparity. They are doing so to improve the overall education process, using innovations that evolve the entire learning spectrum.

Whether children are beginning the learning process and need a little more flexibility both inside and outside the classroom, or they are in higher education and need the more traditional institutions to become more creative inside the lecture halls, the overriding notion is that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work.

Educational institutions need to put the concept of “public service versus enterprise” out of their minds, and embrace a ready and willing array of startups looking to facilitate a new, diverse and creative educational journey, from first graders to graduates.

As ever, the Nordics are likely to lead the way in demonstrating to the rest of the world how this can be achieved.

“We already have a culture of respect here at least,” said Senn. “A respect for children having a playful and enjoyable approach to learning, with tech a huge part of that model, both inside and outside of schools.”

Warström added: “I believe we have developed a well-working and dynamic ecosystem within the tech sector, which also applies to edtech scene. Sweden recently launched its first co-working edtech hub just outside Stockholm, called Beyond, as evidence of this, and we believe edtech innovations will have a powerful and positive impact on the education system moving forward.”