Abstract
As innovative and exponential technologies make their way into development projects and humanitarian aid interventions, pioneers are just starting to codify and publish their best practices, for example UNICEF’s Child-Friendly Technology Framework. Code Innovation designed and lead the Connecting Classrooms project over seven years, bringing technology and education innovations to secondary school students, out-of-school youth and young adults in eleven countries around sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of participants had never experienced being connected to the Internet and there were numerous and ongoing challenges. Using collaborative teaching methodologies and a group learning approach, the program brought young people and their teachers or adult facilitators through a blended learning curriculum around key issues of shared global concern. This paper seeks to expand on lessons learned from the program to make recommendations for others to get the greatest leverage out of technology-supported education initiatives. As there is relatively little research published around multi-year technology for education projects in developing countries to date, this article strives to offer some best practices and lessons learned that will guide similar initiatives in the future.
Highlights
National education systems are notorious for being difficult to transform
Calhoun and Calhoun: Using Technology to Shift Education Paradigms in Low-Resource Environments education specialist responded to curricular priorities set by UNICEF’s communication team, which typically corresponded to large youth conferences or various Millennium Development Goals
For a typical training mission, Code’s education expert would spend one or two days with a UNICEF country office, briefing staff while training the locally hired, field coordinators. These were usually country nationals recently graduated from university, with some Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) experience or youth facilitation experience
Summary
National education systems are notorious for being difficult to transform. Countries cling to outdated content and ineffective teaching strategies, putting their citizens at a lasting disadvantage. For a typical training mission, Code’s education expert would spend one or two days with a UNICEF country office, briefing staff while training the locally hired, field coordinators. These were usually country nationals recently graduated from university, with some NGO experience or youth facilitation experience. The field coordinators would travel with Code’s trainer and spend a half-day at each site, training a mixture of school admin, teachers and students These visits would involve a brief thirty minute run down with heads of school and a sixty minute preparation with the team of teachers (three to five, usually), and a training of the students with and by the teaches and the coordinators. The Connecting Classrooms experience, while working on a small scale, reached beneficiaries in 11 countries[1] and can provide useful strategies for strengthening similar initiatives
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