Article by: Dr. Zuhair Ahmed (LLB)
(P.hD in Education Technology & Adaptive Learning)

As an educator, imagine putting in hours of hard work on the computer and then sharing it with your boss. Teachers work an average of 47 hours per week, with one-quarter working more than 60 hours per week and one-tenth working more than 65 hours per week; it is not an easy chore, and then one day you are laid off, and all your hard work is gone, and you could say the same about the property of your employer.

In this new era of EdTech, few policies are made, and even fewer are taken into consideration. According to data, the market will surpass $243 billion by 2022, and $325 billion by 2025, but what does this mean for educators? To begin with, as soon as the pandemic hit, educators were forced to relocate all of their classes online, which necessitated teachers creating their own digital assets such as slideshows, videos, audios, and in some cases, entire parts of online lesson plans.

True! There has recently been a controversy in which it was claimed that your company pays you for the work you do. But do they acknowledge the numerous hours you spend on-screen to make an online class more interesting, nor for the creativity and innovation you bring to the classroom as an instructor. Some educational experts argue that the video lectures generated by the teacher are their intellectual property since they contain their charismatic teaching methods and expertise that they have been passing on to students for years.

When it comes to online teaching and generating online materials, every educator brings something unique and different to the class every day. It takes more time and effort to gather information and present it in the best possible way because no one can sit for an hour and just listen to a lecture, especially students who are already in their comfort zones to exit the class or pretend they are listening to you.

“I was astonished to learn that after making a huge effort, I was laid off by the company, and after my departure, they were still using the materials and lectures that I developed,” she stated to an educator.

Parents have recognized the efforts that educators make. They are appreciating that a teacher is working longer hours while still offering high-quality education. It’s been 20 years since we started creating our EdTech industry, so isn’t it past time to create policies that protect educators’ resources? Is it not necessary to acknowledge that an instructor has the right to obtain all of his or her digital materials? Alternatively, why not include a minor provision in their contracts stating that it is the property of the educator who is generating it? It’s not a critique, but a simple acknowledgment.

New to EdTech?  Read our EdTech 101 guide: https://global-edtech.com/edtech-definitions-products-and-trends/