Digital learning is the future! Or is it?

• In Event: Learning and outcomes in an Afrikan digital age

Proposal

Today, digital technologies are perceived as imperative for working and learning with citizens digitally empowered and capable of confidently participating in the digital economy (African Union 2021). But, for millions of children and teachers in rural Africa, digital learning is simply not a reality. Just 20% Malawians and 16% of Ethiopians have internet on their phones (Afrobarometre, 2021). Data collected during a girls’ education project during Covid-19 showed that 58% of girls do not have access to radio, 69% of girls cannot access mobile phones and 95% have no access to television. In Malawi similar results showed that 56% did not have access to radio and 78% could not access a phone, with distinct urban/ rural disparities (Link Education rapid assessment data, 2020).

The African Union aims to provide all citizens with the digital competencies and skills needed to thrive in the digital age via its Digital Education Strategy (2022). The World Bank and national governments have ambitious plans to expand electricity and internet connectivity, whilst NGOs (non-governmental organisations) donate tablets and laptops. However, many schools and communities are remote, with no or sporadic connection to electricity, and beyond basic training, technology brings challenges of security and maintenance which is often prohibitively expensive for schools, students, and governments.

As education NGOs, we could spend time training teachers to bring digital technology into the classroom, developing skills and confidence in unfamiliar ways of working, and we recognise that learners should be able to benefit from technology preparing them for further education and subsequent careers. Furthermore, we feel the responsibility to ensure that the communities we serve are not left behind in this digital future.

But does classroom digital technology deliver the best learning in the most effective way for all students? Will digital technology in schools more effectively (and cheaply?) produce 21st century citizens who are safe, healthy, empathetic, confident, and able to make the choices right for them?

This paper will suggest that before teachers plan lessons, they need to understand their students’ needs, and before using digital data, they need confidence in basic pedagogy; before school leaders can manage effective schools, they need to understand who their students are and the strengths and weaknesses of their teaching staff; and before children can learn (with or without technology) they need to feel safe, and before they can learn complex concepts, they need foundational literacy and numeracy skills. Link argues that digital data (or Data for Development, D4D) is what is more useful to improving learning.

In order to best support teachers, governments need to know what is needed, where and when. Digital data has the potential to provide information which enables the effective targeting of scarce resources. These data must be reliable, up to date, contextual and relevant, while staff need to know how to analyse and use the data. Technology is also required to collect and share data timely and efficiently.

In this paper, Link reflects on the challenges and potential of digital technologies to support education quality improvement that supports learning in remote areas in three countries.

In Uganda, we collaborated with the government to train headteachers on e-inspection. The transition from paper based to tablet-based inspection met resistance, especially from headteachers who felt they did not have the skills to use the technology (hard and soft ware) or were unable to due to lack of electricity or internet connectivity. Link trained District Inspectors on how to support headteachers use of e-inspection, including secure and safe data collection, how to generate reports and how to interpret findings to guide their decisions at their own school level.

In Ethiopia, Link used Kobo Toolbox as the main data collection and management platform for a girls’ education project. Kobo was used for internal monitoring purposes where progress was measured and adaptations considered, based on findings. Data were collected via lesson observations, measuring the capacity of schools to combat school related gender-based violence, exploring the woreda expert capacity, and reflecting on data from beneficiary feedback loops. Data collection was carried out jointly with local government and fed into Kobo for analysis. Results were shared in a timely manner with government officers and other stakeholders so that relevant project adaptions could be made.

In Malawi, we used tablet-based attendance and learning records at community learning centres to monitor individual learners’ progress and support needs, and to facilitate adaptive project management. Data evidenced subject understanding and highlighted areas where more teacher training was required whilst also showing which pastoral aspects of the teachers’ role needed support. Disaggregating data when collecting ensured children with disabilities were identified for support at a very early stage. These tablets also supported timely data collections even during emergencies such as cholera outbreaks, flooding and food shortages.

At an NGO level, data extracted from Kobo Collect is analysed and shared with programme and management teams through Power BI, which links stakeholder feedback to organisational strategic goals and the MEL framework targets for further decision making.

To conclude, the way NGOs use digital technologies with our partners and participants must consider not just the reality of what is possible in low-tech environments, but also what is really needed to improve learning. Our paper will share our hands-on experience of using tablet-based approaches, lessons learnt in using digital-devises in remote areas often with low technological integration (limited facilities and technological-know-how) and how we managed to collect, analyse and share feedback in remote hard to reach areas to enable appropriate interventions that will improve learning. Digital technology should be a tool for facilitating innovation, not the innovation itself.

Authors

• Samantha Ross, Link Education International

• Harold Kuombola, Link Community Development Malawi

• Kate Sykes, Link Education International