Transforming Education Through Technology
A Scoping Study
This report seeks to provide an actionable understanding of the EdTech landscape in seven focal countries: Bangladesh, India, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Malawi, and Rwanda. Country profiles in this landscape report address five categories of information: innovative initiatives; government buy-in and political will; innovation hubs and networks; research (activities and personnel); and funding.
Broadly contextualized observations about the state of EdTech include:
- EdTech tools are appropriate and ready for deployment in development education, largely as a result of private-sector growth in mobile devices, mobile broadband, and other consumer technologies.
- The need for usable research is critical as a response to the proliferation of innovative solutions and the accompanying responsibility to understand which of these is most effective and offers the highest Value for Money (VfM) in a given situation.
- EdTech is increasingly linked to the development of 21st-century skills as governments identify creative problem-solving and similar abilities in the workforce as critical to improving economic and social well-being.
- National education systems in many countries, and as aggregated in regions and internationally, represent a powerful source of potential demand for new solutions, whereas current practice primarily entails re-purposing of hardware, software, networking, and services developed for consumer markets.