Elevating education in underserved regions

I have often thought about learners worldwide that don’t have as much access to the use of educational technologies because of poverty, war and geographic location or distance. It is encouraging to hear companies such as Carnegie Learning working towards closing the education gap in developing countries by introducing personalized learning assistants and making online tutoring services more available and affordable. Web platforms such as Chatterbox and TeachMeNow are revolutionizing the idea of connecting teachers and students virtually almost instantaneously. Dot Learn is recognized world-wide for reducing video file sizes requiring only a fraction of the regular band width making it much cheaper to tune into e-learning videos. While this is definitely a huge accomplishment in the EdTech world, I can’t help but question its reliability especially for those rural underserved regions with limited or poor access to internet connection. After reading many published works on this area of education, it is clear that the EdTech industry has increased its reach within many underserved regions. These regions and the learners within them deserve every right to a fair and equal education. Hopefully corporations like Unicef keep working towards funding and raising awareness for this important component of education. Source: “The Case for Technology in Developing Regions” https://cloudfront.escholarship.org/dist/prd/content/qt7161q0jv/qt7161q0jv.pdf

Henna, thank you for posting about education in underserved regions, I had never considered how large the gap between what is happening in my classroom in BC and the huge gap in many underserved regions. It seems each year newer technology is brought into our schools and I am always so impressed with what it can do. After reading your snapshot articles, I am happy to see that many companies are looking to shorten the gap between regions that have access to the internet and regions that do not have access. In the snapshot you posted "Survey of edtech innovations from around the world" I was interested to read that Khan Academy has two other streams that targeted towards offline use and technology being spread by the "sneakernet". After reading more about Kolibri, it stated that and estimated 4.5 billion people lack internet access and that it is expected to spread over the next decade to these areas. Their solution is a "peer to peer distribution" to spread their customizable digital curriculum. While these ideas are awesome to read about, I am interested in what the availability of devices are in these regions. Kolibri states that their program can run on many types of devices, however, it would be interesting to see the reality of these programs being used. On the back of my mind, I am drawn to wonder if it would have the same result as putting smartboards in classes. When they first came out, they were marketed as groundbreaking and the future of technology in education. Yet, a few years later, in every classroom I have been in it seems that there is a problem with the connection with computer or lack of technical support to have them used. From personal experience, I had one in my room and tried to have it serviced only to be frustrated in its lack of reliability and ended up using it as a projector only. I will definitely bookmark these snapshots and see updates on these startup ventures. Source: https://learningequality.org/about/