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Developing a Proof of Concept for a Regional Learning Hub for Eastern and Southern Africa Part 2: Insights from user research (Technical Report No. 2)

Rahman, A., & Groeneveld, C. - 2022 - EdTech Hub

In 2021 the UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO), UNESCO, UNHCR, the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) and EdTech Hub began collaborating to develop a Regional Learning Hub (RLH). The aim of the RLH is to create a platform to provide teaching and learning content aligned to the curricula of different countries in the region that is appropriate to local contexts. The RLH is envisaged as a platform where digital learning content has been...

Kenya is one of the countries whose teachers the UNESCO (2015) report cited as lacking curriculum support in the classroom. As is the case in many African countries, a large portion of teachers in Kenya enter the teaching profession when inadequately prepared, while those already in the field receive insufficient support in their professional lives. The cascade model has often been utilized in the country whenever need for teachers’ continuing professional development (TCPD) has arisen,...

We study the impact of a personalized technology-aided after-school instruction program in middle-school grades in urban India using a lottery that provided winners with free access to the program. Lottery winners scored 0.37 sigma higher in math and 0.23 sigma higher in Hindi over just a 4.5-month period. IV estimates suggest that attending the program for 90 days would increase math and Hindi test scores by 0.6 sigma and 0.39 sigma respectively. We find similar absolute test score gains...

Pre-service education and in-service teacher professional development (collectively termed teacher professional development or TPD here) can play a pivotal role in raising teaching quality and, therefore, learning outcomes for children and young people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, TPD opportunities in LMICs are limited, unsustained, and often not informed by recent research evidence, and outcomes are mixed. Educational technologies offer potential to enhance formally...

Pre-service education and in-service teacher professional development (collectively termed teacher professional development or TPD here) can play a pivotal role in raising teaching quality and, therefore, learning outcomes for children and young people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, TPD opportunities in LMICs are limited, unsustained, and often not informed by recent research evidence, and outcomes are mixed. Educational technologies offer potential to enhance formally...

EdTech in Nigeria: A Rapid Scan. An overview of EdTech policies and interventions in Nigeria with a focus on northern Nigeria (Helpdesk Response No. 188)

Ramesh Vasudevan, S., & Oyedele, O. - 2024 - EdTech Hub

Commissioned as a Helpdesk request from the FCDO-funded Partnership for Learning for All in Nigeria (PLANE) project, this EdTech Hub rapid scan provides an overview of the EdTech landscape in Nigeria. Given the PLANE programme’s focus on northern Nigeria, this rapid scan also assesses state-level policies and infrastructural challenges in three northern Nigerian states — Jigawa, Kaduna, and Kano. Furthermore, this rapid scan builds on the evidence presented in the previous EdTech Hub rapid...

Current instructional deliveries favour the use of mobile technology because of its inherent potentials and benefits such as portability, ease of use cost and others. Despite these benefits, many teachers especially in Sub-Saharan Africa still prefer the conventional method and use mobile phones for social engagements such as texting, chatting, callings and others. Though, these teachers use mobile phones for these social activities, using it for instruction is somewhat problematic for them...

Inequalities in Girls’ Learning Opportunities via EdTech: Addressing the Challenge of Covid-19 (Working Paper No. 31)

Crompton, H., Chigona, A., Jordan, Katy, J., & Myers, C. - 2021 - EdTech Hub

An output of the EdTech Hub, https://edtechhub.org

In recent years, schools have been investing heavily on information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure to implement eLearning systems to enhance the quality of education in secondary schools in Tanzania. The majority of these systems are implemented using a traditional web-based eLearning approach on school premises which is costly and limits usage due to lack of scalability and flexibility. Consequently, many schools have started adopting cloud computing as a solution....

Teacher Professional Development (TPD) has become a major policy priority within education systems worldwide. But keeping teachers professionally up-to-date and providing them professional development opportunities on continuing basis is a big challenge. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can be a cost and resource effective means to complement the traditional methods of professional development of teachers. This optimism is based on the assumption that use of MOOCs will facilitate mass...

There is a gulf between the rhetoric of those advocating the use of ICT in education in Africa and the reality of classroom practice. This paper explores some of the reasons for this, and outlines a possible framework for the successful implementation of teacher training programmes that make advantageous use of appropriate ICTs. It argues that six fundamental principles of good practice must be addressed for such programmes to be effective: a shift from an emphasis on ‘education for ICT’ to...

Developing a Proof of Concept for a Regional Learning Hub for Eastern and Southern Africa Part 5: Final report [Technical Report]

Groeneveld, C., Michels, G., & Kaye, T. - 2022 - EdTech Hub

In 2021, the UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO), UNESCO, UNHCR, the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), and EdTech Hub began collaborating to develop a Regional Learning Hub (RLH). The aim of the RLH is to create a platform to provide teaching and learning content aligned to the curricula of different countries in the region that is appropriate to local contexts. The RLH is envisaged as a platform where digital learning content has been...

Accelerated Learning and EdTech: A Rapid Evidence Review (Rapid Evidence Review No. 6)

Damani, K. - 2020 - EdTech Hub

This Rapid Evidence Review (RER) provides an overview of the existing literature on the use of accelerated learning in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), with a focus on how EdTech might best be utilised for accelerated learning. It begins with a broad discussion of the components of accelerated learning, followed by a more focused discussion on how accelerated learning has been used to enhance learning outcomes for marginalised groups in LMICs. An exploration of how EdTech can be...

Globally, according to UNESCO (2017), 264 million children of primary and secondary school age are out school. UNESCO also estimates that worldwide roughly 100 million young people are fully illiterate. While data on attendance, enrolment, and literacy can be difficult to gather in fragile and conflict-affected settings, estimates suggest that children in these settings are roughly three times more likely to be out of school than children living in stable, but low-income countries.

Exploring the Relationship Between Teachers’ Use of Technology During the Covid-19 Pandemic in India and Their Perspectives on Students’ Motivation to Learn (Working Paper No. 53)

Tailor, K., Hennessy, S., & Jordan, K. - 2023 - EdTech Hub

During the Covid-19 pandemic, a wealth of research emerged to quantify student learning and the accessibility of technology for learners. However, existing evidence highlights that access to technology did not equate to learning, yet few studies have investigated the underlying reasons behind this. As a correlating factor of learning achievement, this report investigates student motivation to learn, as perceived by teachers, and how this may have been influenced by their use of remote...

On current trends the world will fail to reach the objectives set in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals for Education by 2030 or even within the 21st century. Changing this trend will require a significant acceleration in learning outcomes. Digital personalised learning (DPL) tools are a potentially cost-effective intervention that can contribute to this acceleration. In particular, the continuous experimentation afforded by these tools through software A/B testing, has considerable...

This rapid review examined examples of ICT approaches to address the education needs of those living in IDP and refugee camps and lessons learned from these experiences. Although ICT is considered a good system to fulfil the education needs within refugee settings, many studies conclude that access to ICTs in schools or at home is not sufficient to improve learning outcomes. It is due to the role of a mentor or tutor figure is seen as key to productive learner engagement with technology, and...

School-based sampling has been used to inform targeted responses for malaria and neglected tropical diseases. Standard geostatistical methods for mapping disease prevalence use the school location to model spatial correlation, which is questionable since exposure to the disease is more likely to occur in the residential location. In this paper, we propose to overcome the limitations of standard geostatistical methods by introducing a modelling framework that accounts for the uncertainty in...