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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Learning through television in low-income contexts: mitigating the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19)

Posted on by administrator in COVID-19
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Written by Joe Watson, research assistant at the University of Cambridge. This blog was first published as part of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and EdTech series on The EdTech Hub website under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

One of the many consequences of COVID-19 is that more than a billion caregivers will soon face the stark (and often scary) realisation that they must become their children’s teachers. This will be particularly difficult in low-income contexts where many adults have not had the opportunity to have a formal education themselves. Fortunately, educational television has the potential to facilitate out-of-school learning. This technology has been shown to have real impacts on outcomes, utilises readily available technology and can be implemented at scale.

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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://new.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 role of the Konnect student portal in Bangladesh’s COVID-19 education response

Posted on by Björn Haßler in COVID-19, Konnect
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last month, the Bangladeshi government announced their decision to suspend all schools to limit the spread of COVID-19. Since the outbreak, the Ministry of Education has sought to leverage multiple modalities such as television, radio and the internet to offer remote learning to a broad range of students. Over the past week, policymakers have looked to incorporate the virtual Konnect platform into their pandemic response strategy.

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

Posted on by EdTech Hub in blog
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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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The Role of Interactive Radio Instruction in the COVID-19 Education Response

Posted on by Björn Haßler in blog, COVID-19
Reading Time: 3 minutes

At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has forced over 1.5 billion students out of school, governments in resource-constrained countries have looked to interactive radio instruction (IRI) to ensure educational continuity. In the past week, we spoke with the Rising Academy Network to consider what an IRI programme could look like and why policymakers have adopted this intervention.

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Educational Response to COVID-19 from Jordan and other Arab Countries

Posted on by administrator in Activating EdTech, blog, COVID-19
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Author: Nour Awamleh, Research and Program Development Coordinator, Queen Rania Foundation

Update: A later version of this article was published on 13 April 2020 and appears on the Queen Rania Foundation website.

The Activating Edtech project in Jordan aims to develop an agile, iterative and evidence-based approach to the decision-making process within the Jordanian Ministry of Education. Activating Edtech aims to understand problems and assumptions in education, then tests out the possible solutions to those problems while trying to activate technology, where possible. The project started in January 2019 and continues to today. After introducing the team, we turn to the education response to COVID -19 across a number of Arab countries.

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Learning through television in low-income contexts: mitigating the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19)

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/2020/03/31/learning-through-television-in-low-income-contexts-mitigating-the-impact-of-covid-19/ (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). The blog post was written by Joe Watson on the 31st of March 2020.

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

One of the many consequences of COVID-19 is that more than a billion caregivers will soon face the stark (and often scary) realisation that they must become their children’s teachers. This will be particularly difficult in low-income contexts where many adults have not had the opportunity to have a formal education themselves. Fortunately, educational television has the potential to facilitate out-of-school learning. This technology has been shown to have real impacts on outcomes, utilises readily available technology and can be implemented at scale.

Continue reading “Learning through television in low-income contexts: mitigating the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19)” →