No technology should reach a classroom until it is proven lawful, safe and secure
EDDS Institute is an independent research and advocacy body for the governance of education technology. We examine how edtech is procured, governed and evidenced, and we argue for safeguards established before products reach children — not after harm occurs.
The edtech market has become adept at producing badges, scores and impact ratings more quickly than it produces evidence. Many of these signals measure what cannot be reliably measured, and attest to what has not been independently inspected. EDDS concentrates on the questions that evidence can answer:
Is a product lawful?
Is it safe for the individual child?
Is it secure?
We pose these questions publicly, and we hold the market to its answers.
We bring together an interdisciplinary community of scholars, researchers, educators, engineers and privacy specialists committed to protecting the sovereignty of education systems as they grow increasingly dependent on digital, data-intensive and algorithmic technologies.
We work with educators, education authorities and responsible technology providers to develop and establish systems for the evaluation and certification of education technology.
Independent research. We investigate how edtech is procured, governed and evidenced — from data-protection practice in the fine print to the governance gaps within the certification market itself. Our work is published, peer-reviewed and openly available.
Policy and advocacy. We bring this evidence to those with the authority to act on it — educators, education authorities, parliamentarians and international bodies — and make the case for meaningful governance of the digitisation of education, and for children's right to a safe, high-quality education.
Standards and method. We helped develop, and now audit against, the Global Education Security Standard (GESS) in partnership with the Access 4 Learning Community — translating principle into criteria against which a product can be tested.
Independence
Many of the trust problems in education technology stem from a single structural flaw: the body that defines what "good" looks like is too often the body that profits from awarding it. The same organisation writes the criteria, reviews the evidence and sells the resulting mark, and independence quietly erodes. Our research documents this pattern across the certification market. We will not reproduce it.
EDDS operates on two levels: an Institute that conducts research and advocacy, and an audit service that assesses products commercially against a recognised standard. They share a mission, not a set of conclusions.
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The Institute accepts no fee from the vendors it analyses and writes about.
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The audit service certifies products solely on the evidence.
This separation is deliberate and structural.
The challenge
A profound change is taking place in classrooms worldwide, and no government is directing it. Across nurseries, primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, largely unregulated technology providers have entered education systems. They are collecting children's data, processing it, packaging it and, in many cases, monetising it — frequently without the knowledge or consent of the teachers, parents and children to whom that data belongs.
A child's prospects can increasingly be shaped by systems that sort educational populations by socioeconomic background, typing speed, attention span, social networks and countless other data points — signals that may later inform decisions about employment, admission or credit. This is not a distant risk; its foundations are being laid now.
The mechanisms intended to reassure schools have themselves become part of the problem. A growing industry of certifications, trustmarks and curated listings claims to identify what is safe and effective. Our research finds that these signals are largely derived from documentation supplied by the vendor, interpreted by reviewers and converted into a tradable mark — under conditions of weak independent verification and minimal enforcement. The result is institutional confidence that runs well ahead of anything actually examined.
In medicine, aviation and engineering, such an arrangement would be untenable: there, certification is accompanied by licensing, inspection, public registers and meaningful consequences. Education technology has none of these. EDDS exists to close that gap — through research that identifies the problem, advocacy that demands reform, and an audit service that performs the inspection the certification market omits.
Our manifesto
for education
and technology
Key principles for a healthy, vibrant and inclusive edtech sector that acts for the best outcomes for children and students
Digital technologies for children's good and education (edtech) should, at the most fundamental level, observe children's rights and freedoms and promote quality and diversity; benefit children by providing opportunities for their participation and agency; support sustainability and protect the independent and sacred nature of children's ecosystems; and support their physical, social and emotional development as healthy, independent and resilient adults who can develop original thought, personhood and apply knowledge.
We call for the existence and safeguarding of education technologies for children's good and education based on the following five key principles for good edtech.
Principle 1
Edtech’s primary purpose should be to enhance learning and improve educational outcomes. Edtech should only be deployed in the classroom if there is proven case for its enhancing role – the classroom should not be a testing ground for unproven products.
Principle 2
Edtech should, at a minimum, be tested and certified to abide by all legal, social, pedagogic, ethical and organisational norms, laws, regulations and standards. Without this proof, no edtech should be deployed in the classroom.
Principle 3
Edtech has a societal responsibility to children, it should therefore be held to higher ethical standards of trust, privacy and security of children than other technology products.
Principle 4
Edtech should be held accountable through transparency of its algorithmic and data processing. Children should be excluded from data collection where it is not needed for the immediate task and be allowed safe digital spaces to allow error and exploration without record.
Principle 5
Edtech products should be covered by strict licencing, regulatory oversight and systematic independent audits.
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If you procure, build or govern edtech, we should talk.
Whether you're an education authority trying to understand what's already in your schools, a policymaker drafting the rules, or a vendor that wants to be held to a real standard — start here.