Our maths videos for teachers

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In the context of a numeracy programme (in sub-Saharan Africa) we had a conversation a few days ago, that reminded me of the videos that we produced for OER4Schools, now almost 10 years ago. We recently migrated the OER4Schools wiki, and it’s available here https://oer.opendeved.net. We’re still working on it, so it’s not perfect, but getting there.

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Decolonizing EdTech in Africa: picking local EdTech solutions over foreign solutions

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By Abdul Mohamed . Originally posted on LinkedIn

I recently attended the eLearning Africa conference in Kigali: the largest and longest Africa focused digital learning gathering.

However, within an hour of entering the venue, I was surprised to find that most of the EdTech solutions on display were foreign. This observation was unsettling, a disappointment that many other attendees also commented on. I ran the numbers, nearly 80% of the 51 EdTech solutions on display were foreign.

What stung most, and sparked this piece, was that many of foreign EdTech solutions seemed to show little care for adapting their solutions to the needs of African learners.

  • A digital classroom solution provider demoed their product, which was completely in German
  • Another eLearning product boasted about their 3,000+ courses, of which 60%+ are taught in German

If curious, yes, there are German speaking Africans. 0.001% of Africa’s 1.3B citizens speak German.

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Helping you find and compare EdTech tools

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This blog post is a cross-post from EdTech Hub‘s blog https://edtechhub.org/2020/06/09/helping-you-find-and-compare-edtech-tools/ (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). The blog post was written on the 9th of June 2020.

We’re excited to publish the first version of a tool to help you find and compare EdTech tools. 

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Supporting innovation in the time of COVID: What we’ve done and what we’ll do next

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This blog post is a cross-post from EdTech Hub‘s blog https://edtechhub.org/2020/06/02/supporting-innovation-in-the-time-of-covid-what-weve-done-and-what-well-do-next/ (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). The blog post was written by Alice Carter on the 2nd of June 2020.

When COVID-19 emerged as a clear and present danger, we in the Hub innovation team were forced to rethink our plans for 2020. We previously told you about our work and how it looks to support and scale innovation with real people in real life. Now we had to reassess what this would look like and how it could be most effective in responding to global school closures. 

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

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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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An inclusive approach to searching for evidence on EdTech in low- and middle-income countries

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This blog post is a cross-post from EdTech Hub‘s blog https://edtechhub.org/2020/02/18/an-inclusive-approach-to-searching-for-evidence-on-edtech-in-low-and-middle-income-countries/ (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). The blog post was written by Meaghan Brugha and Katy Jordan on the 18th of February 2020.

A searchable database

The EdTech Hub has undertaken a large-scale search for publications on technology use in education in low- and middle- income countries. During this process, we created an internal research database. This is searchable through the use of a variety of filters, such as country or intervention of focus. Analysis of the database helps us to ground our wider research, innovation and engagement activities as a Hub within the scope and quality of the evidence base.

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Sandboxes: My experience participating in the sandbox alpha

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This blog post is a cross-post from EdTech Hub‘s blog https://edtechhub.org/2020/01/31/sandboxes-my-experience-participating-in-the-sandbox-alpha/ (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). The blog post was written by Pilirani Kumasewera and Padziwe on the 31st of January 2020.

This is the third in this series about our sandboxes. If you haven’t already, read about our approach to experimentation and how we tested our sandbox strategy out in Malawi.

One of my happiest moments in 2019 was when I received an email with notification that Padziwe, an EdTech startup which I founded, has been selected by the EdTech Hub to test one of our applications in a sandbox. We felt exceptionally lucky considering that out of all the 195 countries in the world the Hub chose Malawi and, more specifically, Padziwe. This sandbox focused on Teachers Desk, an application which Padziwe developed to offer continuous professional development (CPD) for teachers. 

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Sandboxes: Testing the strategy in Malawi

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This blog post is a cross-post from EdTech Hub‘s blog https://edtechhub.org/2020/01/31/sandboxes-testing-the-strategy-in-malawi/ (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). The blog post was written by Alice Carter on the 31st of January 2020.

This is the second in this series about our sandboxes. If you haven’t already, read about our approach to experimentation

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Sandboxes: our approach to systemic experimentation

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This blog post is a cross-post from EdTech Hub‘s blog https://edtechhub.org/2020/01/28/sandboxes-our-approach-to-systemic-experimentation/ (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). The blog post was written by Lea Simpson on the 28th of January 2020.

What’s a sandbox you ask? First in the series, this blog explains what you need to know about the Hub’s approach to experimentation and innovation.

A sandbox is a real-life location used for experimentation. As you might have imagined, a sandbox creates a small and contained space to test with a proposed intervention. It allows us to safely learn and adapt in a small space before rolling out promising ideas more widely. The term itself comes from software engineering and was originally used to describe a space that allowed developers to safely test new code before using it across the board.

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18 large-scale EdTech initiatives on our radar in 2020

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This blog post is a cross-post from EdTech Hub‘s blog https://edtechhub.org/2020/01/22/18-large-scale-edtech-initiatives-on-our-radar-in-2020/ (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). The blog post was written by Caitlin Moss on the 22nd of January 2020.

During the EdTech Hub’s inception phase so far, one question we hear a lot is: “What interesting or notable EdTech initiatives are you seeing?” Another question usually follows: “Which ones are reaching scale?”

This week we have joined the global education community in London for the Education World Forum and BETT meetings. This is a chance for education leaders and decision-makers to come together to discuss and share how best to improve and accelerate learning outcomes. In the spirit of sharing ideas, we thought we would put forth some examples of large-scale EdTech initiatives that are on our radar. 

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