IEFG BIG Series: Bridging Learning Inequity with EdTech

07/07/24 • 38 min

Welcome to the IEFG Brains in Gear series. Can EdTech be the force for bridging learning inequities, or will it exacerbate them even further? Hear the perspectives of our hosts and their guests as they discuss this and consider possible roadmaps to navigate this divide.

Our hosts are

Raman Sidhu is the CEO of the Octava Foundation, where she stewards the foundation’s investment in Education, Technology in Education, and Social Innovation. She has spent more than a decade in venture philanthropy, specializing in supporting and scaling education and employability solutions.

Guilherme Cintra is from Lemann Foundation, where he manages innovative processes and shares knowledge, achieving ambitious and transformative goals. His work focuses on promoting the development of educational solutions in Literacy, Fundamental Education, and Leadership, contributing to the advancement of education at the national level.
With them, we have guests

Seiji Isotani is a Visiting Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Full Professor of Computer Science and Learning Technology at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. He has dedicated his research career to advancing the science concerning how people learn with interactive/intelligent educational technologies and ensuring that every student receives a fulfilling and meaningful educational experience.

Cate Noble is the co-founder of Better Purpose. She brings experience as an education leader, having previously been CEO of the Varkey Foundation and a Director at PwC, as well as senior education-focused roles with not-for-profit, commercial, and government organizations.

Here are some resources for your reference:
Batazia- translation AI
DIKSHA - India's EdTech platform
MIT Solve- Learning challenges

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Our hosts are

Here are some resources for your reference:
Batazia- translation AI
DIKSHA - India's EdTech platform
MIT Solve- Learning challenges

Previous Episode

IEFG BIG Series: Setting The Bar for Good EdTech

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Setting the bar for good edtech

Welcome to the IEFG Brains in Gear series. Explore the maze of standards for Edtech in this episode. Procurement decisions and quality of the edtech hinges on the standards, but who sets them, and how can they help all the stakeholders who use them. Join us as we unpack this.

Our hosts will be:

Libby Hills from the Jacobs Foundation is the Co-Lead of the Learning Schools portfolio. The focus of the portfolio is on promoting evidence use in schools and EdTech globally through impact investing and grant-making
Gouri Gupta from the Central Square Foundation: She leads CSF’s work in the area of Education Technology. She works with a portfolio of EdTech products that take high-quality, contextual solutions to young children from low-income backgrounds to support learning.

They will be joined by:

Karl Rectanus: The founder and former CEO of Learn Platform, bringing deep insights into the development and evaluation of educational technology platforms.
Jairaj Bhattacharya: Co-Founder of ConveGenius, sharing his expertise on innovative edtech solutions and their impact on learning outcomes.

Here are some resources if you would like to learn more about standards setting in edtech in Education:

This podcast was brought to you by the International Education Funders Group, curated and edited by Anjali Nambiar, with post-production by Sarah Miles. You can learn more about the IEFG at www.iefg.org.

Next Episode

IEFG BIG Series: Measuring what Matters in EdTech

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Welcome to the IEFG Brains in Gear Series. In this conversation, our hosts and guests will demystify how we measure the impact of EdTech. They will discuss the need and methods used to ensure we're collecting the right kind of evidence to ascertain that a particular EdTech has its intended effect on students' learning.
The hosts for this episode are:

John Soleanicov, the Co-Lead of the Learning Schools Portfolio at the Jacobs Foundation. He is a Romanian-born, U.S.-raised professional with more than 15 years of global experience in financial services, management consulting, and education.
Suraj Shah is the Lead for Strategic Partnerships for the Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning. He is responsible for collaborations between the Mastercard Foundation and the various Governments/Ministries of Education in Africa and Strategic Partnerships with education stakeholders. His primary focus is aligning with governments across Africa to bridge education challenges with innovative EdTech solutions.

Joining them will be

Ciku Mbugua, Innovation Manager at Brink, works on one of Brink’s programmes, Edtech Hub, across two teams: In the innovation team to support teams to iteratively test and grow promising EdTech interventions using the sandbox tool, and in the engagement team as the country lead in Kenya. As country lead, Ciku specifically supports government, development partners and EdTech entrepreneurs with evidence and technical assistance to accelerate technology integration in education.
Loïc Watine, Chief Research & Policy Officer at Innovation for Poverty Action, is responsible for leading our overall strategy to ensure that our research is relevant to and used by decision-makers and to equip them to use data and evidence to improve the lives of people living in poverty. He provides strategic guidance and leadership to a team of senior leaders overseeing IPA’s Sector programs, Policy team, and Right-Fit-Evidence unit, who together form the Research & Policy global team and work closely with our Country Office teams.

Here are some resources if you would like to learn more about evidence measurement in edtech:

Here's a link to the EdTech Hub website and evidence library.
Learn more about LEVANTE here.
Learn more about m-Lugha here.

Here is a resource bank of events, resources, and collaboratives to learn more about EdTech. You can add more resources and comment on the current list to enrich it further.
This podcast was brought to you by the International Education Funders Group, curated and edited by Anjali Nambiar, with post-production by Sarah Miles. You can learn more about the IEFG at www.iefg.org.

97BN - IEFG BIG Series: Bridging Learning Inequity with EdTech

Transcript

Seiji: When we think about designing technologies to support equity, we need to think about, okay, what is equity? Is everyone learning the same or is something else?

Cate: Most organizations were serving markets that were direct to students and being paid for by parents because that is a much more straightforward way of doing business.

That's a totally rational behavior for these organizations. And so it's understandable why most products will fo