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Dependence on Tech Caused ‘Staggering’ Education Inequality, U.N. Agency Says

Heavy reliance on online remote learning during the pandemic drew attention away from more equitable ways of teaching children at home, a UNESCO report says.

A young man in a gray hooded shirt watches a computer screen on a desk.

By Natasha Singer

Natasha Singer has chronicled the growth of online learning in U.S. public schools for more than a decade.

In early 2020, as the coronavirus spread, schools around the world abruptly halted in-person education. To many governments and parents, moving classes online seemed the obvious stopgap solution.

In the United States, school districts scrambled to secure digital devices for students. Almost overnight, videoconferencing software like Zoom became the main platform teachers used to deliver real-time instruction to students at home.

Now a report from UNESCO , the United Nations’ educational and cultural organization, says that overreliance on remote learning technology during the pandemic led to “staggering” education inequality around the world. It was, according to a 655-page report that UNESCO released on Wednesday, a worldwide “ed-tech tragedy.”

The report, from UNESCO’s Future of Education division, is likely to add fuel to the debate over how governments and local school districts handled pandemic restrictions, and whether it would have been better for some countries to reopen schools for in-person instruction sooner.

The UNESCO researchers argued in the report that “unprecedented” dependence on technology — intended to ensure that children could continue their schooling — worsened disparities and learning loss for hundreds of millions of students around the world, including in Kenya, Brazil, Britain and the United States.

The promotion of remote online learning as the primary solution for pandemic schooling also hindered public discussion of more equitable, lower-tech alternatives, such as regularly providing schoolwork packets for every student, delivering school lessons by radio or television — and reopening schools sooner for in-person classes, the researchers said.

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New advances in technology are upending education, from the recent debut of new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT to the growing accessibility of virtual-reality tools that expand the boundaries of the classroom. For educators, at the heart of it all is the hope that every learner gets an equal chance to develop the skills they need to succeed. But that promise is not without its pitfalls.

“Technology is a game-changer for education – it offers the prospect of universal access to high-quality learning experiences, and it creates fundamentally new ways of teaching,” said Dan Schwartz, dean of Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE), who is also a professor of educational technology at the GSE and faculty director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning . “But there are a lot of ways we teach that aren’t great, and a big fear with AI in particular is that we just get more efficient at teaching badly. This is a moment to pay attention, to do things differently.”

For K-12 schools, this year also marks the end of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding program, which has provided pandemic recovery funds that many districts used to invest in educational software and systems. With these funds running out in September 2024, schools are trying to determine their best use of technology as they face the prospect of diminishing resources.

Here, Schwartz and other Stanford education scholars weigh in on some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom this year.

AI in the classroom

In 2023, the big story in technology and education was generative AI, following the introduction of ChatGPT and other chatbots that produce text seemingly written by a human in response to a question or prompt. Educators immediately worried that students would use the chatbot to cheat by trying to pass its writing off as their own. As schools move to adopt policies around students’ use of the tool, many are also beginning to explore potential opportunities – for example, to generate reading assignments or coach students during the writing process.

AI can also help automate tasks like grading and lesson planning, freeing teachers to do the human work that drew them into the profession in the first place, said Victor Lee, an associate professor at the GSE and faculty lead for the AI + Education initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. “I’m heartened to see some movement toward creating AI tools that make teachers’ lives better – not to replace them, but to give them the time to do the work that only teachers are able to do,” he said. “I hope to see more on that front.”

He also emphasized the need to teach students now to begin questioning and critiquing the development and use of AI. “AI is not going away,” said Lee, who is also director of CRAFT (Classroom-Ready Resources about AI for Teaching), which provides free resources to help teach AI literacy to high school students across subject areas. “We need to teach students how to understand and think critically about this technology.”

Immersive environments

The use of immersive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality is also expected to surge in the classroom, especially as new high-profile devices integrating these realities hit the marketplace in 2024.

The educational possibilities now go beyond putting on a headset and experiencing life in a distant location. With new technologies, students can create their own local interactive 360-degree scenarios, using just a cell phone or inexpensive camera and simple online tools.

“This is an area that’s really going to explode over the next couple of years,” said Kristen Pilner Blair, director of research for the Digital Learning initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, which runs a program exploring the use of virtual field trips to promote learning. “Students can learn about the effects of climate change, say, by virtually experiencing the impact on a particular environment. But they can also become creators, documenting and sharing immersive media that shows the effects where they live.”

Integrating AI into virtual simulations could also soon take the experience to another level, Schwartz said. “If your VR experience brings me to a redwood tree, you could have a window pop up that allows me to ask questions about the tree, and AI can deliver the answers.”

Gamification

Another trend expected to intensify this year is the gamification of learning activities, often featuring dynamic videos with interactive elements to engage and hold students’ attention.

“Gamification is a good motivator, because one key aspect is reward, which is very powerful,” said Schwartz. The downside? Rewards are specific to the activity at hand, which may not extend to learning more generally. “If I get rewarded for doing math in a space-age video game, it doesn’t mean I’m going to be motivated to do math anywhere else.”

Gamification sometimes tries to make “chocolate-covered broccoli,” Schwartz said, by adding art and rewards to make speeded response tasks involving single-answer, factual questions more fun. He hopes to see more creative play patterns that give students points for rethinking an approach or adapting their strategy, rather than only rewarding them for quickly producing a correct response.

Data-gathering and analysis

The growing use of technology in schools is producing massive amounts of data on students’ activities in the classroom and online. “We’re now able to capture moment-to-moment data, every keystroke a kid makes,” said Schwartz – data that can reveal areas of struggle and different learning opportunities, from solving a math problem to approaching a writing assignment.

But outside of research settings, he said, that type of granular data – now owned by tech companies – is more likely used to refine the design of the software than to provide teachers with actionable information.

The promise of personalized learning is being able to generate content aligned with students’ interests and skill levels, and making lessons more accessible for multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Realizing that promise requires that educators can make sense of the data that’s being collected, said Schwartz – and while advances in AI are making it easier to identify patterns and findings, the data also needs to be in a system and form educators can access and analyze for decision-making. Developing a usable infrastructure for that data, Schwartz said, is an important next step.

With the accumulation of student data comes privacy concerns: How is the data being collected? Are there regulations or guidelines around its use in decision-making? What steps are being taken to prevent unauthorized access? In 2023 K-12 schools experienced a rise in cyberattacks, underscoring the need to implement strong systems to safeguard student data.

Technology is “requiring people to check their assumptions about education,” said Schwartz, noting that AI in particular is very efficient at replicating biases and automating the way things have been done in the past, including poor models of instruction. “But it’s also opening up new possibilities for students producing material, and for being able to identify children who are not average so we can customize toward them. It’s an opportunity to think of entirely new ways of teaching – this is the path I hope to see.”

Educational Technology Research in Higher Education: New Considerations and Evolving Goals

Challenges and concerns about technology’s role in education.

Substantial and unbiased evidence regarding the effects of educational technology is scarce. The rapid evolution of technology often means it outpaces the ability of researchers and educators to thoroughly evaluate its impact on education. As a result, robust evidence regarding the added value of digital technology in educational settings is in short supply. A recently released UNESCO report on technology's use in education highlights the fact that educational technology products change every three years, on average. The lack of research is further evident in the report, which found that in the United Kingdom, only 7% of educational technology companies had conducted randomized controlled trials, and a survey of teachers and administrators in 17 U.S. states showed that only 11% requested peer-reviewed evidence prior to the adoption of technologies.

A recent meta-analysis of educational technology indicates that the research we have on educational technology is not the research we need and that "perhaps we can better transform education by fostering incremental changes through collaborative research and development with practitioners." In a story produced by The Hechinger Report , Kathryn Stack, who spent 27 years at the White House Office of Management and Budget and helped design grant programs that award money based on evidence of effectiveness, said, "[W]e're still in a place where there isn't a ton of great evidence about what works in educational technology." This lack of comprehensive research makes it challenging for faculty and leadership to make informed decisions about integrating educational technology into classrooms. Without substantial evidence on the impact of these tools, it becomes harder to determine their true value in enhancing teaching and learning experiences.

Efforts are being made by researchers and organizations to bridge this gap by conducting more rigorous studies and sharing findings through academic journals and conferences. However, the ongoing challenge will remain keeping up with the pace at which technology evolves while simultaneously providing reliable evidence of its effectiveness in educational settings.

Online content is produced by dominant groups, affecting access to it. According to the recent UNESCO report on technology in higher education, nearly 90% of content in higher education repositories with open education resource collections was created in Europe and North America; 92% of the content in the OER Commons global library is in English.

Additionally, the report suggests that massive open online courses (MOOCs) mainly benefit educated learners and those from richer countries. Still, a lot of learners enroll in those MOOCs. In 2021, the number of students enrolled in MOOCs worldwide continued to grow to over 220 million . Although this access to education is commendable, it also raises concerns regarding the regulation and quality control of online content. The lack of diversity in online content can limit perspectives and hinder inclusive learning experiences. It is crucial to ensure that digital platforms promote diverse voices and offer a wide range of educational resources that cater to different backgrounds, cultures, and learning styles.

Access to technology and to stable internet continues to be a big concern. The Tyton Partners report Time for Class 2023 found that 40% of students have experienced stress due to unstable internet connectivity and 22% have experienced stress due to not having access to a computer or laptop. Not only that, but students of color were six percentage points more likely to have experienced stress due to lack of access to devices and the internet.

The rapid growth of online content since the pandemic has brought about significant challenges in terms of equitable access, and as the data from the 2023 EDUCAUSE student and faculty technology reports show, the desire and need for online content isn't going away. Institutions will need to consider how they can best bridge the gap of access.

New global data reveal education technology’s impact on learning

The promise of technology in the classroom is great: enabling personalized, mastery-based learning; saving teacher time; and equipping students with the digital skills they will need for 21st-century careers. Indeed, controlled pilot studies have shown meaningful improvements in student outcomes through personalized blended learning. 1 John F. Pane et al., “How does personalized learning affect student achievement?,” RAND Corporation, 2017, rand.org. During this time of school shutdowns and remote learning , education technology has become a lifeline for the continuation of learning.

As school systems begin to prepare for a return to the classroom , many are asking whether education technology should play a greater role in student learning beyond the immediate crisis and what that might look like. To help inform the answer to that question, this article analyzes one important data set: the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), published in December 2019 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Every three years, the OECD uses PISA to test 15-year-olds around the world on math, reading, and science. What makes these tests so powerful is that they go beyond the numbers, asking students, principals, teachers, and parents a series of questions about their attitudes, behaviors, and resources. An optional student survey on information and communications technology (ICT) asks specifically about technology use—in the classroom, for homework, and more broadly.

In 2018, more than 340,000 students in 51 countries took the ICT survey, providing a rich data set for analyzing key questions about technology use in schools. How much is technology being used in schools? Which technologies are having a positive impact on student outcomes? What is the optimal amount of time to spend using devices in the classroom and for homework? How does this vary across different countries and regions?

From other studies we know that how education technology is used, and how it is embedded in the learning experience, is critical to its effectiveness. This data is focused on extent and intensity of use, not the pedagogical context of each classroom. It cannot therefore answer questions on the eventual potential of education technology—but it can powerfully tell us the extent to which that potential is being realized today in classrooms around the world.

Five key findings from the latest results help answer these questions and suggest potential links between technology and student outcomes:

The type of device matters—some are associated with worse student outcomes.
Geography matters—technology is associated with higher student outcomes in the United States than in other regions.
Who is using the technology matters—technology in the hands of teachers is associated with higher scores than technology in the hands of students.
Intensity matters—students who use technology intensely or not at all perform better than those with moderate use.
A school system’s current performance level matters—in lower-performing school systems, technology is associated with worse results.

This analysis covers only one source of data, and it should be interpreted with care alongside other relevant studies. Nonetheless, the 2018 PISA results suggest that systems aiming to improve student outcomes should take a more nuanced and cautious approach to deploying technology once students return to the classroom. It is not enough add devices to the classroom, check the box, and hope for the best.

What can we learn from the latest PISA results?

How will the use, and effectiveness, of technology change post-covid-19.

The PISA assessment was carried out in 2018 and published in December 2019. Since its publication, schools and students globally have been quite suddenly thrust into far greater reliance on technology. Use of online-learning websites and adaptive software has expanded dramatically. Khan Academy has experienced a 250 percent surge in traffic; smaller sites have seen traffic grow fivefold or more. Hundreds of thousands of teachers have been thrown into the deep end, learning to use new platforms, software, and systems. No one is arguing that the rapid cobbling together of remote learning under extreme time pressure represents best-practice use of education technology. Nonetheless, a vast experiment is underway, and innovations often emerge in times of crisis. At this point, it is unclear whether this represents the beginning of a new wave of more widespread and more effective technology use in the classroom or a temporary blip that will fade once students and teachers return to in-person instruction. It is possible that a combination of software improvements, teacher capability building, and student familiarity will fundamentally change the effectiveness of education technology in improving student outcomes. It is also possible that our findings will continue to hold true and technology in the classroom will continue to be a mixed blessing. It is therefore critical that ongoing research efforts track what is working and for whom and, just as important, what is not. These answers will inform the project of reimagining a better education for all students in the aftermath of COVID-19.

PISA data have their limitations. First, these data relate to high-school students, and findings may not be applicable in elementary schools or postsecondary institutions. Second, these are single-point observational data, not longitudinal experimental data, which means that any links between technology and results should be interpreted as correlation rather than causation. Third, the outcomes measured are math, science, and reading test results, so our analysis cannot assess important soft skills and nonacademic outcomes.

It is also worth noting that technology for learning has implications beyond direct student outcomes, both positive and negative. PISA cannot address these broader issues, and neither does this paper.

But PISA results, which we’ve broken down into five key findings, can still provide powerful insights. The assessment strives to measure the understanding and application of ideas, rather than the retention of facts derived from rote memorization, and the broad geographic coverage and sample size help elucidate the reality of what is happening on the ground.

Finding 1: The type of device matters

The evidence suggests that some devices have more impact than others on outcomes (Exhibit 1). Controlling for student socioeconomic status, school type, and location, 2 Specifically, we control for a composite indicator for economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS) derived from questions about general wealth, home possessions, parental education, and parental occupation; for school type “Is your school a public or a private school” (SC013); and for school location (SC001) where the options are a village, hamlet or rural area (fewer than 3,000 people), a small town (3,000 to about 15,000 people), a town (15,000 to about 100,000 people), a city (100,000 to about 1,000,000 people), and a large city (with more than 1,000,000 people). the use of data projectors 3 A projector is any device that projects computer output, slides, or other information onto a screen in the classroom. and internet-connected computers in the classroom is correlated with nearly a grade-level-better performance on the PISA assessment (assuming approximately 40 PISA points to every grade level). 4 Students were specifically asked (IC009), “Are any of these devices available for you to use at school?,” with the choices being “Yes, and I use it,” “Yes, but I don’t use it,” and “No.” We compared the results for students who have access to and use each device with those who do not have access. The full text for each device in our chart was as follows: Data projector, eg, for slide presentations; Internet-connected school computers; Desktop computer; Interactive whiteboard, eg, SmartBoard; Portable laptop or notebook; and Tablet computer, eg, iPad, BlackBerry PlayBook.

On the other hand, students who use laptops and tablets in the classroom have worse results than those who do not. For laptops, the impact of technology varies by subject; students who use laptops score five points lower on the PISA math assessment, but the impact on science and reading scores is not statistically significant. For tablets, the picture is clearer—in every subject, students who use tablets in the classroom perform a half-grade level worse than those who do not.

Some technologies are more neutral. At the global level, there is no statistically significant difference between students who use desktop computers and interactive whiteboards in the classroom and those who do not.

Finding 2: Geography matters

Looking more closely at the reading results, which were the focus of the 2018 assessment, 5 PISA rotates between focusing on reading, science, and math. The 2018 assessment focused on reading. This means that the total testing time was two hours for each student, of which one hour was reading focused. we can see that the relationship between technology and outcomes varies widely by country and region (Exhibit 2). For example, in all regions except the United States (representing North America), 6 The United States is the only country that took the ICT Familiarity Questionnaire survey in North America; thus, we are comparing it as a country with the other regions. students who use laptops in the classroom score between five and 12 PISA points lower than students who do not use laptops. In the United States, students who use laptops score 17 PISA points higher than those who do not. It seems that US students and teachers are doing something different with their laptops than those in other regions. Perhaps this difference is related to learning curves that develop as teachers and students learn how to get the most out of devices. A proxy to assess this learning curve could be penetration—71 percent of US students claim to be using laptops in the classroom, compared with an average of 37 percent globally. 7 The rate of use excludes nulls. The United States measures higher than any other region in laptop use by students in the classroom. US = 71 percent, Asia = 40 percent, EU = 35 percent, Latin America = 31 percent, MENA = 21 percent, Non-EU Europe = 41 percent. We observe a similar pattern with interactive whiteboards in non-EU Europe. In every other region, interactive whiteboards seem to be hurting results, but in non-EU Europe they are associated with a lift of 21 PISA points, a total that represents a half-year of learning. In this case, however, penetration is not significantly higher than in other developed regions.

Finding 3: It matters whether technology is in the hands of teachers or students

The survey asks students whether the teacher, student, or both were using technology. Globally, the best results in reading occur when only the teacher is using the device, with some benefit in science when both teacher and students use digital devices (Exhibit 3). Exclusive use of the device by students is associated with significantly lower outcomes everywhere. The pattern is similar for science and math.

Again, the regional differences are instructive. Looking again at reading, we note that US students are getting significant lift (three-quarters of a year of learning) from either just teachers or teachers and students using devices, while students alone using a device score significantly lower (half a year of learning) than students who do not use devices at all. Exclusive use of devices by the teacher is associated with better outcomes in Europe too, though the size of the effect is smaller.

Finding 4: Intensity of use matters

PISA also asked students about intensity of use—how much time they spend on devices, 8 PISA rotates between focusing on reading, science, and math. The 2018 assessment focused on reading. This means that the total testing time was two hours for each student, of which one hour was reading focused. both in the classroom and for homework. The results are stark: students who either shun technology altogether or use it intensely are doing better, with those in the middle flailing (Exhibit 4).

The regional data show a dramatic picture. In the classroom, the optimal amount of time to spend on devices is either “none at all” or “greater than 60 minutes” per subject per week in every region and every subject (this is the amount of time associated with the highest student outcomes, controlling for student socioeconomic status, school type, and location). In no region is a moderate amount of time (1–30 minutes or 31–60 minutes) associated with higher student outcomes. There are important differences across subjects and regions. In math, the optimal amount of time is “none at all” in every region. 9 The United States is the only country that took the ICT Familiarity Questionnaire survey in North America; thus, we are comparing it as a country with the other regions. In reading and science, however, the optimal amount of time is greater than 60 minutes for some regions: Asia and the United States for reading, and the United States and non-EU Europe for science.

The pattern for using devices for homework is slightly less clear cut. Students in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and non-EU Europe score highest when they spend “no time at all” on devices for their homework, while students spending a moderate amount of time (1–60 minutes) score best in Latin America and the European Union. Finally, students in the United States who spend greater than 60 minutes are getting the best outcomes.

One interpretation of these data is that students need to get a certain familiarity with technology before they can really start using it to learn. Think of typing an essay, for example. When students who mostly write by hand set out to type an essay, their attention will be focused on the typing rather than the essay content. A competent touch typist, however, will get significant productivity gains by typing rather than handwriting.

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Finding 5: the school systems’ overall performance level matters.

Diving deeper into the reading outcomes, which were the focus of the 2018 assessment, we can see the magnitude of the impact of device use in the classroom. In Asia, Latin America, and Europe, students who spend any time on devices in their literacy and language arts classrooms perform about a half-grade level below those who spend none at all. In MENA, they perform more than a full grade level lower. In the United States, by contrast, more than an hour of device use in the classroom is associated with a lift of 17 PISA points, almost a half-year of learning improvement (Exhibit 5).

At the country level, we see that those who are on what we would call the “poor-to-fair” stage of the school-system journey 10 Michael Barber, Chinezi Chijoke, and Mona Mourshed, “ How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting better ,” November 2010. have the worst relationships between technology use and outcomes. For every poor-to-fair system taking the survey, the amount of time on devices in the classroom associated with the highest student scores is zero minutes. Good and great systems are much more mixed. Students in some very highly performing systems (for example, Estonia and Chinese Taipei) perform highest with no device use, but students in other systems (for example, Japan, the United States, and Australia) are getting the best scores with over an hour of use per week in their literacy and language arts classrooms (Exhibit 6). These data suggest that multiple approaches are effective for good-to-great systems, but poor-to-fair systems—which are not well equipped to use devices in the classroom—may need to rethink whether technology is the best use of their resources.

What are the implications for students, teachers, and systems?

Looking across all these results, we can say that the relationship between technology and outcomes in classrooms today is mixed, with variation by device, how that device is used, and geography. Our data do not permit us to draw strong causal conclusions, but this section offers a few hypotheses, informed by existing literature and our own work with school systems, that could explain these results.

First, technology must be used correctly to be effective. Our experience in the field has taught us that it is not enough to “add technology” as if it were the missing, magic ingredient. The use of tech must start with learning goals, and software selection must be based on and integrated with the curriculum. Teachers need support to adapt lesson plans to optimize the use of technology, and teachers should be using the technology themselves or in partnership with students, rather than leaving students alone with devices. These lessons hold true regardless of geography. Another ICT survey question asked principals about schools’ capacity using digital devices. Globally, students performed better in schools where there were sufficient numbers of devices connected to fast internet service; where they had adequate software and online support platforms; and where teachers had the skills, professional development, and time to integrate digital devices in instruction. This was true even accounting for student socioeconomic status, school type, and location.

COVID-19 and student learning in the United States: The hurt could last a lifetime

Second, technology must be matched to the instructional environment and context. One of the most striking findings in the latest PISA assessment is the extent to which technology has had a different impact on student outcomes in different geographies. This corroborates the findings of our 2010 report, How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting better . Those findings demonstrated that different sets of interventions were needed at different stages of the school-system reform journey, from poor-to-fair to good-to-great to excellent. In poor-to-fair systems, limited resources and teacher capabilities as well as poor infrastructure and internet bandwidth are likely to limit the benefits of student-based technology. Our previous work suggests that more prescriptive, teacher-based approaches and technologies (notably data projectors) are more likely to be effective in this context. For example, social enterprise Bridge International Academies equips teachers across several African countries with scripted lesson plans using e-readers. In general, these systems would likely be better off investing in teacher coaching than in a laptop per child. For administrators in good-to-great systems, the decision is harder, as technology has quite different impacts across different high-performing systems.

Third, technology involves a learning curve at both the system and student levels. It is no accident that the systems in which the use of education technology is more mature are getting more positive impact from tech in the classroom. The United States stands out as the country with the most mature set of education-technology products, and its scale enables companies to create software that is integrated with curricula. 11 Common Core State Standards sought to establish consistent educational standards across the United States. While these have not been adopted in all states, they cover enough states to provide continuity and consistency for software and curriculum developers. A similar effect also appears to operate at the student level; those who dabble in tech may be spending their time learning the tech rather than using the tech to learn. This learning curve needs to be built into technology-reform programs.

Taken together, these results suggest that systems that take a comprehensive, data-informed approach may achieve learning gains from thoughtful use of technology in the classroom. The best results come when significant effort is put into ensuring that devices and infrastructure are fit for purpose (fast enough internet service, for example), that software is effective and integrated with curricula, that teachers are trained and given time to rethink lesson plans integrating technology, that students have enough interaction with tech to use it effectively, and that technology strategy is cognizant of the system’s position on the school-system reform journey. Online learning and education technology are currently providing an invaluable service by enabling continued learning over the course of the pandemic; this does not mean that they should be accepted uncritically as students return to the classroom.

Jake Bryant is an associate partner in McKinsey’s Washington, DC, office; Felipe Child is a partner in the Bogotá office; Emma Dorn is the global Education Practice manager in the Silicon Valley office; and Stephen Hall is an associate partner in the Dubai office.

The authors wish to thank Fernanda Alcala, Sujatha Duraikkannan, and Samuel Huang for their contributions to this article.

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How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting better

Why technology in education must be on our terms

Cameroon school children learning to use computer in classroom

The relationship between technology and education has been a topic of interest for decades. While technology presents remarkable opportunities, it's essential to approach its integration thoughtfully and responsibly. The 2023 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report offers valuable insights into how technology has transformed education, its benefits, limitations, and the challenges associated with its implementation.

The flagship UNESCO report highlights the lack of appropriate governance and regulation, especially amidst rapidly emerging generative artificial intelligence tools. It urges countries to urgently set their own terms for the way technology is designed and used in learning so that it never replaces in-person, teacher-led instruction, and supports quality education for all. Here are some insights from the report.

What has been the evolution of technology in education?

While the use of technology in education dates back to the emergence of radio in the 1920s, it's the digital technology of the last 40 years that holds the greatest potential for educational transformation. This period has witnessed a revolution in content distribution, learning management systems, testing methods, and language instruction. From augmented reality to personalized tutoring, technology has reshaped our learning experiences. Recent advancements in artificial intelligence have amplified the capabilities of educational technology, even raising questions about the role of human interaction in education.

What is the impact of technology on learning?

Technology undeniably enhances learning in specific contexts. However, it is crucial to recognize that a one-size-fits-all approach does not apply. Digital technology's primary contributions to learning lie in its ability to personalize instruction and extend available learning time. Additionally, it fosters engagement by encouraging interaction and collaboration among learners. Notably, the report highlights that technology need not be cutting-edge to be effective. For instance, in China, providing high-quality lesson recordings to rural students resulted in a 32% improvement in outcomes and a 38% reduction in urban-rural learning gaps.

How do we evaluate technology's effectiveness in education?

The report emphasizes that evaluating technology's impact must focus on learning outcomes rather than the mere implementation of digital tools. Cases such as Peru, where laptops were distributed without integrating them into pedagogy, demonstrate that technology alone doesn't guarantee improved learning. Similarly, exclusive reliance on remote instruction in the United States widened learning gaps. The report further warns against inappropriate or excessive technology use, citing instances of negative links between excessive ICT use and student performance.

How reliable is the evidence?

The rapid evolution of technology often outpaces its evaluation. Evidence primarily comes from affluent countries, raising concerns about generalizability. The report reveals that a mere 7% of education technology companies in the United Kingdom conducted randomized controlled trials, reflecting a lack of rigorous evaluation. The challenge of isolating technology's impact from other factors complicates precise assessment. Additionally, the influence of technology companies on evidence generation poses credibility challenges.

What are the recommendations for effective integration of technology in education?

As artificial intelligence gains prominence, the report emphasizes that not all technological change equates to progress. The adoption of technology must be guided by a learner-centric, rights-based framework, ensuring appropriateness, equity, evidence-based decisions, and sustainability. The report presents a four-point compass for policy-makers:

Look down: Evaluate the context and learning objectives to ensure technology choices strengthen education systems.
Look back: Prioritize marginalized groups to ensure that technology benefits all learners and narrows educational disparities.
Look up: Ensure evidence-based decision-making and consider hidden long-term costs before scaling up technology initiatives.
Look forward: Align technology integration with sustainable development goals, considering financial implications, children's well-being, and environmental impact.

Technology in education: A tool on whose terms

From 4 to 7 September, UNESCO's Digital Learning Week will gather policy-makers, practitioners, educators, private sector partners, researchers and development agencies to jointly explore how public digital learning platforms and generative AI can be steered to reinforce and enrich human-centered quality education.

Download the 2023 GEM Report
Read the press release
Join the conversation on social media via #TechOnOurTerms
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Is technology good or bad for learning?

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, saro mohammed, ph.d. smp saro mohammed, ph.d. partner - the learning accelerator.

May 8, 2019

I’ll bet you’ve read something about technology and learning recently. You may have read that device use enhances learning outcomes . Or perhaps you’ve read that screen time is not good for kids . Maybe you’ve read that there’s no link between adolescents’ screen time and their well-being . Or that college students’ learning declines the more devices are present in their classrooms .

If ever there were a case to be made that more research can cloud rather than clarify an issue, technology use and learning seems to fit the bill. This piece covers what the research actually says, some outstanding questions, and how to approach the use of technology in learning environments to maximize opportunities for learning and minimize the risk of doing harm to students.

In my recent posts , I have frequently cited the mixed evidence about blended learning, which strategically integrates in-person learning with technology to enable real-time data use, personalized instruction, and mastery-based progression. One thing that this nascent evidence base does show is that technology can be linked to improved learning . When technology is integrated into lessons in ways that are aligned with good in-person teaching pedagogy, learning can be better than without technology.

A 2018 meta-analysis of dozens of rigorous studies of ed tech , along with the executive summary of a forthcoming update (126 rigorous experiments), indicated that when education technology is used to individualize students’ pace of learning, the results overall show “ enormous promise .” In other words, ed tech can improve learning when used to personalize instruction to each student’s pace.

Further, this same meta-analysis, along with other large but correlational studies (e.g., OECD 2015 ), also found that increased access to technology in school was associated with improved proficiency with, and increased use of, technology overall. This is important in light of the fact that access to technology outside of learning environments is still very unevenly distributed across ethnic, socio-economic, and geographic lines. Technology for learning, when deployed to all students, ensures that no student experiences a “21st-century skills and opportunity” gap.

More practically, technology has been shown to scale and sustain instructional practices that would be too resource-intensive to work in exclusively in-person learning environments, especially those with the highest needs. In multiple , large-scale studies where technology has been incorporated into the learning experiences of hundreds of students across multiple schools and school systems, they have been associated with better academic outcomes than comparable classrooms that did not include technology. Added to these larger bodies of research are dozens, if not hundreds, of smaller , more localized examples of technology being used successfully to improve students’ learning experiences. Further, meta-analyses and syntheses of the research show that blended learning can produce greater learning than exclusively in-person learning.

All of the above suggest that technology, used well, can drive equity in learning opportunities. We are seeing that students and families from privileged backgrounds are able to make choices about technology use that maximize its benefits and minimize its risks , while students and families from marginalized backgrounds do not have opportunities to make the same informed choices. Intentional, thoughtful inclusion of technology in public learning environments can ensure that all students, regardless of their ethnicity, socioeconomic status, language status, special education status, or other characteristics, have the opportunity to experience learning and develop skills that allow them to fully realize their potential.

On the other hand, the evidence is decidedly mixed on the neurological impact of technology use. In November 2016, the American Association of Pediatrics updated their screen time guidelines for parents, generally relaxing restrictions and increasing the recommended maximum amount of time that children in different age groups spend interacting with screens. These guidelines were revised not because of any new research, but for two far more practical reasons. First, the nuance of the existing evidence–especially the ways in which recommendations change as children get older–was not adequately captured in the previous guidelines. Second, the proliferation of technology in our lives had made the previous guidelines almost impossible to follow.

The truth is that infants, in particular, learn by interacting with our physical world and with other humans, and it is likely that very early (passive) interactions with devices–rather than humans–can disrupt or misinform neural development . As we grow older, time spent on devices often replaces time spent engaging in physical activity or socially with other people, and it can even become a substitute for emotional regulation, which is detrimental to physical, social, and emotional development.

In adolescence and young adulthood, the presence of technology in learning environments has also been associated with (but has not been shown to be the cause of) negative variables such as attention deficits or hyperactivity , feeling lonely , and lower grades . Multitasking is not something our brains can do while learning , and technology often represents not just one more “task” to have to attend to in a learning environment, but multiple additional tasks due to the variety of apps and programs installed on and producing notifications through a single device.

The pragmatic

The current takeaway from the research is that there are potential benefits and risks to deploying technology in learning environments. While we can’t wrap this topic up with a bow just yet–there are still more questions than answers–there is evidence that technology can amplify effective teaching and learning when in the hands of good teachers. The best we can do today is understand how technology can be a valuable tool for educators to do the complex, human work that is teaching by capitalizing on the benefits while remaining fully mindful of the risks as we currently understand them.

We must continue to build our understanding of both the risks and benefits as we proceed. With that in mind, here are some “Dos” and “Don’ts” for using technology in learning environments:

Do use technology:	Don’t use technology:
● To enhance or extend social interactions ● To provide access to learning environments (like advanced courses, simulations, etc) that otherwise would not be available ● To facilitate and generate learning experiences that are meaningfully aligned with in-person learning experiences ● To personalize, individualize, and/or differentiate learning to each student’s pace, path, abilities, and interests ● To provide students with choice, agency, and ownership of their learning ● To ensure equitable access to technology and its supporting infrastructure itself, as well as the opportunity to develop skills associated with technology use	● For many or unlimited hours each day ● To remove students from learning experiences that their peers have access to ● To implement, scale, or sustain effective in-person instructional strategies ● To track or stream students into rigid or long-term, standardized learning groups ● To automate or make decisions about learning without input from teachers and students ● With the assumption that students intuitively know how to use it (or have access to it), especially for learning

Do use technology:

Don’t use technology:

● To enhance or extend social interactions

● To provide access to learning environments (like advanced courses, simulations, etc) that otherwise would not be available

● To facilitate and generate learning experiences that are meaningfully aligned with in-person learning experiences

● To personalize, individualize, and/or differentiate learning to each student’s pace, path, abilities, and interests

● To provide students with choice, agency, and ownership of their learning

● To ensure equitable access to technology and its supporting infrastructure itself, as well as the opportunity to develop skills associated with technology use

● For many or unlimited hours each day

● To remove students from learning experiences that their peers have access to

● To implement, scale, or sustain effective in-person instructional strategies

● To track or stream students into rigid or long-term, standardized learning groups

● To automate or make decisions about learning without input from teachers and students

● With the assumption that students intuitively know how to use it (or have access to it), especially for learning

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Technology in education

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A tool on whose terms?

Ismael Martínez Sánchez/ProFuturo

Monitoring SDG 4
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Major advances in technology, especially digital technology, are rapidly transforming the world. Information and communication technology (ICT) has been applied for 100 years in education, ever since the popularization of radio in the 1920s. But it is the use of digital technology over the past 40 years that has the most significant potential to transform education. An education technology industry has emerged and focused, in turn, on the development and distribution of education content, learning management systems, language applications, augmented and virtual reality, personalized tutoring, and testing. Most recently, breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI), methods have increased the power of education technology tools, leading to speculation that technology could even supplant human interaction in education.

In the past 20 years, learners, educators and institutions have widely adopted digital technology tools. The number of students in MOOCs increased from 0 in 2012 to at least 220 million in 2021. The language learning application Duolingo had 20 million daily active users in 2023, and Wikipedia had 244 million page views per day in 2021. The 2018 PISA found that 65% of 15-year-old students in OECD countries were in schools whose principals agreed that teachers had the technical and pedagogical skills to integrate digital devices in instruction and 54% in schools where an effective online learning support platform was available; these shares are believed to have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally, the percentage of internet users rose from 16% in 2005 to 66% in 2022. About 50% of the world’s lower secondary schools were connected to the internet for pedagogical purposes in 2022.

The adoption of digital technology has resulted in many changes in education and learning. The set of basic skills that young people are expected to learn in school, at least in richer countries, has expanded to include a broad range of new ones to navigate the digital world. In many classrooms, paper has been replaced by screens and pens by keyboards. COVID-19 can be seen as a natural experiment where learning switched online for entire education systems virtually overnight. Higher education is the subsector with the highest rate of digital technology adoption, with online management platforms replacing campuses. The use of data analytics has grown in education management. Technology has made a wide range of informal learning opportunities accessible.

Yet the extent to which technology has transformed education needs to be debated. Change resulting from the use of digital technology is incremental, uneven and bigger in some contexts than others. The application of digital technology varies by community and socioeconomic level, by teacher willingness and preparedness, by education level, and by country income. Except in the most technologically advanced countries, computers and devices are not used in classrooms on a large scale. Technology use is not universal and will not become so any time soon. Moreover, evidence is mixed on its impact: Some types of technology seem to be effective in improving some kinds of learning. The short- and long-term costs of using digital technology appear to be significantly underestimated. The most disadvantaged are typically denied the opportunity to benefit from this technology.

Too much attention on technology in education usually comes at a high cost. Resources spent on technology, rather than on classrooms, teachers and textbooks for all children in low- and lower-middle-income countries lacking access to these resources are likely to lead to the world being further away from achieving the global education goal, SDG 4. Some of the world’s richest countries ensured universal secondary schooling and minimum learning competencies before the advent of digital technology. Children can learn without it.

However, their education is unlikely to be as relevant without digital technology. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights defines the purpose of education as promoting the ‘full development of the human personality’, strengthening ‘respect for … fundamental freedoms’ and promoting ‘understanding, tolerance and friendship’. This notion needs to move with the times. An expanded definition of the right to education could include effective support by technology for all learners to fulfil their potential, regardless of context or circumstance.

Clear objectives and principles are needed to ensure that technology use is of benefit and avoids harm. The negative and harmful aspects in the use of digital technology in education and society include risk of distraction and lack of human contact. Unregulated technology even poses threats to democracy and human rights, for instance through invasion of privacy and stoking of hatred. Education systems need to be better prepared to teach about and through digital technology, a tool that must serve the best interests of all learners, teachers and administrators. Impartial evidence showing that technology is being used in some places to improve education, and good examples of such use, need to be shared more widely so that the optimal mode of delivery can be assured for each context.

CAN TECHNOLOGY HELP SOLVE THE MOST IMPORTANT CHALLENGES IN EDUCATION?

Discussions about education technology are focused on technology rather than education. The first question should be: What are the most important challenges in education? As a basis for discussion, consider the following three challenges:

Equity and inclusion: Is fulfilment of the right to choose the education one wants and to realize one’s full potential through education compatible with the goal of equality? If not, how can education become the great equalizer?
Quality: Do education’s content and delivery support societies in achieving sustainable development objectives? If not, how can education help learners to not only acquire knowledge but also be agents of change?
Efficiency: Does the current institutional arrangement of teaching learners in classrooms support the achievement of equity and quality? If not, how can education balance individualized instruction and socialization needs?

How best can digital technology be included in a strategy to tackle these challenges, and under what conditions? Digital technology packages and transmits information on an unprecedented scale at high speed and low cost. Information storage has revolutionized the volume of accessible knowledge. Information processing enables learners to receive immediate feedback and, through interaction with machines, adapt their learning pace and trajectory: Learners can organize the sequence of what they learn to suit their background and characteristics. Information sharing lowers the cost of interaction and communication. But while such technology has tremendous potential, many tools have not been designed for application to education. Not enough attention has been given to how they are applied in education and even less to how they should be applied in different education contexts.

On the question of equity and inclusion , ICT – and digital technology in particular – helps lower the education access cost for some disadvantaged groups: Those who live in remote areas are displaced, face learning difficulties, lack time or have missed out on past education opportunities. But while access to digital technology has expanded rapidly, there are deep divides in access. Disadvantaged groups own fewer devices, are less connected to the internet (Figure 1) and have fewer resources at home. The cost of much technology is falling rapidly but is still too high for some. Households that are better off can buy technology earlier, giving them more advantages and compounding disparity. Inequality in access to technology exacerbates existing inequality in access to education, a weakness exposed during the COVID-19 school closures.

Figure 1: Internet connectivity is highly unequal

Percentage of 3- to 17-year-olds with internet connection at home, by wealth quintile, selected countries, 2017–19 Source: UNICEF database.

Education quality is a multifaceted concept. It encompasses adequate inputs (e.g. availability of technology infrastructure), prepared teachers (e.g. teacher standards for technology use in classrooms), relevant content (e.g. integration of digital literacy in the curriculum) and individual learning outcomes (e.g. minimum levels of proficiency in reading and mathematics). But education quality should also encompass social outcomes. It is not enough for students to be vessels receiving knowledge; they need to be able to use it to help achieve sustainable development in social, economic and environmental terms.

There are a variety of views on the extent to which digital technologies can enhance education quality. Some argue that, in principle, digital technology creates engaging learning environments, enlivens student experiences, simulates situations, facilitates collaboration and expands connections. But others say digital technology tends to support an individualized approach to education, reducing learners’ opportunities to socialize and learn by observing each other in real-life settings. Moreover, just as new technology overcomes some constraints, it brings its own problems. Increased screen time has been associated with adverse impact on physical and mental health. Insufficient regulation has led to unauthorized use of personal data for commercial purposes. Digital technology has also helped spread misinformation and hate speech, including through education.

Improvements to efficiency may be the most promising way for digital technology to make a difference in education. Technology is touted as being able to reduce the time students and teachers spend on menial tasks, time that can be used in other, educationally more meaningful activities. However, there are conflicting views on what is meaningful. The way that education technology is used is more complex than just a substitution of resources. Technology may be one-to-many, one-to-one or peer-to-peer technology. It may require students to learn alone or with others, online or offline, independently or networked. It delivers content, creates learner communities and connects teachers with students. It provides access to information. It may be used for formal or informal learning and can assess what has been learned. It is used as a tool for productivity, creativity, communication, collaboration, design and data management. It may be professionally produced or have user-generated content. It may be specific to schools and place-based or transcend time and place. As in any complex system, each technology tool involves distinct infrastructure, design, content and pedagogy, and each may promote different types of learning.

Technology is evolving too fast to permit evaluation that could inform decisions on legislation, policy and regulation. Research on technology in education is as complex as technology itself. Studies evaluate experiences of learners of various ages using various methodologies applied in contexts as different as self-study, classrooms and schools of diverse sizes and features, non-school settings, and at system level. Findings that apply in some contexts are not always replicable elsewhere. Some conclusions can be drawn from long-term studies as technologies mature but there is an endless stream of new products. Meanwhile, not all impact can be easily measured, given technology’s ubiquity, complexity, utility and heterogeneity. In brief, while there is much general research on education technology, the amount of research for specific applications and contexts is insufficient, making it difficult to prove that a particular technology enhances a particular kind of learning.

Why is there often the perception nevertheless that technology can address major education challenges? To understand the discourse around education technology, it is necessary to look behind the language being used to promote it, and the interests it serves. Who frames the problems technology should address? What are the consequences of such framing for education? Who promotes education technology as a precondition for education transformation? How credible are such claims? What criteria and standards need to be set to evaluate digital technology’s current and potential future contribution to education so as to separate hype from substance? Can evaluation go beyond short-term assessments of impact on learning and capture potential far-reaching consequences of the generalized use of digital technology in education?

Exaggerated claims about technology go hand in hand with exaggerated estimates of its global market size. In 2022, business intelligence providers’ estimates ranged from USD 123 billion to USD 300 billion. These accounts are almost always projected forward, predicting optimistic expansion, yet they fail to give historic trends and verify whether past projections proved true. Such reporting routinely characterizes education technology as essential and technology companies as enablers and disruptors. If optimistic projections are not fulfilled, responsibility is implicitly placed on governments as a way of maintaining indirect pressure on them to increase procurement. Education is criticized as being slow to change, stuck in the past and a laggard when it comes to innovation. Such coverage plays on users’ fascination with novelty but also their fear of being left behind.

The sections below further explore the three challenges this report addresses: equity and inclusion (in terms of access to education for disadvantaged groups and access to content), quality (in terms of teaching through and about digital technology) and efficiency (in terms of education management). After identifying technology’s potential to tackle these challenges, it discusses three conditions that need to be met for that potential to be fulfilled: equitable access, appropriate governance and regulation, and sufficient teacher capacity.

EQUITY AND INCLUSION: ACCESS FOR DISADVANTAGED GROUPS

A wide range of technology brings education to hard-to-reach learners. Technology has historically opened up education to learners facing significant obstacles in access to schools or well-trained teachers. Interactive radio instruction is used in nearly 40 countries. In Nigeria, radio instruction combined with print and audiovisual materials has been used since the 1990s, reaching nearly 80% of nomads and increasing their literacy, numeracy and life skills. Television has helped educate marginalized groups, notably in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Telesecundaria programme in Mexico, combining televised lessons with in-class support and extensive teacher training, increased secondary school enrolment by 21%. Mobile learning devices, often the only type of device accessible to disadvantaged learners, have been used in hard-to-reach areas and emergencies to share educational materials; complement in-person or remote channels; and foster interactions between students, teachers and parents, notably during COVID-19. Adults have been the main target of online distance learning, with open universities having increased participation for both working and disadvantaged adults.

Inclusive technology supports accessibility and personalization for learners with disabilities. Assistive technology removes learning and communication barriers, with numerous studies reporting a significant positive impact on academic engagement, social participation and the well-being of learners with disabilities. However, such devices remain inaccessible and unaffordable in many countries, and teachers often lack specialized training to use them effectively in learning environments. While people with disabilities used to rely exclusively on specialized devices to gain access to education, technology platforms and devices are increasingly incorporating accessibility features, which support inclusive, personalized learning for all students.

Technology supports learning continuity in emergencies. Mapping of 101 distance education projects in crisis contexts in 2020 showed that 70% used radio, television and basic mobile phones. During the Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria, the Technology Enhanced Learning for All programme used mobile phones and radios to support the learning continuity of 22,000 disadvantaged children, with recorded improvement in literacy and numeracy skills. However, there are significant gaps in terms of rigorous evaluation of education technology in emergencies, despite some limited recorded impact. Meanwhile, most projects are led by non-state actors as short-term crisis responses, raising sustainability concerns; education ministries implemented only 12% of the 101 projects.

Technology supported learning during COVID-19, but millions were left out. During school closures, 95% of education ministries carried out some form of distance learning, potentially reaching over 1 billion students globally. Many of the resources used during the pandemic were first developed in response to previous emergencies or rural education, with some countries building on decades of experience with remote learning. Sierra Leone revived the Radio Teaching Programme, developed during the Ebola crisis, one week after schools closed. Mexico expanded content from its Telesecundaria programme to all levels of education. However, at least half a billion, or 31% of students worldwide – mostly the poorest (72%) and those in rural areas (70%) – could not be reached by remote learning. Although 91% of countries used online learning platforms to deliver distance learning during school closures, the platforms only reached a quarter of students globally. For the rest, low-tech interventions such as radio and television were largely used, in combination with paper-based materials and mobile phones for increased interactivity.

Some countries are expanding existing platforms to reach marginalized groups. Less than half of all countries developed long-term strategies for increasing their resilience and the sustainability of interventions as part of their COVID-19 response plans. Many have abandoned distance learning platforms developed during COVID-19, while others are repurposing them to reach marginalized learners. The digital platform set up in Ukraine during the pandemic was expanded once the war broke out in 2022, allowing 85% of schools to complete the academic year.

EQUITY AND INCLUSION: ACCESS TO CONTENT

Technology facilitates content creation and adaptation. Open educational resources (OERs) encourage the reuse and repurposing of materials to cut development time, avoid duplication of work and make materials more context-specific or relevant to learners. They also significantly reduce the cost of access to content. In the US state of North Dakota, an initial investment of USD 110,000 to shift to OERs led to savings of over USD 1 million in student costs. Social media increases access to user-generated content. YouTube, a major player in both formal and informal learning, is used by about 80% of the world’s top 113 universities. Moreover, collaborative digital tools can improve the diversity and quality of content creation. In South Africa, the Siyavule initiative supported tutor collaboration on the creation of primary and secondary education textbooks.

Digitization of educational content simplifies access and distribution. Many countries, including Bhutan and Rwanda, have created static digital versions of traditional textbooks to increase availability. Others, including India and Sweden, have produced digital textbooks that encourage interactivity and multimodal learning. Digital libraries and educational content repositories such as the National Academic Digital Library of Ethiopia, National Digital Library of India and Teachers Portal in Bangladesh help teachers and learners find relevant materials. Learning management platforms, which have become a key part of the contemporary learning environment, help organize content by integrating digital resources into course structures.

Open access resources help overcome barriers. Open universities and MOOCs can eliminate time, location and cost barriers to access. In Indonesia, where low participation in tertiary education is largely attributed to geographical challenges, MOOCs play an important role in expanding access to post-secondary learning. During COVID-19, MOOC enrolment surged, with the top three providers adding as many users in April 2020 as in all of 2019. Technology can also remove language barriers. Translation tools help connect teachers and learners from various countries and increase the accessibility of courses by non-native students.

Ensuring and assessing the quality of digital content is difficult. The sheer quantity of content and its decentralized production pose logistical challenges for evaluation. Several strategies have been implemented to address this. China established specific quality criteria for MOOCs to be nationally recognized. The European Union developed its OpenupED quality label. India strengthened the link between non-formal and formal education. Micro-credentials are increasingly used to ensure that institution and learner both meet minimum standards. Some platforms aim to improve quality by recentralizing content production. YouTube, for example, has been funnelling financing and resources to a few trusted providers and partnering with well-established education institutions.

Technology may reinforce existing inequality in both access to and production of content. Privileged groups still produce most content. A study of higher-education repositories with OER collections found that nearly 90% were created in Europe or North America; 92% of the material in the OER Commons global library is in English. This influences who has access to digital content. MOOCs, for example, mainly benefit educated learners – studies have shown around 80% of participants on major platforms already have a tertiary degree – and those from richer countries. The disparity is due to divides in digital skills, internet access, language and course design. Regional MOOCs cater to local needs and languages but can also worsen inequality.

TEACHING AND LEARNING

Technology has been used to support teaching and learning in multiple ways. Digital technology offers two broad types of opportunities. First, it can improve instruction by addressing quality gaps, increasing opportunities to practise, increasing available time and personalizing instruction. Second, it can engage learners by varying how content is represented, stimulating interaction and prompting collaboration. Systematic reviews over the past two decades on technology’s impact on learning find small to medium-sized positive effects compared to traditional instruction. However, evaluations do not always isolate technology’s impact in an intervention, making it difficult to attribute positive effects to technology alone rather than to other factors, such as added instruction time, resources or teacher support. Technology companies can have disproportionate influence on evidence production. For example, Pearson funded studies contesting independent analysis that showed its products had no impact.

The prevalence of ICT use in classrooms is not high, even in the world’s richest countries. The 2018 PISA found that only about 10% of 15-year-old students in over 50 participating education systems used digital devices for more than an hour a week in mathematics and science lessons, on average (Figure 2) . The 2018 International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) showed that in the 12 participating education systems, simulation and modelling software in classrooms was available to just over one third of students, with country levels ranging from 8% in Italy to 91% in Finland.

Figure 2: Even in upper-middle- and high-income countries, technology use in mathematics and science classrooms is limited

Percentage of 15-year-old students who used digital devices for at least one hour per week in mathematics or science classroom lessons, selected upper-middle- and high-income countries, 2018 Source: 2018 PISA database.

Recorded lessons can address teacher quality gaps and improve teacher time allocation. In China, lesson recordings from high-quality urban teachers were delivered to 100 million rural students. An impact evaluation showed improvements in Chinese skills by 32% and a 38% long-term reduction in the rural–urban earning gap. However, just delivering materials without contextualizing and providing support is insufficient. In Peru, the One Laptop Per Child programme distributed over 1 million laptops loaded with content, but no positive impact on learning resulted, partly due to the focus on provision of devices instead of the quality of pedagogical integration.

Enhancing technology-aided instruction with personalization can improve some types of learning. Personalized adaptive software generates analytics that can help teachers track student progress, identify error patterns, provide differentiated feedback and reduce workload on routine tasks. Evaluations of the use of a personalized adaptive software in India documented learning gains in after-school settings and for low-performing students. However, not all widely used software interventions have strong evidence of positive effects compared to teacher-led instruction. A meta-analysis of studies on an AI learning and assessment system that has been used by over 25 million students in the United States found it was no better than traditional classroom teaching in improving outcomes.

Varied interaction and visual representation can enhance student engagement. A meta-analysis of 43 studies published from 2008 to 2019 found that digital games improved cognitive and behavioural outcomes in mathematics. Interactive whiteboards can support teaching and learning if well integrated in pedagogy; but in the United Kingdom, despite large-scale adoption, they were mostly used to replace blackboards. Augmented, mixed or virtual reality used as an experiential learning tool for repeated practice in life-like conditions in technical, vocational and scientific subjects is not always as effective as real-life training but may be superior to other digital methods, such as video demonstrations.

Technology offers teachers low-cost and convenient ways to communicate with parents. The Colombian Institute of Family Welfare’s distance education initiative, which targeted 1.7 million disadvantaged children, relied on social media platforms to relay guidance to caregivers on pedagogical activities at home. However, uptake and effectiveness of behavioural interventions targeting caregivers are limited by parental education levels, as well as lack of time and material resources.

Student use of technology in classrooms and at home can be distracting, disrupting learning. A meta-analysis of research on student mobile phone use and its impact on education outcomes, covering students from pre-primary to higher education in 14 countries, found a small negative effect, and a larger one at the university level. Studies using PISA data indicate a negative association between ICT use and student performance beyond a threshold of moderate use. Teachers perceive tablet and phone use as hampering classroom management. More than one in three teachers in seven countries participating in the 2018 ICILS agreed that ICT use in classrooms distracted students. Online learning relies on student ability to self-regulate and may put low-performing and younger learners at increased risk of disengagement.

DIGITAL SKILLS

The definition of digital skills has been evolving along with digital technology. An analysis for this report shows that 54% of countries have identified digital skills standards for learners. The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp), developed on behalf of the European Commission, has five competence areas: information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, digital content creation, safety, and problem-solving. Some countries have adopted digital skills frameworks developed by non-state, mostly commercial, actors. The International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL) has been promoted as a ‘digital skills standard’ but is associated mainly with Microsoft applications. Kenya and Thailand have endorsed the ICDL as the digital literacy standard for use in schools.

Digital skills are unequally distributed. In the 27 European Union (EU) countries, 54% of adults had at least basic digital skills in 2021. In Brazil, 31% of adults had at least basic skills, but the level was twice as high in urban as in rural areas, three times as high among those in the labour force as among those outside it, and nine times as high in the top socioeconomic group as in the two bottom groups. The overall gender gap in digital skills is small, but wider in specific skills. In 50 countries, 6.5% of males and 3.2% of females could write a computer program. In Belgium, Hungary and Switzerland, no more than 2 women for every 10 men could program; in Albania, Malaysia and Palestine, 9 women for every 10 men could do so. According to the 2018 PISA, 5% of 15-year-olds with the strongest reading skills but 24% of those with the weakest ones were at risk of being misled by a typical phishing email.

Formal skills training may not be the main way of acquiring digital skills. About one quarter of adults in EU countries, ranging from 16% in Italy to 40% in Sweden, had acquired skills through a ‘formalised educational institution’. Informal learning, such as self-study and informal assistance from colleagues, relatives and friends, was used by twice as many. Still, formal education is important: In 2018, those with tertiary education in Europe were twice as likely (18%) as those with upper secondary education (9%) to engage in free online training or self-study to improve their computer, software or application use. Solid mastery of literacy and numeracy skills is positively associated with mastery of at least some digital skills.

A curriculum content mapping of 16 education systems showed that Greece and Portugal dedicated less than 10% of the curriculum to data and media literacy while Estonia and the Republic of Korea embedded both in half their curricula. In some countries, media literacy in curricula is explicitly connected to critical thinking in subject disciplines, as under Georgia’s New School Model. Asia is characterized by a protectionist approach to media literacy that prioritizes information control over education. But in the Philippines, the Association for Media and Information Literacy successfully advocated for incorporation of media and information literacy in the curriculum, and it is now a core subject in grades 11 and 12.

Digital skills in communication and collaboration matter in hybrid learning arrangements. Argentina promoted teamwork skills as part of a platform for programming and robotics competitions in primary and secondary education. Mexico offers teachers and students digital education resources and tools for remote collaboration, peer learning and knowledge sharing. Ethical digital behaviour includes rules, conventions and standards to be learned, understood and practised by digital users when using digital spaces. Digital communication’s anonymity, invisibility, asynchronicity and minimization of authority can make it difficult for individuals to understand its complexities.

Competences in digital content creation include selecting appropriate delivery formats and creating copy, audio, video and visual assets; integrating digital content; and respecting copyright and licences. The ubiquitous use of social media has turned content creation into a skill with direct application in electronic commerce. In Indonesia, the Siberkreasi platform counts collaborative engagement among its core activities. The Kenya Copyright Board collaborates closely with universities to provide copyright education and conducts frequent training sessions for students in the visual arts and ICT.

Education systems need to strengthen preventive measures and respond to many safety challenges, from passwords to permissions, helping learners understand the implications of their online presence and digital footprint. In Brazil, 29% of schools have conducted debates or lectures on privacy and data protection. In New Zealand, the Te Mana Tūhono (Power of Connectivity) programme delivers digital protection and security services to almost 2,500 state and state-integrated schools. A systematic review of interventions in Australia, Italy, Spain and the United States estimated that the average programme had a 76% chance of reducing cyberbullying perpetration. In Wales, United Kingdom, the government has advised schools how to prepare for and respond to harmful viral online content and hoaxes.

The definition of problem-solving skills varies widely among education systems. Many countries perceive them in terms of coding and programming and as part of a computer science curriculum that includes computational thinking, algorithm use and automation. A global review estimated that 43% of students in high-income countries, 62% in upper-middle-income, 5% in lower-middle-income but no students in low-income countries take computer science as compulsory in primary and/or secondary education. Only 20% of education systems require schools to offer computer science as an elective or core course. Non-state actors often support coding and programming skills. In Chile, Code.org has partnered with the government to provide educational resources in computer science.

EDUCATION MANAGEMENT

Education management information systems focus on efficiency and effectiveness. Education reforms have been characterized by increased school autonomy, target setting and results-based performance, all of which require more data. By one measure, since the 1990s, the number of policies making reference to data, statistics and information has increased by 13 times in high-income, 9 times in upper-middle-income, and 5 times in low- and lower-middle-income countries. But only 54% of countries globally – and as low as 22% in sub-Saharan Africa – have unique student identification mechanisms.

Geospatial data can support education management. Geographical information systems help address equity and efficiency in infrastructure and resource distribution in education systems. School mapping has been used to foster diversity and reduce inequality of opportunity. Ireland links three databases to decide in which of its 314 planning areas to build new schools. Geospatial data can identify areas where children live too far from the nearest school. For instance, it has been estimated that 5% of the population in Guatemala and 41% in the United Republic of Tanzania live more than 3 kilometres away from the nearest primary school.

Education management information systems struggle with data integration. In 2017, Malaysia introduced the Education Data Repository as part of its 2019–23 ICT Transformation Plan to progressively integrate its 350 education data systems and applications scattered across institutions. By 2019, it had integrated 12 of its main data systems, aiming for full integration through a single data platform by the end of 2023. In New Zealand, schools had been procuring student management systems independently and lack of interoperability between them was preventing authorities from tracking student progress. In 2019, the government began setting up the National Learner Repository and Data Exchange to be hosted in cloud data centres, but deployment was paused in 2021 due to cybersecurity concerns. European countries have been addressing interoperability concerns collectively to facilitate data sharing between countries and across multiple applications used in higher-education management through the EMREX project.

Computer-based assessments and computer adaptive testing have been replacing many paper-based assessments. They reduce test administration costs, improve measurement quality and provide rapid scoring. As more examinations shift online, the need for online cheating detection and proctoring tools has also increased. While these can reduce cheating, their effectiveness should be weighed against fairness and psychological effects. Evidence on the quality and usefulness of technology-based assessments has started to emerge, but much less is known about cost efficiency. Among 34 papers on technology-based assessments reviewed for this report, transparent data on cost were lacking.

Learning analytics can increase formative feedback and enable early detection systems. In China, learning analytics has been used to identify learners’ difficulties, predict learning trajectories and manage teacher resources. In the United States, Course Signals is a system used to flag the likelihood of a student not passing a course; educators can then target them for additional support. However, learning analytics requires all actors to have sufficient data literacy. Successful education systems typically have absorptive capacity, including strong school leaders and confident teachers willing to innovate. Yet often seemingly trivial issues, such as maintenance and repair, are ignored or underestimated.

ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY: EQUITY, EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY

Access to electricity and devices is highly unequal between and within countries. In 2021, almost 9% of the global population – and more than 70% of people in rural sub-Saharan Africa – lacked access to electricity. Globally, one in four primary schools do not have electricity. A 2018 study in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Myanmar, Nepal and Niger found that 31% of public schools were on grid and 9% were off grid, with only 16% enjoying uninterrupted power supply. Globally, 46% of households had a computer at home in 2020; the share of schools with computers for pedagogical purposes was 47% in primary, 62% in lower secondary and 76% in upper secondary education. There were at most 10 computers per 100 students in Brazil and Morocco but 160 computers per 100 students in Luxembourg, according to the 2018 PISA.

Internet access, a vital enabler of economic, social and cultural rights, is also unequal. In 2022, two in three people globally used the internet. In late 2021, 55% of the world’s population had mobile broadband access. In low- and middle-income countries, 16% less women than men used mobile internet in 2021. An estimated 3.2 billion people do not use mobile internet services despite being covered by a mobile broadband network. Globally, 40% of primary, 50% of lower secondary and 65% of upper secondary schools are connected to the internet. In India, 53% of private unaided and 44% of private aided schools are connected, compared with only 14% of government schools.

Various policies are used to improve access to devices. Some one in five countries have policies granting subsidies or deductions to buy devices. One-to-one technology programmes were established in 30% of countries at one time; currently only 15% of countries pursue such programmes. A number of upper-middle- and high-income countries are shifting from providing devices to allowing students to use their own devices in school. Jamaica adopted a Bring Your Own Device policy framework in 2020 to aim for sustainability.

Some countries champion free and open source software. Education institutions with complex ICT infrastructure, such as universities, can benefit from open source software to add new solutions or functionalities. By contrast, proprietary software does not permit sharing and has vendor locks that hinder interoperability, exchange and updates. In India, the National e-Governance Plan makes it mandatory for all software applications and services used in government to be built on open source software to achieve efficiency, transparency, reliability and affordability.

Countries are committed to universal internet provision at home and in school. About 85% of countries have policies to improve school or learner connectivity and 38% have laws on universal internet provision. A review of 72 low- and middle-income countries found that 29 had used universal service funds to reduce costs for underserved groups. In Kyrgyzstan, renegotiated contracts helped cut prices by nearly half and almost doubled internet speed. In Costa Rica, the Hogares Conectados (Connected Households) programme, which provided an internet cost subsidy to the poorest 60% of households with school-age children, helped reduce the share of unconnected households from 41% in 2016 to 13% in 2019. Zero-rating, or providing free internet access for education or other purposes, has been used, especially during COVID-19, but is not without problems, as it violates the net neutrality principle.

Education technology is often underutilized. In the United States, an average of 67% of education software licences were unused and 98% were not used intensively. According to the EdTech Genome Project, 85% of some 7,000 pedagogical tools, which cost USD 13 billion, were ‘either a poor fit or implemented incorrectly’. Less than one in five of the top 100 education technology tools used in classrooms met the requirements of the US Every Student Succeeds Act. Research had been published for 39% of these tools but the research was aligned with the act in only 26% of cases.

Evidence needs to drive education technology decisions. A review in the United Kingdom found that only 7% of education technology companies had conducted randomized controlled trials, 12% had used third-party certification and 18% had engaged in academic studies. An online survey of teachers and administrators in 17 US states showed that only 11% requested peer-reviewed evidence prior to adopting education technology. Recommendations influence purchase decisions, yet ratings can be manipulated through fake reviews disseminated on social media. Few governments try to fill the evidence gap, so demand has grown for independent reviews. Edtech Tulna, a partnership between a private think tank and a public university in India, offers quality standards, an evaluation toolkit and publicly available expert reviews.

Education technology procurement decisions need to take economic, social and environmental sustainability into account. With respect to economic considerations, it is estimated that initial investment in education technology accounts for just 25% or less of the eventual total cost. Regarding social concerns, procurement processes need to address equity, accessibility, local ownership and appropriation. In France, the Territoires Numériques Educatifs (Digital Educational Territories) initiative was criticized because not all subsidized equipment met local needs, and local governments were left out of the decisions on which equipment to purchase. Both issues have since been addressed. Concerning environmental considerations, it has been estimated that extending the lifespan of all laptops in the European Union by a year would save the equivalent of taking almost 1 million cars off the road in terms of CO2 emissions.

Regulation needs to address risks in education technology procurement. Public procurement is vulnerable to collusion and corruption. In 2019, Brazil’s Comptroller General of the Union found irregularities in the electronic bidding process for the purchase of 1.3 million computers, laptops and notebooks for state and municipal public schools. Decentralizing public procurement to local governments is one way to balance some of the risks. Indonesia has used its SIPLah e-commerce platform to support school-level procurement processes. However, decentralization is vulnerable to weak organizational capacity. A survey of administrators in 54 US school districts found that they had rarely carried out needs assessments.

GOVERNANCE AND REGULATION

Governance of the education technology system is fragmented. A department or an agency responsible for education technology has been identified in 82% of countries. Placing education ministries in charge of education technology strategies and plans could help ensure that decisions are primarily based on pedagogical principles. However, this is the case in just 58% of countries. In Kenya, the 2019 National Information, Communications and Technology Policy led the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology to integrate ICT at all levels of education.

Participation is often limited in the development of education technology strategies and plans. Nepal established a Steering and a Coordination Committee under the 2013–17 ICT in Education Master Plan for intersectoral and inter-agency coordination and cooperation in its implementation. Including administrators, teachers and students can help bridge the knowledge gap with decision makers to ensure that education technology choices are appropriate. In 2022, only 41% of US education sector leaders agreed that they were regularly included in planning and strategic conversations about technology.

The private sector’s commercial interests can clash with government equity, quality and efficiency goals. In India, the government alerted families about the hidden costs of free online content. Other risks relate to data use and protection, privacy, interoperability and lock-in effects, whereby students and teachers are compelled to use specific software or platforms. Google, Apple and Microsoft produce education platforms tied to particular hardware and operating systems.

Privacy risks to children make their learning environment unsafe. One analysis found that 89% of 163 education technology products recommended for children’s learning during the COVID-19 pandemic could or did watch children outside school hours or education settings. In addition, 39 of 42 governments providing online education during the pandemic fostered uses that ‘risked or infringed’ upon children’s rights. Data used for predictive algorithms can bias predictions and decisions and lead to discrimination, privacy violations and exclusion of disadvantaged groups. The Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Education introduced regulations in 2019 requiring parental consent before devices powered by AI, such as cameras and headbands, could be used with students in schools and required data to be encrypted.

Children’s exposure to screen time has increased. A survey of screen time of parents of 3- to 8-year-olds in Australia, China, Italy, Sweden and the United States found that their children’s screen exposure increased by 50 minutes during the pandemic for both education and leisure. Extended screen time can negatively affect self-control and emotional stability, increasing anxiety and depression. Few countries have strict regulations on screen time. In China, the Ministry of Education limited the use of digital devices as teaching tools to 30% of overall teaching time. Less than one in four countries are banning the use of smartphones in schools. Italy and the United States have banned the use of specific tools or social media from schools. Cyberbullying and online abuse are rarely defined as offences but can fall under existing laws, such as stalking laws as in Australia and harassment laws in Indonesia.

Monitoring of data protection law implementation is needed. Only 16% of countries explicitly guarantee data privacy in education by law and 29% have a relevant policy, mainly in Europe and Northern America. The number of cyberattacks in education is rising. Such attacks increase exposure to theft of identity and other personal data, but capacity and funds to address the issue are often insufficient. Globally, 5% of all ransomware attacks targeted the education sector in 2022, accounting for more than 30% of cybersecurity breaches. Regulations on sharing children’s personal information are rare but are starting to emerge under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. China and Japan have binding instruments on protecting children’s data and information.

Technology has an impact on the teaching profession. Technology allows teachers to choose, modify and generate educational materials. Personalized learning platforms offer teachers customized learning paths and insights based on student data. During the COVID-19 pandemic, France facilitated access to 17 online teaching resource banks mapped against the national curriculum. The Republic of Korea temporarily eased copyright restrictions for teachers. Online teacher-student collaboration platforms provide access to support services, facilitate work team creation, allow participation in virtual sessions and promote sharing of learning materials.

Obstacles to integrating technology in education prevent teachers from fully embracing it. Inadequate digital infrastructure and lack of devices hinder teachers’ ability to integrate technology in their practice. A survey in 165 countries during the pandemic found that two in five teachers used their own devices, and almost one third of schools had only one device for education use. Some teachers lack training to use digital devices effectively. Older teachers may struggle to keep up with rapidly changing technology. The 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) found that older teachers in 48 education systems had weaker skills and lower self-efficacy in using ICT. Some teachers may lack confidence. Only 43% of lower secondary school teachers in the 2018 TALIS said they felt prepared to use technology for teaching after training, and 78% of teachers in the 2018 ICILS were not confident in using technology for assessment.

Education systems support teachers in developing technology-related professional competencies. About half of education systems worldwide have ICT standards for teachers in a competency framework, teacher training framework, development plan or strategy. Education systems set up annual digital education days for teachers, promote OER, support the exchange of experiences and resources between teachers, and offer training. One quarter of education systems have legislation to ensure teachers are trained in technology, either through initial or in-service training. Some 84% of education systems have strategies for in-service teacher professional development, compared with 72% for pre-service teacher education in technology. Teachers can identify their development needs using digital self-assessment tools such as that provided by the Centre for Innovation in Brazilian Education.

Technology is changing teacher training. Technology is used to create flexible learning environments, engage teachers in collaborative learning, support coaching and mentoring, increase reflective practice, and improve subject or pedagogical knowledge. Distance education programmes have promoted teacher learning in South Africa and even equalled the impact of in-person training in Ghana. Virtual communities have emerged, primarily through social networks, for communication and resource sharing. About 80% of teachers surveyed in the Caribbean belonged to professional WhatsApp groups and 44% used instant messaging to collaborate at least once a week. In Senegal, the Reading for All programme used in-person and online coaching. Teachers considered face-to-face coaching more useful, but online coaching cost 83% less and still achieved a significant, albeit small, improvement in how teachers guided students’ reading practice. In Flanders, Belgium, KlasCement, a teacher community network created by a non-profit and now run by the Ministry of Education, expanded access to digital education and provided a platform for discussions on distance education during the pandemic.

Many actors support teacher professional development in ICT. Universities, teacher training institutions and research institutes provide specialized training, research opportunities and partnerships with schools for professional development in ICT. In Rwanda, universities collaborated with teachers and the government to develop the ICT Essentials for Teachers course. Teacher unions also advocate for policies that support teachers. The Confederation of Education Workers of the Argentine Republic established the right of teachers to disconnect. Civil society organizations, including the Carey Institute for Global Good, offer support through initiatives such as providing OER and online courses for refugee teachers in Chad, Kenya, Lebanon and Niger.

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Digital technology is everywhere. How can it help plan better education systems?

C_ismael_martinez_sanchez-8308_1.jpg.

At its best, digital technologies can help build a more equitable and sustainable future. The 2023 GEM Report on technology and education , launched on 26 July 2023, similarly makes the case that, when used responsibly, digital technologies can help unlock the transformative power of education.

However, the journey has had many twists and turns. Over the years, technology has been seen as a threat, a pedagogical distraction, but also a panacea capable to solve a myriad of educational challenges. Today, the global education community embraces an overall more nuanced and balanced view – digital technology ushers in countless opportunities for new learning models, but also serious challenges that must be addressed to promote greater inclusion and equity.

The presence of technology in education today is unavoidable. In a post-pandemic context, we have learned that students are more likely to learn with technology than without it - especially in vulnerable and emergency contexts. It is also permeating the world of planning and management - the so-called behind-the-scenes of education. It is influencing how education systems are designed and redrawing the parameters for how educational administrations function.

When implemented at a macro level, technology has the capacity to produce significant impacts in education systems, offering tools and solutions that streamline processes and improve the efficiency of institutions.” -Martín Benavides, IIEP-UNESCO Director

3 ways technology can enhance planning

At IIEP, we have been working with countries to include technology in educational planning and management. From improved data collection to better transparency, here’s where we are seeing an impact in and through our work with ministries of education and their partners.

1. Technology can improve efficiency in the planning and management of education systems, including more equitable use of resources.

In countries worldwide, IIEP’s technical teams are seeing how technology can boost an Education Management Information System – or EMIS - the most important source of educational data. Technology can support everything from the collection, integration, processing, and maintenance, to the dissemination of data and information to improve decision-making, analysis, and policy formulation. EMIS is also key to monitoring progress toward educational goals and targets, both at the national and international levels.

Technology can also help create projections and modelling to manage the allocation of human and material resources. It can help planners find gaps in access to resources (e.g. teacher gaps in rural contexts) and fill them effectively and can help with time management. Tools such as context-specific school calendars , taking into account environmental and social variables (e.g. rainy seasons and harvest times) help to promote equity.

2. Technology can enhance transparency in the functioning of education.

Technology can provide open access to relevant information about how an education system functions, such as student performance reports. It can help construction open overnment where stakeholders can participate in formulating public policies and monitoring.

3. Technology can boost professional development.

Just like for teachers, technology is also used for the professional development of planners. Online learning platforms and communities of practice can provide resources that support peer-to-peer learning, the acquisition of new skills, and the dissemination of best practices .

These examples illustrate how digital tools in education reach far beyond classrooms. It can help planners do their jobs better and more efficiently, offering new pathways to improving educational quality and equity, now and in the future.

However, as the GEM report on technology and education explores, clear objectives and principles are needed to ensure that the use of technology avoids harm. To do this, it is crucial to understand some of the key challenges facing the integration of technology and its appropriate use in education today.

The challenge of access

Access is often the first challenge many think of when it comes to technology in education. Despite progress, the lack of equitable access to education in many regions of the world exacerbates educational inequalities, both at the individual and systemic levels.

The GEM report notes that, globally, only 40% of primary schools, 50% of lower secondary, and 65% of upper secondary schools have access to the Internet.

Additionally, learning gaps run the risk of widening as long as education systems exist without access to the necessary infrastructure, e.g., devices or connectivity.

During COVID-19, for example, a paradoxical situation arose: on the one hand, digital technologies helped to mitigate the effects of social isolation and made educational continuity possible. However, in their absence, socio-educational inequalities deepened.

To ensure that technologies do not lead to new inequalities, it is essential to promote and revitalize Internet access policies to ensure inclusion and equality in education, i.e. by placing vulnerable populations at the centre of policies.

The challenge of managing and maintaining technology

Technology is generally a private offering and this can complicate management processes in education. The diversity of suppliers is a factor, as choosing the right technology can be complex, especially when considering cost, quality, interoperability, and adaptability to specific educational needs.

Another frequent blind spot is placing an excessive focus on the procurement of devices and software without adequate consideration of how they align with the goals and needs of the education system, as well as the overarching digital transformation policies of states.

In terms of maintenance, the right infrastructure and technical support need to be in place to ensure that solutions function well, as seemingly prosaic factors, such as insufficient connectivity or lack of maintenance, can hinder their effective use.

To overcome these challenges related to technology management, spaces for dialogue with stakeholders must be fostered so that consensus can be built on the benefits and goals of integrating technology, robust mechanisms for evaluation, monitoring and learning, and committed institutional leadership.

In addition, the creation of specific public-private partnerships can achieve greater transparency in educational technology management processes.

The challenge of developing digital skills

The availability of technology does not necessarily guarantee its use. Just as the integration of digital technologies goes beyond the classroom, the challenge of developing digital competencies goes beyond students and teachers and must extend to all actors involved in the educational environment. Families, managers, and policy-makers must be included in this scheme to ensure that all actors can effectively contribute to the use of technology in the educational context and promote a digital culture in society at large.

What’s next?

Let’s focus on Latin America and the Caribbean, where despite more than two decades of integrating various types of digital policies, a deep learning crisis remains. Drawing on its Regional Forum on Education Policies, IIEP has put forward a number of recommendations to further exploit the use of technology in planning and management - with an equity lens.

First, sufficient resources are critical to finance educational change. To have a robust public education system that can close gaps and give everyone at least a minimum of opportunities to learn, constant investment is needed. But some countries fail to do this, either entirely or partially, often because of a lack of coordination or political will.

Second, it is critical to foster cross-sectoral coordination of education ministries with other government sectors. Many learning problems, especially those linked to conditions of extreme poverty, violence, or marginalization, cannot be solved by education policies alone.

Third, there must be a dialogue between the government and society as a whole. The more distant education policy decisions are from the multiple actors in the system, the less sustainable they will be.

Finally, to avoid having policies become distorted or diluted when they reach schools, there should be better articulation between central-level policy-making and district levels. This will help connect the dots in the transmission chain, making digital technologies a smoother journey for all.

How civil society uses digital tools to increase accountability in education 30 July 2024
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Enhancing digital technology to transform education

Download the 2023 GEM Report: Technology in education

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How Important Is Technology in Education? Benefits, Challenges, and Impact on Students

A group of students use their electronics while sitting at their desks.

Many of today’s high-demand jobs were created in the last decade, according to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). As advances in technology drive globalization and digital transformation, teachers can help students acquire the necessary skills to succeed in the careers of the future.

How important is technology in education? The COVID-19 pandemic is quickly demonstrating why online education should be a vital part of teaching and learning. By integrating technology into existing curricula, as opposed to using it solely as a crisis-management tool, teachers can harness online learning as a powerful educational tool.

The effective use of digital learning tools in classrooms can increase student engagement, help teachers improve their lesson plans, and facilitate personalized learning. It also helps students build essential 21st-century skills.

Virtual classrooms, video, augmented reality (AR), robots, and other technology tools can not only make class more lively, they can also create more inclusive learning environments that foster collaboration and inquisitiveness and enable teachers to collect data on student performance.

Still, it’s important to note that technology is a tool used in education and not an end in itself. The promise of educational technology lies in what educators do with it and how it is used to best support their students’ needs.

Educational Technology Challenges

BuiltIn reports that 92 percent of teachers understand the impact of technology in education. According to Project Tomorrow, 59 percent of middle school students say digital educational tools have helped them with their grades and test scores. These tools have become so popular that the educational technology market is projected to expand to $342 billion by 2025, according to the World Economic Forum.

However, educational technology has its challenges, particularly when it comes to implementation and use. For example, despite growing interest in the use of AR, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technology, less than 10 percent of schools report having these tools in their classrooms, according to Project Tomorrow. Additional concerns include excessive screen time, the effectiveness of teachers using the technology, and worries about technology equity.

Prominently rising from the COVID-19 crisis is the issue of content. Educators need to be able to develop and weigh in on online educational content, especially to encourage students to consider a topic from different perspectives. The urgent actions taken during this crisis did not provide sufficient time for this. Access is an added concern — for example, not every school district has resources to provide students with a laptop, and internet connectivity can be unreliable in homes.

Additionally, while some students thrive in online education settings, others lag for various factors, including support resources. For example, a student who already struggled in face-to-face environments may struggle even more in the current situation. These students may have relied on resources that they no longer have in their homes.

Still, most students typically demonstrate confidence in using online education when they have the resources, as studies have suggested. However, online education may pose challenges for teachers, especially in places where it has not been the norm.

Despite the challenges and concerns, it’s important to note the benefits of technology in education, including increased collaboration and communication, improved quality of education, and engaging lessons that help spark imagination and a search for knowledge in students.

The Benefits of Technology in Education

Teachers want to improve student performance, and technology can help them accomplish this aim. To mitigate the challenges, administrators should help teachers gain the competencies needed to enhance learning for students through technology. Additionally, technology in the classroom should make teachers’ jobs easier without adding extra time to their day.

Technology provides students with easy-to-access information, accelerated learning, and fun opportunities to practice what they learn. It enables students to explore new subjects and deepen their understanding of difficult concepts, particularly in STEM. Through the use of technology inside and outside the classroom, students can gain 21st-century technical skills necessary for future occupations.

Still, children learn more effectively with direction. The World Economic Forum reports that while technology can help young students learn and acquire knowledge through play, for example, evidence suggests that learning is more effective through guidance from an adult, such as a teacher.

Leaders and administrators should take stock of where their faculty are in terms of their understanding of online spaces. From lessons learned during this disruptive time, they can implement solutions now for the future. For example, administrators could give teachers a week or two to think carefully about how to teach courses not previously online. In addition to an exploration of solutions, flexibility during these trying times is of paramount importance.

Below are examples of how important technology is in education and the benefits it offers to students and teachers.

Increased Collaboration and Communication

Educational technology can foster collaboration. Not only can teachers engage with students during lessons, but students can also communicate with each other. Through online lessons and learning games, students get to work together to solve problems. In collaborative activities, students can share their thoughts and ideas and support each other. At the same time, technology enables one-on-one interaction with teachers. Students can ask classroom-related questions and seek additional help on difficult-to-understand subject matter. At home, students can upload their homework, and teachers can access and view completed assignments using their laptops.

Personalized Learning Opportunities

Technology allows 24/7 access to educational resources. Classes can take place entirely online via the use of a laptop or mobile device. Hybrid versions of learning combine the use of technology from anywhere with regular in-person classroom sessions. In both scenarios, the use of technology to tailor learning plans for each student is possible. Teachers can create lessons based on student interests and strengths. An added benefit is that students can learn at their own pace. When they need to review class material to get a better understanding of essential concepts, students can review videos in the lesson plan. The data generated through these online activities enable teachers to see which students struggled with certain subjects and offer additional assistance and support.

Curiosity Driven by Engaging Content

Through engaging and educational content, teachers can spark inquisitiveness in children and boost their curiosity, which research says has ties to academic success. Curiosity helps students get a better understanding of math and reading concepts. Creating engaging content can involve the use of AR, videos, or podcasts. For example, when submitting assignments, students can include videos or interact with students from across the globe.

Improved Teacher Productivity and Efficiency

Teachers can leverage technology to achieve new levels of productivity, implement useful digital tools to expand learning opportunities for students, and increase student support and engagement. It also enables teachers to improve their instruction methods and personalize learning. Schools can benefit from technology by reducing the costs of physical instructional materials, enhancing educational program efficiency, and making the best use of teacher time.

Become a Leader in Enriching Classrooms through Technology

Educators unfamiliar with some of the technology used in education may not have been exposed to the tools as they prepared for their careers or as part of their professional development. Teachers looking to make the transition and acquire the skills to incorporate technology in education can take advantage of learning opportunities to advance their competencies. For individuals looking to help transform the education system through technology, American University’s School of Education online offers a Master of Arts in Teaching and a Master of Arts in Education Policy and Leadership to prepare educators with essential tools to become leaders. Courses such as Education Program and Policy Implementation and Teaching Science in Elementary School equip graduate students with critical competencies to incorporate technology into educational settings effectively.

Learn more about American University’s School of Education online and its master’s degree programs.

Virtual Reality in Education: Benefits, Tools, and Resources

Data-Driven Decision Making in Education: 11 Tips for Teachers & Administration

Helping Girls Succeed in STEM

BuiltIn, “Edtech 101”

EdTech, “Teaching Teachers to Put Tech Tools to Work”

International Society for Technology in Education, “Preparing Students for Jobs That Don’t Exist”

The Journal, “How Teachers Use Technology to Enrich Learning Experiences”

Pediatric Research, “Early Childhood Curiosity and Kindergarten Reading and Math Academic Achievement”

Project Tomorrow, “Digital Learning: Peril or Promise for Our K-12 Students”

World Economic Forum, “The Future of Jobs Report 2018”

World Economic Forum, “Learning through Play: How Schools Can Educate Students through Technology”

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Four of the biggest problems facing education—and four trends that could make a difference

Eduardo velez bustillo, harry a. patrinos.

In 2022, we published, Lessons for the education sector from the COVID-19 pandemic , which was a follow up to, Four Education Trends that Countries Everywhere Should Know About , which summarized views of education experts around the world on how to handle the most pressing issues facing the education sector then. We focused on neuroscience, the role of the private sector, education technology, inequality, and pedagogy.

Unfortunately, we think the four biggest problems facing education today in developing countries are the same ones we have identified in the last decades .

1. The learning crisis was made worse by COVID-19 school closures

Low quality instruction is a major constraint and prior to COVID-19, the learning poverty rate in low- and middle-income countries was 57% (6 out of 10 children could not read and understand basic texts by age 10). More dramatic is the case of Sub-Saharan Africa with a rate even higher at 86%. Several analyses show that the impact of the pandemic on student learning was significant, leaving students in low- and middle-income countries way behind in mathematics, reading and other subjects. Some argue that learning poverty may be close to 70% after the pandemic , with a substantial long-term negative effect in future earnings. This generation could lose around $21 trillion in future salaries, with the vulnerable students affected the most.

2. Countries are not paying enough attention to early childhood care and education (ECCE)

At the pre-school level about two-thirds of countries do not have a proper legal framework to provide free and compulsory pre-primary education. According to UNESCO, only a minority of countries, mostly high-income, were making timely progress towards SDG4 benchmarks on early childhood indicators prior to the onset of COVID-19. And remember that ECCE is not only preparation for primary school. It can be the foundation for emotional wellbeing and learning throughout life; one of the best investments a country can make.

3. There is an inadequate supply of high-quality teachers

Low quality teaching is a huge problem and getting worse in many low- and middle-income countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the percentage of trained teachers fell from 84% in 2000 to 69% in 2019 . In addition, in many countries teachers are formally trained and as such qualified, but do not have the minimum pedagogical training. Globally, teachers for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects are the biggest shortfalls.

4. Decision-makers are not implementing evidence-based or pro-equity policies that guarantee solid foundations

It is difficult to understand the continued focus on non-evidence-based policies when there is so much that we know now about what works. Two factors contribute to this problem. One is the short tenure that top officials have when leading education systems. Examples of countries where ministers last less than one year on average are plentiful. The second and more worrisome deals with the fact that there is little attention given to empirical evidence when designing education policies.

To help improve on these four fronts, we see four supporting trends:

1. Neuroscience should be integrated into education policies

Policies considering neuroscience can help ensure that students get proper attention early to support brain development in the first 2-3 years of life. It can also help ensure that children learn to read at the proper age so that they will be able to acquire foundational skills to learn during the primary education cycle and from there on. Inputs like micronutrients, early child stimulation for gross and fine motor skills, speech and language and playing with other children before the age of three are cost-effective ways to get proper development. Early grade reading, using the pedagogical suggestion by the Early Grade Reading Assessment model, has improved learning outcomes in many low- and middle-income countries. We now have the tools to incorporate these advances into the teaching and learning system with AI , ChatGPT , MOOCs and online tutoring.

2. Reversing learning losses at home and at school

There is a real need to address the remaining and lingering losses due to school closures because of COVID-19. Most students living in households with incomes under the poverty line in the developing world, roughly the bottom 80% in low-income countries and the bottom 50% in middle-income countries, do not have the minimum conditions to learn at home . These students do not have access to the internet, and, often, their parents or guardians do not have the necessary schooling level or the time to help them in their learning process. Connectivity for poor households is a priority. But learning continuity also requires the presence of an adult as a facilitator—a parent, guardian, instructor, or community worker assisting the student during the learning process while schools are closed or e-learning is used.

To recover from the negative impact of the pandemic, the school system will need to develop at the student level: (i) active and reflective learning; (ii) analytical and applied skills; (iii) strong self-esteem; (iv) attitudes supportive of cooperation and solidarity; and (v) a good knowledge of the curriculum areas. At the teacher (instructor, facilitator, parent) level, the system should aim to develop a new disposition toward the role of teacher as a guide and facilitator. And finally, the system also needs to increase parental involvement in the education of their children and be active part in the solution of the children’s problems. The Escuela Nueva Learning Circles or the Pratham Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) are models that can be used.

3. Use of evidence to improve teaching and learning

We now know more about what works at scale to address the learning crisis. To help countries improve teaching and learning and make teaching an attractive profession, based on available empirical world-wide evidence , we need to improve its status, compensation policies and career progression structures; ensure pre-service education includes a strong practicum component so teachers are well equipped to transition and perform effectively in the classroom; and provide high-quality in-service professional development to ensure they keep teaching in an effective way. We also have the tools to address learning issues cost-effectively. The returns to schooling are high and increasing post-pandemic. But we also have the cost-benefit tools to make good decisions, and these suggest that structured pedagogy, teaching according to learning levels (with and without technology use) are proven effective and cost-effective .

4. The role of the private sector

When properly regulated the private sector can be an effective education provider, and it can help address the specific needs of countries. Most of the pedagogical models that have received international recognition come from the private sector. For example, the recipients of the Yidan Prize on education development are from the non-state sector experiences (Escuela Nueva, BRAC, edX, Pratham, CAMFED and New Education Initiative). In the context of the Artificial Intelligence movement, most of the tools that will revolutionize teaching and learning come from the private sector (i.e., big data, machine learning, electronic pedagogies like OER-Open Educational Resources, MOOCs, etc.). Around the world education technology start-ups are developing AI tools that may have a good potential to help improve quality of education .

After decades asking the same questions on how to improve the education systems of countries, we, finally, are finding answers that are very promising. Governments need to be aware of this fact.

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Issues and Trends in Learning Technologies (ITLT)

Issues and Trends in Learning Technologies (ITLT)—formerly published as Issues and Trends in Educational Technology —is published semiannually by the Learning Technology program at the University of Arizona. The journal covers design, development, use and assessment of educational technology in innovative ways, and features articles about research and theory as well as book, serious game and article reviews. The journal takes full advantage of its nature as an online publication, and authors are encouraged to submit material that would be unsuited for traditional print publication, such as video, high-resolution color images, software, and interactive data visualizations.

Volume 12 • Issue 1 • 2024 • Issues and Trends in Educational Technology

EDITORIAL: Thinking about Learning

Gerald Ardito

2024-06-15 Volume 12 • Issue 1 • 2024 • Issues and Trends in Educational Technology • 1–3

Research Articles

Future teachers identify skills acquired from a 1:1 technology environment.

Judy Ann Henning, Bryan Artman, Rebecca Nelson, Jordan Dille and Chelsea Feusner

2024-07-15 Volume 12 • Issue 1 • 2024 • Issues and Trends in Educational Technology • 4–21

Using Internet Reciprocal Teaching to Develop Second Graders’ Online Text Evaluation Skills

Annika Buell and Sohyun Meacham

2024-07-15 Volume 12 • Issue 1 • 2024 • Issues and Trends in Educational Technology • 22–63

Literature Review

An in-depth literature review of e-portfolio implementation in higher education: processes, barriers, and strategies.

Hongyan Yang and Rachel Wong

2024-07-15 Volume 12 • Issue 1 • 2024 • Issues and Trends in Educational Technology • 65–101

Book Reviews

A review of my secret #edtech diary: looking at educational technology through a wider lens, a book by al kingsley.

Matthew David Botkin

2024-07-15 Volume 12 • Issue 1 • 2024 • Issues and Trends in Educational Technology • 102–105

Our Mission

Teachers’ Most Common Tech Issues—and How to Fix Them

After fielding his fellow teachers’ tech problems for two months, the writer has an eight-step DIY plan for addressing them before calling the IT department.

Man sitting in his kitchen working on his laptop

Using technology in the classroom is challenging. Take the same devices and implement home learning, and we’re talking about a big problem (though the schools and teachers who are unable to send school devices home have it even tougher). And trying to get iPads and MacBooks, Chromebooks, Windows PCs, and Amazon Fires all to communicate with each other is no small task even for a tech department. Add the fact that the device users are children, who may not be fully motivated to resolve issues, and that their families are attempting to install and use unfamiliar software, apps, and devices.

What we have as a result is technology departments that are swamped with work orders for everything from installing new apps to instructing students how to remove a silly picture they put up for a video chat avatar.

My biggest technology challenge was when our school iPads were sent home on day one of home learning and families were unable to connect to their home Wi-Fi—the iPads were locked down to access only the school’s Wi-Fi. We couldn’t bring the iPads back in the building, so a coworker of mine set up a Wi-Fi hotspot in the hallway near our flagpole and arranged for families to drive up, park by the flagpole, remain inside the car, and wait five minutes for the iPad to connect and update. When they got home, they were able to connect to their own Wi-Fi.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve scoured Facebook professional learning community (PLC) groups that have popped up since the crisis began. I keep seeing the same questions, many of which have a simple solution.

Before submitting a tech work order that may take days to even be routed to the correct person, try these suggestions to see if there’s a simple fix to your technology issue. After each tip, retry the task.

8 Quick Troubleshooting Tips to Try Before a Work Order

1. Try one more time: Most people do this—in fact, they often click the trackpad so many times that they make matters far worse and get the spinning beachball of death. So I repeat: Try only one more time, and then proceed to the next tip.

2. Try a different browser: If you’re having problems with a website, using a different browser may help.

3. Check your Wi-Fi signal: With everyone in the family working and learning online, often using video, they’re spreading out to get some privacy. That can cause Wi-Fi connection issues if you’re in a remote part of the home. Make sure you have a strong signal .

4. Quit the software: This applies to web browsers or apps—and make sure you also close unnecessary tabs on your browser. Here’s how to quit an app on an Apple iOS device and on an Android device .

5. Update the software: Companies are updating frequently now because of the demands of home learning, so make sure your software is up to date. After updating, restart the device.

6. Log out and then log in again: But first, make sure you remember your password.

7. Clear the web browser’s cache and cookies: This helps the device start with a fresh slate of information. Here’s how to clear the cache and cookies on different browsers and devices .

8. Restart the device: Restarting is like a getting a full night’s sleep—it clears memory and restores the device’s inner workings.

You’ve tried your best, but no luck. Give it time. Our digital infrastructure is currently overloaded, and sometimes there are bottlenecks that resolve themselves in a few minutes. All around the world more people are at home learning, working, streaming video, gaming, or video conferencing. The internet is being overworked, websites and servers are being overloaded, and companies are being inundated with new customers.

There are so many variables in this virtual education engine that we’re revving up that it will often overheat. So how do we find answers quickly when the tech department is swamped?

Facebook PLCs: There are dozens of new PLC groups on Facebook, like Global Educator Collective , which has over 125,000 members answering home learning and technology questions from around the world. The group also has Facebook subgroups in nearly every subject area .

Company FAQ pages: Search the tech company’s Frequently Asked Questions page. And use Google: Include four to six keywords for the issue—if you have a problem, most likely someone else has too.

Need help with anything Google? If you’re having issues using Meet, Classroom, Docs, Slides, or YouTube, try the free workshops from The Learning Accelerator , which are taught by educators. There are workshops for Zoom and screencasting as well. You can also join the Facebook group Teachers Using Google Classroom , or follow Alice Keeler on Twitter .

Need help with Seesaw? There’s a 60,000-educator-strong Facebook group called Seesaw Teachers as well as specific groups for most grade levels and subjects.

Need help with Flipgrid? There’s a Facebook group called Flipgrid Educators .

Need help with video conferencing? When your students are having issues with Zoom or Google Meet, exiting and rejoining the meeting can often help. Students should also know that internet speeds are vital to the success of video chats—remind them that if unnecessary streaming or gaming is being done in the house, it can affect their connection quality.

If many students are complaining about your video or sound quality, you should restart the meeting.

Proactive Technology Tips for Home Learning

The best tech solution is to keep things simple—don’t have students and families use more software, apps, websites, or messaging systems than you need. Keep information centrally located for students as well as the adults at home.

Orchestrating a home learning system based on technology with little time to prepare and plan has been a complex task, and many of us were asked to take it on with little formal support or PD. Do the best you can.

And if you can’t get the technology to work, send your students off to play, submit your work order, go walk your dog, and wait for the pros.

‘There Are So Many Issues’: Why Schools Are Struggling to Protect Student Data

Teachers, education and technology companies, students, and parents were tossed into a digital storm when COVID-19 hit two years ago. They had to quickly shift to remote learning on a grand scale, which amplified weaknesses in student data privacy protections that were already a problem before the pandemic.

By many accounts, as most U.S. students have been back in the classroom this academic year, school systems and tech and education companies have applied the lessons learned and bolstered student data privacy.

“Schools and districts needed to pivot really hard and really quickly when the pandemic first hit,” said Linette Attai, the president of PlayWell LLC, a data privacy consulting firm. “There are two things we really learned over the last two years. One is that schools can be more agile than we ever imagined. They really rose to the occasion. The other is that technology changes constantly, but the norms and rules for protecting student data remain firm.”

But vulnerabilities clearly remain. In late March of this year, it came to light that the personal data of 820,000 current and former students in the New York City school system were compromised because of a security breach at Illuminate Education, an Irvine, Calif.-based student data vendor.

“There are so many issues” with the protection of student data generally, said Leonie Haimson, the co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy. “The pandemic has given a lot of companies access to student data that has not been sufficiently protected.”

A massive breach of student data in the Big Apple shows more work needs to be done

In the New York City breach, a hacker gained access to student names, birthdates, and data on such characteristics as special education, English-language learner, and free or reduced-price meal status on platforms operated by Illuminate Education, according to news reports. The vendor did not collect students’ Social Security numbers or family income information, the reports noted.

Officials with the New York City Department of Education told local news outlets that Illuminate Education had failed to encrypt data on its classroom management, scheduling, and pupil data platforms as required by the contract between the company and the school system.

The platforms were out of service for a week in January. Teachers had to record grades the old-fashioned way and it was harder to track students who might have been exposed to COVID-19, the New York Post reported.

Gloved hand reaching into a laptop screen hacking someone's account.

Illuminate Education, in response to an email query, acknowledged that some personal information in the New York City system was subject to “unauthorized access.”

“There is no evidence of any fraudulent or illegal activity related to this incident,” the company said in an email to Education Week. “The security of the data we have in our care is one of our highest priorities, and we have already taken important steps to help prevent this from happening again.”

Jim Siegl, a senior technologist with the youth and education privacy team at Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington, D.C., think tank, said that the New York City district’s access to the Illuminate system was disrupted for almost three weeks.

The school system was entrusting its information to one of the bigger data service providers in the K-12 marketplace, and that will inevitably offer some lessons in student privacy, he said.

“The district can outsource the work, but it can’t outsource the responsibility,” said Siegl, who is a former technology strategist for the Fairfax County, Va., public schools, the largest district in the state.

‘It’s not just the technology department [that is] responsible. It’s everybody’s job’

Student data privacy encompasses a broad range of considerations, from students’ own smartphones, to classroom applications discovered and embraced by teachers, to district-level data systems, to state testing programs.

“There’s not just one thing that people should do to ensure data privacy,” said Keith Krueger, the chief executive officer of the Consortium for School Networking, or CoSN, which serves school district technology directors across the country. “It’s not just the technology department [that is] responsible. It’s the superintendent, the curriculum office, the professional development trainers. It’s everybody’s job.”

Siegl agreed.

“The pandemic was an accelerator of education technology,” he said. “Everyone had to react very quickly. Most district [personnel] went home on a Friday [two years ago] and found out that come the next Monday, they had to be virtual.”

Parents who had varying levels of engagement with their children’s education and the technology used by districts “suddenly had that technology right across the kitchen table from them,” Siegl said.

Data security and privacy concept. Visualization of personal or business information safety.

Districts, schools, and often individual teachers were quickly embracing new online apps, sometimes bypassing normal district or school approval processes meant to ensure student data privacy.

The number of education tools and applications accessed per month by school districts increased from 952 just before the pandemic to 1,327 soon after, according to statistics from LearnPlatform Inc., a Raleigh, N.C.-based firm. By last school year, the figure had increased to 1,449.

“There were a large number of very well-intentioned companies that offered educational tools at the beginning of the pandemic,” Siegl said.

Haimson, of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, said her group is concerned about “the explosion of apps” used in schools, saying that “parents aren’t being informed about what data is being collected by private companies, how it is being used, and how it is being protected.”

“Even in states where there are privacy laws on the books, they’re not being enforced,” she said.

New cybersecurity measures to protect privacy of student data

Still, lawmakers are weighing or passing measures aimed at providing greater protections.

A CoSN report released in January highlighted a range of federal and state legislative measures aimed at boosting cybersecurity in the nation’s schools. These include the federal K-12 Cybersecurity Act of 2021, signed into law by President Joe Biden in October . It directs the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to “study the cybersecurity risks facing elementary and secondary schools and develop recommendations that include cybersecurity guidelines designed to assist schools in facing those risks.” The measure also requires the agency to create an online training toolkit for schools.

The massive federal infrastructure bill signed by the president in November may provide a more concrete improvement to cybersecurity in schools. It provides a $1 billion grant program for state and local governments to be used to secure networks, assess cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and bolster the workforce dedicated to improving cybersecurity.

The pandemic has given a lot of companies access to student data that has not been sufficiently protected.

The CoSN report also notes that 30 states passed measures last year designed to strengthen cybersecurity, either directly or indirectly, in K-12 and higher education.

“The proliferation of education cybersecurity bills and laws in 2021 is no surprise given the serious and persistent attacks on schools and other education entities and the massive operational and privacy consequences the attacks leave behind,” the CoSN report said.

A privacy seal of approval for districts follows a rigorous application process

One area where CoSN is trying to promote stronger protections of student data privacy at the school district level is with its Trusted Learning Environment Seal program. It was developed with the input of 28 school systems nationwide and AASA, The School Superintendents Association, the Association of School Business Officials International, and ASCD, formerly known as the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

The TLE seal program requires an extensive application process focused on five areas of school district practice—leadership, business, data security, professional development, and the classroom.

Krueger says the process is valid for two years and encourages best practices.

“It really gives you a roadmap to get to continuous improvement,” he said.

The Rockingham County Public Schools, an 11,900-student rural district in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, earned the TLE distinction in June 2021.

Oskar Scheikl, the superintendent and a former teacher and technology director in the district, said the current tech director, Kevin Perkins, came to him with the idea of applying for the TLE seal.

Perkins said that with the pandemic, “all of a sudden we are [shifting] over to digital resources. They require student data. There is authentication. Teachers are able to track student progress. We want to make sure we were positioning ourselves to protect student data as best we could.”

Teachers are used to taking advantage of free offers, he said, so some were signing up for classroom apps without going through the district’s vetting process.

“We have to take a pause and say, ‘Hey, wait,’” Perkins said. The district developed a digital resources request process. It also created a 14-page agreement for technology vendors. And the district tests its own staff members by sending fake phishing emails, such as one that tells employees that the district has signed them up for COVID-19 prevention training.

“To sign in, please use your email address and your network password,” one such email stated.

“The first campaign had a 30 percent click rate,” said Perkins. “Now it’s down to about 10 percent. One of the components of the TLE process is cybersecurity. Our people need to be aware that when you are online, you have to be careful.”

Scheikl said that while he has tech credentials that relatively few other superintendents have—an advanced degree in cybersecurity and service as the district’s technology chief—those aren’t the most important characteristics for a superintendent to have for effective student data privacy.

Instead, it is a commitment from top district leadership to effective data privacy strategies at all levels, he said.

“Inevitably, you are going to wish you had a plan in place,” Scheikl said. “Something [challenging] is going to happen, and when you have a framework in place, it makes it easier.”

A version of this article appeared in the April 13, 2022 edition of Education Week as Protecting the Privacy Of Student Data Is Paramount. Here’s How Schools Are Doing

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More From Forbes

One way technology is meeting kids’ mental health challenges.

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Blueprint's Co-Founder and CEO, Serinda Swan

“Blueprint is a love letter to little me.” So said Serinda Swan in an interview. Swan is frequently thought of an actress in popular shows such as Reacher and Ballers . But she was speaking about a different type of storytelling, one with lasting impact.

Alongside her acting career, Swan has spent over a decade building up the infrastructure behind Blueprint , an educational technology start-up. The business is inspired in part by her struggles as a child.

For Swan, learning in a classroom was always a challenge, because she learned differently than other children. But learning one-on-one was a breeze, because the teaching could be customized to her own needs. She envisioned a world where individualized learning would be more the norm.

After years of building a related start-up called Deedly that helped children create individualized paths to civic engagement, she witnessed the mental health crisis of the pandemic and saw a match.

“With math skills, you need 30 kids to understand one equation to get one answer. But with mental health, you have 30 kids with 30 different equations and 30 different answers, and just one teacher. So how do you do that?” It seemed a perfect arena for individualized learning.

Why Artificial Intelligence Hype Isn't Living Up To Expectations

Seattle-tacoma airport in the crosshairs of hackers, aaron judge reaches and passes 50 homers, leaving the new york yankees in awe.

Swan created Blueprint to provide the solution. It builds on Swan’s experience in film storytelling, using series of videos to explore common problems. The tailoring comes through how kids interact with the content. If there’s a mention of bullying or anxiety, for instance, the child can tap on the screen and see deeper content on that topic. The system then records who tapped what, creating individualized profiles and relevant libraries of content for them. The content can also be customized to distinct learning styles, such as audio, visual, video, or even a mindfulness exercise.

Blueprint embeds its learning content into interactive stories.

Through the use of AI, predictive analytics can uncover insights into learning patterns that enable both teachers and parents to predict which students will need more attention in specific areas. This improves both learning and social outcomes.

Swan’s inspirations for these approaches were eclectic. “No kid is going to want to sit down and absorb a bunch of pdfs. But they look at videos of chefs and then can tap to buy the cookware,” she says. On the set of a Marvel production, she met memory coach Jim Kwik who could both instruct and inspire students . The different strands came together into Blueprint’s learning model, with interactive technology and key role model-instructors found throughout the content.

The company recognizes that education technology has many users. Swan recounted, “You don’t want to negative the teacher experience. They are the ones we need to take care of. Some teachers want slides, so we can incorporate that. We go from the highest technology to one of the oldest formats of it.”

Blueprint is now looking at extending its model into other content, in response to requests from departments of education. Swan says, “What do you put fentanyl education on top of? You can’t put it on top of math or science. You have to put it on top of life skills like resiliency, communication, and self-awareness. In order to give a life goal some value, kids first need to understand themselves.”

Blueprint’s story holds several broader lessons:

First, technology can unlock totally new ways of involving users with a product. Take inspiration from what people already do, such as how the company mimics the way viewers interact with cooking videos.

Second, it enables new ways to tailor product to a person’s exact motivations, styles, and needs. The system can learn from how people interact, like how social media can deduce users’ interests from what content they engage with. This is a far easier way for people to receive tailored content than forcing them through a diagnostic or configuration process.

Third, remember all stakeholders. Incorporating slide content wasn’t in Blueprint’s plan, but it’s what some teachers wanted. The company honored those demands.

The problem of different learning styles is an age-old one, made more acute by how educational content has grown. In many cases, it is no longer sufficient to learn one “right solution.” Now, learners must understand far more complex responses to nuanced issues like mental health. Technology may unlock new solutions in ways that vary as much as the challenges now tackled.

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7 Common Challenges in Early Childhood Education (ECE)

Table of Contents

The Importance of Early Childhood Education

1. high costs and limited availability of ece programs, 2. ece staff’s mental health issues, 3. limited resources and accesses to professional development, 4. low parent engagement and communication, 5. heightened safety concerns, 6. socialization difficulties, 7. technology adoption challenges, teachers’ practices to support early childhood education, mitigate challenges in early childhood education with ishcmc.

Early childhood education (ECE) is a critical phase in a child’s development, laying the foundation for future learning and growth. However, educators and parents often face numerous challenges in ECE that can hinder this vital developmental process.

From limited resources and diverse learning needs to behavioral issues and varying levels of parental involvement, these obstacles require strategic approaches to ensure effective learning environments. This article explores seven common challenges in ECE, offering insights and potential solutions to enhance the educational experiences of young learners. Let’s get started.

Early childhood education (ECE) shapes a child’s future by promoting the stable growth of intellectual, emotional, social, and physical abilities.

The strategic mindset nurtured by ECE programs will support children in:

Cognitive Development : Through interactive activities, playful exploration, and guided instruction, children enhance their language, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills. Early childhood education programs often incorporate hands-on learning experiences encouraging children to explore their environment and engage in problem-solving tasks.

The Importance of Early Childhood Education

7 Challenges in Early Childhood Education

Despite the many benefits of early childhood education, educators and parents often face numerous obstacles. Understanding these challenges in early childhood education is essential for creating effective strategies and solutions to support young learners.

The high costs and limited availability of early childhood education (ECE) programs present significant challenges in early childhood education . These developmental challenges are particularly pronounced across different income distributions, creating disparities in access and quality.

1. High Costs and Limited Availability of ECE Programs

Key issues include:

Varying Childcare Consumption : Higher-income households are more likely to pay for childcare compared to lower-income households. While some families receive subsidies, the average household with children under six spends $532 per month on childcare (according to Analysis of the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE)). This number constitutes about eight percent of their income. This figure rises to $920 per month, or approximately 13 percent of their income, for households that pay for childcare.
High Cost to Provide High-Quality Childcare Service : The high costs of providing high-quality care in Early Childhood Education (ECE) are primarily due to the industry’s labor-intensive nature. This reliance on families’ payments, coupled with limited options for increasing revenue or reducing operating costs, presents significant challenges to investing in quality improvements.
High Price of Formal ECE Programs : Pricing in the ECE sector and consumers’ sensitivity to these prices can result in families opting out of market-based ECE services. Instead, they may turn to informal, unpaid, and often lower-quality care alternatives, impacting overall accessibility to quality childcare.
Business Model Fragility : The ECE sector is characterized by business model fragility, with many small firms and sole proprietorships. These entities face substantial startup costs and operate with thin profit margins, making them particularly susceptible to economic downturns and financial instability.

The rise in mental health concerns among children further exacerbates the mental health issues faced by early childhood education (ECE) staff. Several factors contribute to the low mental health of early childhood educators, including:

High Levels of Responsibility : Early childhood educators are tasked with the comprehensive development and well-being of young children, requiring patience and dedication. The significant responsibility can lead to heightened stress levels as educators strive to meet each child’s diverse needs.
Constantly Evolving Field : The field of early childhood education is continually changing, with new teaching methods, curriculum updates, and technological advancements. Educators must adapt quickly to these changes, which can contribute to stress and burnout.
Behavioral Challenges : Managing disruptive classroom behaviors, such as tantrums and conflicts, adds to the stress. Young children are still developing emotional regulation, making it challenging for educators to handle these situations effectively.
Long Working Hours : To accommodate working parents’ schedules, early childhood educators often work extended hours. The lack of work-life balance can exacerbate stress and affect overall well-being.
Physically Demanding Work : The job involves a lot of movement and hands-on activities, requiring physical stamina to keep up with energetic young learners.
Sensitive Issues : Educators frequently encounter sensitive issues such as behavioral disorders, abuse, and trauma. Addressing these situations demands a high level of emotional maturity and sensitivity.
Constant Adaptation : The evolving field of early childhood education necessitates continuous learning and adaptation to new teaching methods and technologies, which adds to educators’ stress and workload.

These factors collectively impact the mental health of ECE staff, underscoring the need for better support and recognition of their crucial role in child development.

Addressing limited resources and access to professional development will enhance the effectiveness of early childhood educators and support their career advancement.

3. Limited Resources and Accesses to Professional Development

Limited Access to High-Quality Professional Development : A small proportion of teachers engage in highly valued professional development activities. Only 26.6 percent attend university courses related to teaching, 23.1 percent present at workshops, and 21.6 percent make observational visits to other schools (Emma García and Elaine Weiss, 2019).
Insufficient Time and Resources for Preparation : Novice and veteran teachers often lack the time and resources needed for reflective practice and preparation. Only 37.1 percent of first-year teachers are given time away from classroom instruction for support activities, 26.9 percent receive aides for classroom management, and just 10.7 percent benefit from reduced teaching schedules. Additionally, only half of all teachers receive time off for professional development, with even fewer receiving financial support for conferences, workshops, or college tuition.
Low Satisfaction with Professional Development : Many teachers are dissatisfied with their professional development experiences. Less than a third find the activities they engage in “very useful”, and over a third of novice teachers report that mentoring is only somewhat helpful or not helpful at all.
Lack of Involvement in Learning Communities : Teachers often do not have significant influence over their teaching practices or professional development programs. Over two-thirds of teachers report limited influence over classroom content and instructional materials, and only 11.1 percent feel they have substantial input into professional development programs.

Addressing these challenges can help educators improve the quality of early childhood education and support the professional growth of educators.

Early Years staff often face significant challenges in early childhood education related to low parent engagement and communication, which can impede the effectiveness of early childhood education programs.

4. Low Parent Engagement and Communication

Lack of Understanding of Home Learning Importance : Some parents may not recognize the value of their involvement in their child’s education. The lack of awareness can be exacerbated by time constraints and competing priorities, such as work and appointments, which limit their ability to engage consistently.
Influence of Parents’ Own School Experiences : Parents who had negative school experiences may model similar attitudes for their children, affecting their level of engagement with educational settings.
Cultural and Language Differences : Communication barriers arise when families speak different languages or have varied cultural expectations regarding Early Years education. Misunderstandings can lead to reduced engagement if parents do not fully grasp school expectations or feel excluded from the educational process.
Barriers to Confidence and Mental Health : Parents dealing with issues like anxiety, shyness, or low self-esteem may find it challenging to interact with educational settings.

Addressing these challenges in early childhood development involves fostering an inclusive approach to parental engagement and creating strategies that accommodate diverse needs and backgrounds.

Heightened safety concerns have become significant challenges in early childhood education, impacting both educators and students.

These concerns are driven by several factors:

Physical and Environmental Risks : Early childhood settings often contain numerous physical and environmental hazards, which can lead to increased stress and fatigue. Educators must constantly monitor these dangers to ensure the safety of young children, who range from a few months to six years old.
Safety Protocols and Procedures : Implementing and adhering to safety protocols, such as new check-in procedures and emergency response plans, adds to the workload of early childhood educators. The need to adapt to evolving safety measures can create additional stress.
Lack of Resources for Safety Measures : Insufficient funding often limits the ability to invest in adequate safety resources and training. Many centers struggle to afford the necessary equipment or programs to enhance safety, adding to the burden on staff.
Balancing Safety and Education : Educators face the challenge of balancing safety concerns with providing a nurturing educational environment. Ensuring that safety measures do not detract from the quality of educational experiences is a persistent challenge.

Addressing these safety concerns requires comprehensive strategies, including improved funding, enhanced safety protocols, and support for educators’ mental health to create a safer and more supportive learning environment for both staff and students.

Social-emotional skills are crucial for a child’s development, yet several challenges in early childhood education can impede their progress:

Anxiety : Anxiety can hinder a child’s ability to interact confidently with peers and participate in group activities.
Attachment Problems : Difficulties in forming secure attachments may affect a child’s ability to trust and engage socially.
Trauma : Past trauma can lead to emotional and behavioral issues that disrupt social interactions and emotional regulation.
Autism : Children with autism may struggle with social communication and understanding social cues, impacting their interactions.
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) : ADHD can affect a child’s impulse control and attention span, making social interactions more challenging.

Early identification and intervention can support children in overcoming these obstacles and developing strong social-emotional skills.

Teachers face several challenges in early childhood education in integrating technology into their teaching:

Improper Access : Limited access to devices, software, and reliable internet can hinder effective technology use.
Uncertainty About Standards : Ambiguity regarding technology standards can create confusion about appropriate usage.
Unfavorable Attitudes : Some educators have reservations about technology use with young children, impacting adoption.
Lack of Time : Teachers often lack the time needed to integrate technology effectively into classroom activities.
Insufficient Training : Inadequate training on purposeful technology use can prevent effective implementation.
Rapid Technological Changes : Fast-paced developments in technology and poor communication between developers and educators create challenges in keeping up with new tools and applications.

To effectively support early childhood education, teachers must implement practices grounded in research and developmentally appropriate principles.

Teachers’ Practices to Support Early Childhood Education

These practices involve decisions at all levels, including policy, administration, and daily classroom activities.

Creating a Caring Community of Learners : Establish a supportive learning environment by fostering consistent, positive relationships among teachers, children, and families. A caring community enhances children’s emotional and cognitive development, ensuring that all members contribute to each other’s well-being and learning.
Teaching to Enhance Development and Learning : Balance adult-guided and child-guided experiences to promote optimal development. Teachers should provide structured activities based on their goals while allowing children to explore their interests, thus supporting both structured and self-directed learning.
Planning Curriculum to Achieve Important Goals : Develop a curriculum that reflects developmental and educational objectives through varied learning experiences such as play and group activities. Ensure the curriculum is well-planned and written, allowing teachers to design engaging activities aligned with educational goals while maintaining flexibility for individual needs.
Assessing Children’s Development and Learning : Conduct assessments that are aligned with the curriculum and program goals. Use assessments to monitor progress and adapt teaching strategies to meet each child’s developmental and educational needs, considering cultural and linguistic contexts.
Establishing Reciprocal Relationships with Families : Build strong partnerships with families to gain insights into each child’s background and needs. Avoid limiting family involvement to scheduled events; instead, foster ongoing, reciprocal relationships that recognize and incorporate parents’ knowledge and perspectives.

These practices ensure that early childhood education is both effective and responsive to the needs of young learners and their families.

ISHCMC International Primary School addresses the diverse needs of early childhood education through its Primary Years Programme (PYP) . This approach ensures that learning is engaging, relevant, challenging, and significant by utilizing a transdisciplinary model.

The PYP framework incorporates global themes to create meaningful connections between subject areas, allowing young learners to explore big ideas in an integrated manner. This holistic method helps mitigate common challenges in early childhood education , such as limited resources and diverse learning needs.

Mitigate Challenges in Early Childhood Education with ISHCMC

To experience how ISHCMC can support your child’s educational journey, we encourage you to apply and join our vibrant learning community.

Emma García and Elaine Weiss (2019). The role of early career support, continuous professional development, and learning communities in the teacher shortage. https://files.epi.org/pdf/164976.pdf

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