Activating local study-groups for children’s learning—an equitable EdTech response?

Posted on by EdTech Hub in blog
Reading Time: 3 minutes

This blog post is a cross-post from EdTech Hub‘s blog https://edtechhub.org/2020/05/29/activating-local-study-groups-for-childrens-learning-an-equitable-edtech-response/ (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). The blog post was written by Tom Power on the 29th of May 2020.

An equitable educational response to the COVID school closures must recognise that, in low and middle-income countries, as shown by UNICEF data most children affected by such closures do not have access to the internet. Policymakers and educators must then find ways to provide learning opportunities offline. Learning does not happen just by giving children educational materials—children also need time, space and support. 

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From the Helpdesk: Observations and guidance on educational response planning during the COVID-19 crisis

Posted on by EdTech Hub and Tom Kaye in blog
Reading Time: 5 minutes

This post originally appeared here on 20th May 2020 under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

Written by Rachel Chuang, Tom Kaye, Caitlin Moss Coflan & Arjun Upadhyay (EdTech Hub Helpdesk Management Team)

Amid one of the biggest global disruptions to schooling in living memory, countries are quickly developing distance education responses for students. The EdTech Hub’s Helpdesk is providing evidence-informed responses to requests for support from governments and their partners as they face this challenge. 

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Why the COVID Crisis Is Not EdTech’s Moment in Africa

Posted on by administrator in blog, COVID-19
Reading Time: 6 minutes

Author: Lee CrawFurd, Centre for Global Development

This blog was originally posted on the Center for Global Development blog on the 18th May 2020. Open Development & Education is part of The EdTech Hub and the data used here was from the EdTech Hub’s database of interventions. This database, which was initially limited to sub-Saharan Africa, now has a global scope. While the data is still partial (e.g. doesn’t include broader lists of edtech startups from South Africa or Ikeja, Abuja, and Lagos in Nigeria) the insights made in this article are extremely valuable. Even if the estimates were off by a factor of 2 or 3, points about the optimal use of digital learning still hold true. As the blog suggests, there is a need to increase the database’s representation of interventions in other regions. Please add your EdTech intervention to help us grow it!

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EdTech call for ideas: What have we learned from the applications?

Posted on by EdTech Hub in blog
Reading Time: 5 minutes

This blog post is a cross-post from EdTech Hub‘s blog https://edtechhub.org/2020/05/11/edtech-call-for-ideas-what-have-we-learned-from-the-applications/ (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). The blog post was written by Asad Rahman on the 11th of May 2020.

This is part of our coronavirus (COVID-19) and EdTech series.

On 21st April, we launched a call for ideas for EdTech in responses to coronavirus and the lockdown of schools around the world. 

Three weeks later, we’ve taken a slice of the first 100 responses and analysed the data. Combining this with conversations our team is having every day with technologists and innovators around the world, we’ve sought to answer: what do these innovators need right now? In future blogs, we’ll cut the data in different ways to answer other questions.

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Who has what? Assessing who has access to what devices in the education response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Posted on by Björn Haßler in blog, COVID-19
Reading Time: 6 minutes

As with education in general, our ability to respond to COVID-19  in education depends significantly on access to resources by students and teachers. Even in this moment of crisis, governments should inform their decisions regarding education and educational resources on the available data whenever possible. However, we realise that accessing relevant data is not necessarily straightforward and this should not block other elements of system response-recovery-reform. 

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Francophone countries and COVID-19 EdTech response

Posted on by EdTech Hub in blog
Reading Time: 5 minutes

This blog post is a cross-post from EdTech Hub‘s blog https://edtechhub.org/2020/04/29/francophone-countries-and-covid-19-edtech-response/ (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). The blog post was written by Etienne Lwamba on the 29th of April 2020.

This is part of our coronavirus (COVID-19) and EdTech series.

One thing about coronavirus is clear — it does not respect borders. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in school closures across the world. With about 300 million French speakers worldwide, here we consider some initial lessons from francophone education systems, their EdTech response, and the importance of cooperation of countries who share the same language. In light of school closures across many Francophone countries – all with differing income levels – we consider their differentiated responses and if there is more scope for these countries to collaborate. 

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The role of interactive radio instruction in the coronavirus (COVID-19) education response

Posted on by EdTech Hub in blog
Reading Time: 3 minutes

This post originally appeared here on 23rd April 2020 under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

This is part of our coronavirus (COVID-19) and EdTech series.

Every week that passes we see the number of classrooms closed due to COVID-19 increase. During these unprecedented times, the Hub’s mission — to increase the use of evidence-based decisions around EdTech — is more important than ever. We must make sure learning goes on.

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The privilege of #pivotonline: A South African perspective

Posted on by Björn Haßler in blog, COVID-19
Reading Time: 8 minutes

Taskeen Adam, https://opendeved.net/2020/04/22/the-privilege-of-#pivotonline/, 2020-04-22, 10.5281/zenodo.3760383

As the global number of COVID-19 cases increase, lockdowns continue across the world. Reports from UNESCO highlight that nationwide closures are impacting over 91% of the world’s student population who can no longer attend school. With schools closed, there has been a mass shift to online education — from primary to tertiary — in what is known on social media as the #pivotonline. As conversations revolve around synchronous and asynchronous teaching methods, video conferencing platform choices, online assessment, and digital pedagogies, the unspoken underlying assumption is that teachers and learners have access to devices and the Internet. Beyond access, there is a further assumption that if internet access and devices are provided to those that need it, then online and remote learning solutions will be effective. 

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Continue or reboot? Overarching options for education responses to COVID-19 in low- and middle-income countries

Posted on by Björn Haßler in blog, COVID-19
Reading Time: 7 minutes

The COVID-19 pandemic has far-reaching consequences for public health, including socio-economic issues. The pandemic also has consequences for education. However, in this blog post, I argue that these educational consequences will be felt more by (high-income populations in) high-income countries than low-income populations in low- and middle-income countries, such as the rural poor, who already had low learning levels prior to the outbreak.

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The EdTech Hub’s Helpdesk and COVID-19: Demand-driven advice

Posted on by EdTech Hub in blog
Reading Time: 2 minutes

This blog post is a cross-post from EdTech Hub‘s blog https://edtechhub.org/2020/04/09/the-edtech-hubs-helpdesk-and-covid-19-demand-driven-advice/ (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). The blog post was written by Caitlin Moss on the 9th of April 2020.

This is part of our coronavirus (COVID-19) and EdTech series.

With more than 1.5 billion children now affected by school closures, ministries of education and decision-makers around the world are urgently in need of fast, evidence-based, context-specific advice about out-of-school learning. Teachers, caregivers, parents and policymakers are tirelessly working to ensure that learning doesn’t stop. Faced with one of the biggest global disruptions to schooling in living memory, already overstretched ministries and their advisers are looking for resources and guidance. The EdTech Hub’s Helpdesk will immediately launch to respond to this need.

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