Raising Learning Outcomes. the Opportunities and Challenges of ICT for Learning

UNICEF | September 2018 © UNICEF/UN0143477/Prinsloo

Summary Raising Learning Outcomes. The opportunities and challenges of ICT for learning

AGA KHAN FOUNDATION Aga Khan Education Services The opportunities and challenges of ICT for learning 1 UNICEF | September 2018

Innovation Unit, Aga Khan Education Services and the Aga Khan Foundation were commissioned to complete this report by UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office and West and Central Regional Office.

Permission is required to reproduce any part of this publication. Permission will be freely granted to educational or non-profit organizations. Others may be requested to pay a small fee. Requests should be addressed to: Education Section, Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, UNICEF; tel: +254 207-622-307 email: [email protected].

For readers wishing to cite this document we suggest the following form: Innovation Unit, Aga Khan Education Services and the Aga Khan Foundation (2018) Raising Learning Outcomes: the opportunities and challenges of ICT for learning. UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office and West and Central Regional Office, Nairobi.

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Raising Learning Outcomes: the opportunities and challenges of ICT for learning

Executive Summary

There is a growing global consensus that 21st-century learning ought to look rather different from 19th-century learning but that in practice, for the vast majority of learners, it does not. International academic, policy and provider organizations are in the process of rethinking learning outcomes and learning environments, and some are even engaged in a fundamental review of the very purpose of education in a more digitally enabled, complex and fast changing world. New learning frameworks are emerging, many in response to UNESCO’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – an aspirational and universal agenda to wipe out poverty through sustainable development by 2030, which captures ambitions for education.

Characteristically,1 these frameworks promote • Character (values; empathy; and global the integration of: citizenship) • Cognitive and non-cognitive (sometimes called soft) skills; These so-called 21st-century learning outcomes • Behaviours or traits (team-work; risk- are often marginalized by schools, due to their confidence; and self-regulation); low status and their invisibility in summative • Dispositions (leadership; entrepreneurship; assessments, and also in the instance of under- and creativity); and developed curricula, and the low skills of teachers in these areas.

(1) See also (Four-Dimensional Education, Deep Life Success, Skills for Social Progress, Life Skills and Learning Progressions, Graduate Performance System, Citizenship Education Initiative Middle East and North Foundations for Young Adult Success, Education for Africa

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UNICEF understands that this debate is • Language really matters. UNICEF should as relevant in Africa as in any other part ensure that there is consistent use of of the world. Maybe even more so. As the language relating to the use of ICT in continent with the world’s fastest growing education and for learning throughout the youth population2 and some of the world’s organization. fastest growing economies, alongside many challenging political, social and economic In this context, the UNICEF regional offices in circumstances, low levels of resources and sub-Saharan Africa commissioned the high rates of out-of-school-children (OOSC), Innovation Unit, Aga Khan Education Services countries in Africa are well motivated to (AKES) and the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) accelerate progress towards these 21st-century to lead a research project to inform the learning outcomes. These factors create a development of a UNICEF’s thinking on ICT necessity – and therefore an opportunity – for for learning. The project built on previous innovation and alternative modes of education. work completed for AKES in which the team The more agile an education system can be investigated learning technology stories from in response, the more the learners within that diverse contexts, including many that are system will benefit. complex and resource-constrained. For UNICEF, the team looked in particular at stories from The role of technology has defined the the African continent, supplementing the AKES acceleration of many industries and sectors, data set with new examples identified by with education likely to be no exception. Yet UNICEF ESARO and WCARO. with the potential of technology comes risks. Technology can be introduced to schooling and In particular, the research process was designed learning to the detriment of learning outcomes. to answer the following questions: Equally, access to technology can expose • What is the role of ICT for learning to ensure children and young people to new risks that – effective and relevant learning outcomes? left unmitigated – can do them serious harm. • How can ICT for learning promote In recognition of this, UNICEF has developed educational inclusion? Global Guidance to ensure that technology • What are other partners and organizations can be a positive force for learning and doing in ICT for learning? children’s rights. They include five key policy • Who are the partners and donors to work recommendations: with in the area of ICT for learning? • What is UNICEF’s role in the ICT for learning • All UNICEF’s ICT for education initiatives space? and policies must first focus on the intended educational outcomes rather than on the This paper shares the key findings of the technologies; research project. It is supplemented by three • UNICEF should play a stronger global role in sets of insights in relation to ICT for learning: advocating and ensuring that international 1. lessons from the experience of introducing and national ICT for education policies and ICT for learning in Singapore, New Zealand practices should first of all focus on the and Brazil; poorest and most marginalized; 2. examples of ICT for learning initiatives • Issues of security and the dark side of that were selected to draw out learning using ICTs for education are insufficiently from a range of implementation stories addressed in most ICT for education – success and failures – and provide a initiatives, and should be of the highest broad set of examples of use of ICT for priority for UNICEF given its commitment to learning examples that are relevant for the child safety and security; sub-Saharan African context; and • UNICEF should take a global lead in working 3. country case studies providing background in collaborative and consensual partnerships, as well as the experience and prognoses for especially with other UN agencies; and ICT for learning of UNICEF country offices.

(2) “By 2030 Africa’s under-18 population will increase Generation Africa 2.0: Prioritizing investments in children by nearly 170 million. By 2050 40% of the world’s to reap the demographic dividend. United Nations children under 18 will live in Africa.” See UNICEF (2014) Children’s Fund.

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Ines is speaking live from Abidjan during the weekly young reporters’ radio show broadcasted in 9 locations across Côte d’Ivoire.

Valter, 21 year old, participates in a user testing session for the mobile service Internet of Good Things (IoGT) in Maputo, Mozambique.

Schoolchildren at Binga Primary school take time to familiarise themselves with computers at the school.

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This research project identified ten issues that With a nascent evidence base about the impact UNICEF’s regional offices in sub-Saharan Africa of ICT on learning outcomes and a loose global should consider as they develop their position community of entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and begin formulating their strategy around ICT educators and policy makers still learning in real for learning: time about what works (and what does not), to say ‘the jury is still out’ on ICT for learning would 1. Purpose and problem solving - to what be a gross understatement. Therefore making extent is there clarity around the purpose recommendations would be ill advised. of introducing technology in education and which learning problem(s) it is helping to However, a further learning and consultation solve? agenda does emerge from the challenges and opportunities explored during the research 2. Student capability - what are the existing process. There are three urgent priorities for and needed technical capabilities of UNICEF to consider: students, and how do these vary across each student population? 1. Building knowledge of and confidence about ICT for learning across the region: 3. Teacher capability - which skills do teachers UNICEF should consider how best to engage need to use new technology, and what country offices in contributing to a stronger is the relationship between these skills evidence base, locally and globally. This area and broader teacher competency? In requires more flexibility and openness to particular, how is the ability of teachers to different ways of designing and delivering create powerful learning environments/ programmes of work. experiences enhanced by technology? 2. Enabling strategic and practical action: To mobilize a real sense of practical possibilities 4. Student and teacher agency - how can within the ICT for learning landscape, students and teachers engage as active UNICEF should consider how best to move participants in the introduction and from knowledge to action. As an influential implementation of ICT for learning? international agency, UNICEF is in a position to inject a growing understanding of the 5. Technological infrastructure - what are the opportunities and challenges of ICT for technical requirements of the technology learning into existing global, regional and and are these in place (e.g. power, national education work streams.; and bandwidth, data security)? 3. Coordination, coherence and integration: UNICEF should consider building active 6. Implementation and change - what is the partnerships committed to ICT for learning role of local leaders and what support do internally and more widely. It should actively they need to create a culture of innovation coordinate its efforts to offering more clarity and improvement? and coherence within the ICT for learning landscape. 7. Enabling environments - what are the conditions that support a thriving learning The above areas for action are not intended ecosystem, enhanced by technology? as recommendations but as starting points for further discussion. To fully understand 8. Resources - what is required for effective the possibilities of the above, UNICEF should and sustainable use of ICT for learning, consider how to test these areas of action in a including on-the-ground support capability? multitude of countries and regions, with a range of frontline stakeholders (school leaders, teachers, 9. Coalitions - what role might partnership play students) as well as key agents of change in ‘bundling’ solutions to complement and (donors, providers, ministries). Building energy amplify ICT for learning? and buy-in across global, regional and local ecosystems will be critical to enable transition 10. Risks - which risks are associated with ICT from a fragmented and dislocated landscape for learning, and how might we mitigate to clear and coherent visions of the role ICT for against them? learning can play in enhancing teaching and learning towards impact on outcomes.

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AGA KHAN FOUNDATION Aga Khan Education Services 8 Raising Learning Outcomes (Summary)