This week at World Bank EduTech

week of March 1, 2021

This week, we

• shared new podcast episode about our EdTech strategy;
• shared newly announced EdTech Hub call for at-scale research;
• shared the webinar recording for Blockchain for Education: Building the Learning Economy;
• shared the webinar recording for Selecting, Evaluating and Adapting Open Learning Management Systems with ProFuturo, and our related podcast episode;
• invited innovators to share ideas for the Teachers for a Changing World initiative with HundrED to identify and share leading solutions from around the world that are helping teachers thrive in an ever-changing classroom by March 20 (details in English | Français | العربية | Español | Português);
• shared a series of blogs on the effectiveness of remote learning across 17 countries that the team conducted in the past months; and
• shared our EdTech Strategy Paper in French and Arabic — Chinese and Spanish are coming soon!
• also included below: external resources about online tutoring system and closing the digital divides.

🎙 New EdTech Podcast Episode

Our World Bank EdTech team recently released a paper about our edtech strategy — 5 key principles that it follows to support countries to effectively use edtech to improve the access to and quality of education globally. Today, we are speaking with the EdTech team about this strategy. You can download the strategy paper here. This is part 1 of a two-part conversation with the Robert Hawkins, Cristobal Cobo, Alex Twinomugisha, Mike Trucano, and Inaki Sanchez. Listen to the episode on Apple, Spotify, Anchor.

EdTech Hub announces call for at-scale research

EdTech Hub is launching a call for proposals for at-scale research investigating EdTech’s role in high potential but low evidence areas in low- and middle-income countries. The purpose of this call is to increase the amount of high-quality research evidence available regarding the impact of technology-based solutions to improve learning and education.

Projects:

• can apply for up to GBP 750,000 in funding
• must be undertaken in one (or more) of the six EdTech Hub focus countries (Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Tanzania)
• must be related to one or more of EdTech Hub’s five focus topics (available in the call)

This call for Expressions of Interest is the first stage in the application process. Researchers who submit applications that meet the necessary criteria in this first stage will be invited to complete a full (second stage) proposal.

You can find details of the call and how to apply on this page, with full eligibility and review criteria available on the call for Expressions of Interest [doc] [pdf].

Deadline: April 11

Learn more here.

Blockchain for Education: Building the Learning Economy

The EdTech team organized the first event in a series of six virtual workshops on Blockchain for Education: Building the Learning Economy. This initial event provided a general overview on how blockchain technology can be used in Education, from the more developed user case on credentials to cost effective and transparent exchange of value among all actors in an education system.

These workshops include international experts in leveraging blockchain technologies and fintech for education, particularly in middle- and lower-income countries and are designed to support Ministries of Education and development professionals interested in blockchain technology for education. If you missed the initial webinar of the series, take a look to the recording: Blockchain for Education-Building the Learning Economy-Webinar #1 (1hr 23min).

Source: ProFuturo

Selecting, Evaluating and Adapting Open Learning Management Systems

Several countries face similar challenges when trying to select, design, adapt and customize a learning management system (LMS) that meets the particular needs of their education system: finding a scalable, flexible and robust platform; ensuring the interoperability and the integration with existing solutions; planning the sustainability over time; and facilitating local ownership are just some of them.

The EdTech team recently organized a virtual event with ProFuturo Foundation, a digital education program promoted by Telefónica Foundation and ¨la Caixa¨ Foundation that aims to use education technology to improve the quality of education for millions of children living in vulnerable environments of Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. ProFuturo has embarked on this exact challenge that Ministries of Education face to shift all their learning programs and digital content to a new open LMS. You can watch the recorded session here (1hr).

This virtual event coincides with the release of our recent podcast episode with the ProFuturo team to learn more about the process they followed: Selecting, Evaluating, and Adapting Open Learning Management Systems: the case of ProFutur‪o (38 mins, English). Listen on Apple, Spotify, and Anchor.

Teachers for a changing world (T4T): Transforming Teacher Professional Development through Technology

As part of the Continuous and Accelerated Learning (CAL) work at the Education GP, the World Bank Group and HundrED launched the Teachers for a changing world initiative to identify and share leading solutions from around the world that are helping teachers thrive in an ever-changing classroom. The global community is invited to share ideas by March 20.

• Join the Contest: Teachers for a Changing World, information in: English | Français | العربية | Español | Português

Cristóbal Cobo recently participated together with a diverse group of education stakeholders in a conversation around improving teaching practices and learning outcomes through quality professional development for teachers at scale. See the recording of the event: Community Conversation: Transforming Teacher Professional Development through Technology (32 mins).

Sharing lessons from the study on the “Effectiveness of Remote Learning”

The team started a series of blogs to share some of the findings of the study on the effectiveness of remote learning across 17 countries that the team conducted in the past months. The first blog of the series focused on the Institutional Capacity and Multichannel Strategy (Cobo, Munoz Najar & Sanchez Ciarrusta, 2021). In the second blog, published last week, the team features among its main findings how the role of teachers is changing, the challenges they are facing, and how countries are supporting them. Read the complete blog here: The changing role of teachers and technologies amidst the COVID 19 pandemic: key findings from a cross-country study (Barron, Cobo, Munoz Najar & Sanchez Ciarrusta, 2021).

The Edtech Approach Paper is now available in three languages!

In December 2020, the EdTech team published the “Edtech Approach Paper”: Reimagining Human Connections: Technology and Innovation in Education at the World Bank. We are very happy to announce that the paper is now available in French and Arabic, and we are in the process of publishing it in Chinese and Spanish as well! The team discusses the Approach Paper in this podcast episode: Apple, Spotify, Anchor.

External Resources

At the beginning of 2021, we highlighted the potential of online tutoring systems for remedial learning to stem learning losses. The paper below “evaluates the effectiveness of an intervention implemented in Italian middle schools that provides free individual tutoring online to disadvantaged students during lock-down” and shows “that the program substantially increased students’ academic performance […] and that it significantly improved their socio-emotional skills, aspirations, and psychological well-being”.

• Apart but Connected: Online Tutoring and Student. Outcomes during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Carlana, Michela, and Eliana La Ferrara. (2021). Apart but Connected: Online Tutoring and Student Outcomes during the COVID-19 Pandemic. (EdWorkingPaper: 21–350). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/0azm-cf65

We also highlighted in the past the importance of closing the digital divides. This paper by the JRC shows “that full-time remote education with the current state of infrastructure and accessibility of equipment would aggravate existing inequalities, especially for some groups of children who were prevented from attending classes delivered online”, among other interesting results:

• What did we learn from schooling practices during the COVID-19 lockdown? (Carretero Gomez, S., Napierala, J., Bessios, A., Mägi, E., Pugacewicz, A., Ranieri, M., Triquet, K., Lombaerts, K., Robledo Bottcher, N., Montanari, M. and Gonzalez Vazquez, I., 2021)