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Leveraging EdTech for teaching and equitable learning in the digital era: evidence from the field

Sun, March 23, 2:45 to 4:00pm, Palmer House, Floor: 7th Floor, LaSalle 1

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Launched in 2019, the GPE Knowledge and Exchange Program (KIX) seeks to support and facilitate the implementation of a stronger culture of knowledge and innovations use in education policies and planning processes in GPE partner countries. The goal of KIX is to significantly transform education systems through evidence-informed policies and practices.

To achieve this goal, GPE and the International Development Research Center of Canada (IDRC), the implementer of KIX, have created a set of mechanisms. One of them is the applied research mechanism. Its role is to generate primary and secondary evidence on key priority areas identified by GPE partner countries participating in KIX, with an emphasis on how to scale up the impact of innovations being researched. KIX brings together 89 GPE partner countries, mostly low- and middle-income countries, in which it currently funds 77 projects.

Over the last 5 years, KIX has funded several applied research projects that explored the use of EdTech to address educational challenges in an array of topics ranging from learning, teaching, and governance of systems in GPE partner countries, mostly located in the Global South. KIX has also made gender equality and equity key concerns to ensure that the positive impact of its research endeavors is equitably redistributed across vulnerable and marginalized groups in society.

This panel proposal fits perfectly with the theme of the CIES 2025: Envisioning Education in a Digital Society. It seeks to use the evidence garnered by three KIX projects in Central Asia and Africa that have investigated how the creative use of EdTech, and the existing digital infrastructure can provide solutions to well-known challenges and needs in education delivery: inequitable access to quality learning and teaching, creating a supportive learning environment for learners in conflict-affected and far-flung geographies, designing curriculum and e-learning materials, and strengthening in-service teachers competencies.

These projects have also explored the contextual factors that can impede or facilitate adoption of EdTech innovations in the education sector, and more broadly by key stakeholders in society. They recognize that EdTech is a contested issue in terms of its cost-effectiveness and the requisite physical infrastructure to sustain it in low-income countries. To address these issues, the KIX research projects integrate evidence uptake concerns in their design, methodologies, and approaches and pay special attention to knowledge mobilization and use.

The Three KIX Projects :

1) Distance Education to Improve Quality and Access in Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Tajikistan
This project was initiated in 2021 and completed its activities in 2023. The project set out to investigate the pandemic-era experiences of the three countries to identify innovations, challenges, and the prospects for digital transformation in distance learning. Particular attention was given to known vulnerabilities in the region relating to gender (both girls and boys), geography (remote and rural areas), and identity (ethnic and/or linguistic minority affiliation). It allowed a comprehensive discussion and knowledge exchange of the opportunities and challenges in rapidly digitalizing societies.

2) Bridges to impact through innovative EdTech: Forging links between policy, research, and practice
This project responds to the urgent need for equitable learning access and outcomes for children in conflict-affected countries. The project focused on a digital personalized learning programme called “Can’t Wait to Learn” (CWTL). This game-based program is designed to tackle learning quality, reach, equity, and challenges faced by refugees and displaced children, as well as the wider host/national community.

The general objective of this project is to determine how education technology innovations can be adapted and scaled to improve education access and quality for refugee, displaced and host community children in Chad, Sudan, and Uganda. Since the inception of the project in 2020, strong relationships have been built with key education stakeholders, including Ministries of Education, Education in Emergency (EiE) actors, District Local Government (DLG) bodies and authorities, community members, teachers, and caregivers.

3) STEM Teacher/student Education for Primary Schools (STEPS)
The STEM Teacher/student Education for Primary Schools (STEPS) initiative, a collaboration between NextGenU.org and partners in Benin, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), demonstrates the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) addressing educational inequities in sub-Saharan Africa. This initiative evolved from the need to develop comprehensive Math and Science curricula that complied with country-wide requirements and leveraged AI to create 634 localized science lessons for grades 1-5, and a set of Math workbooks and Teacher Guides for grades 1-6 across all three countries, in English and French.

Objective of the panel:
- Present and discuss the evidence of EdTech effectiveness and limitations in enhancing learning and teaching processes in different settings.
- Discuss the contextual factors that facilitate or impede adoption/ownership of EdTech by key stakeholders in both the education sector and beyond.
- Analyze how each project conceptualized/designed and contextualized their research projects and EdTech innovations to create an environment and conditions for uptake of the evidence in policy and practice.

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