Scaling Learning Through Play with Technology: Building Sustainable Programs in Low and Middle-Income countries

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Many low- and middle-income countries are bringing technology into their classrooms, yet the technology often reinforces traditional teaching practices rather than serving to deepen and enhance learning. To address this need, the LEGO Foundation’s Tech & Play Initiative is focused on establishing and deepening playful learning experiences i with technology in primary schools. As a pedagogy, LEGO describes Learning through Play (LtP) as combining playful child-directed activity with teacher supported or guided learning objectives (Parker & Thomsen, 2019). In formal schooling Learning through Play approaches would include pedagogical models such as inquiry learning, problem-based learning, or project-based learning. Working in Brazil, Kenya and Rwanda, Tech & Play seeks to develop scalable and sustainable strategies to integrate technology-enriched learning activities that break apart traditional and rote learning practices and promote active, engaging student-centered learning. Thus, Tech & Play aims to introduce two instructional reforms: new pedagogies and new technologies into the educational systems of these three countries.

The Tech & Play Research Collaborative, led by the Education Development Center (EDC), brings together EDC and three other research partners: the Laboratory of Studies and Research on Social Economy (LEPES) at the University of Sao Paolo, Brazil; Education Design Unlimited in Kenya; and Three Stones International in Rwanda. The Research Collaborative is researching the development and implementation of the Tech & Play country programs with an eye towards understanding how Learning through Play approaches and technology can be successfully sustained and scaled beyond this five-year intervention.

During the initial phase of the initiative, the Research Collaboration conducted a series of parallel context studies in each of the three countries to examine the educational contexts that research suggests are likely to shape how systems, schools and teachers implement the Tech & Play initiative. Gathering background information about the setting in which the Tech & Play initiative will occur forms the foundation for the context studies. In any country taking on a reform of this nature, educational change happens within—and is therefore shaped by—a local ecosystem of influences. These include the structure, characteristics, orientations, and capacities of the existing education system; national and regional policies; school-specific professional cultures and capacities; and other social, institutional, cultural, and economic factors that transcend the boundaries of school. The following research question guides the three studies: How do the Tech & Play intervention models and contexts, including educational systems, norms, and expectations related to technology and play vary across national contexts?

This panel will explore the educational context for the dual reforms in each of the three countries. A shared over-arching design guided the context studies; each researcher team then adapted the design to their particular country. The overarching research design for these studies draws from research on how educational infrastructure shapes instructional practices (Hopkins, Spillane, Jakopovic, & Heaton, 2013; Peurach & Neumerski, 2015) and from research on iterative design-based implementation research (Bryk et al., 2015) that entails identifying stakeholder priorities, practical problems and concerns, and the context in which the program is implemented.

Using these frameworks, the context studies explore the formal and informal educational structures, including educational policies, curricula, resources, norms, and teaching models. Specifically, the research explores the formal structures, such as governance and finance, and other organizational structures, such as curricula, technology infrastructure, accountability systems, and the alignment between system and intervention goals, collaborative work structures, professional development, and coaching supports. Second, the research explores the social infrastructure and resources related to how social networks, norms, expectations and routines might shape technology use and play-based approaches, such as social networks—where teachers and administrators turn for advice, classroom norms and beliefs that might shape support for learning through play and technology. Finally, the research examines the systemwide expectations, goals and problems stakeholders identify and how the Tech & Play intervention models align with these goals and problems.

The panel discussion will focus on a number of emerging themes relevant to the feasibility, sustainability and scalability of this specific education technology initiative, but findings from the studies are probably relevant for any pedagogically ambitious educational technology initiative in resource-constrained environments present in many low- and middle-income countries. . The research highlights essential possible points of leverage, challenges and programmatic elements that shape implementation from the inception. By identifying common themes across the three contexts, we hope that audience members will leave with a deeper understanding of how to design effective educational technology programs for implementation, sustainability and scalability.

Sub Unit

• Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) SIG

Chair

• Hanna Girma Wedajo, Education Development Center (EDC)

Individual Presentations

• Exploring the Kenya PLAY program: sustaining an education initiative in under-resourced contexts. - Clara Njerū, Education Design Unlimited

• Meeting the pedagogical and technological challenges of Ed Tech programs in Low and Middle-Income countries - Megan Silander, Center for Children and Technology, Education Development Center; Hanna Girma Wedajo, Education Development Center (EDC)