Defining “EdTech” and the End User (with Maura Connor)

Defining “EdTech” and the End User (with Maura Connor)

From De Facto Leaders by Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan

January 21, 2026 · 45 min · Episode 250

About this episode

The episode discusses the definition of EdTech and the importance of identifying the end user in educational technology.

When I first started working in the schools in the early 2000s, there was a push for integrating technology into classrooms and therapy sessions It was even a box that got checked on my employee evaluation. Now there’s a defined space referred to as “EdTech”. It took me a while to realize that this was a thing, and I didn’t even realize I was a part of it until someone referred to me as the “EdTech person” during a job interview (they were “FinTech” people, short for “Financial Technology”). In the work I do now creating a caseload management system, I often think about how important it is to define who the intended user of technology is. In product development, we refer to this as the “end user”. Sometimes the end user is an administrator pulling analytics or managing the budget. Sometimes it’s a teacher or clinician collecting data, managing a schedule, tracking referrals, or trying to reduce the administrative burden of their jobs so they can focus on human connection instead of paperwork. Sometimes it’s a professional providing virtual therapy to students to increase access to services. And sometimes, the end user is the student. When we think about how technology is helping…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan

Guest: Maura Connor

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: EdTech, FinTech

More episodes of De Facto Leaders

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the De Facto Leaders podcast page.