Harnessing EdTech for Continuous Learning at Home: A Digital Dialogue

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Harnessing EdTech for Continuous Learning at Home: A Digital Dialogue

Background 

With schools across the country closed for summer vacations, we are posed with a critical question: ‘As children studying in primary grades spend 1.5 months at home, how can this time be optimised to ensure continuous learning for every child?’

Well designed, high quality, contextually-relevant EdTech solutions focussed on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) can play a significant role here. Not only can they enrich the learning experience for a child, but can also create opportunities for enhanced parent-child engagement. 

Delving into this space, Central Square Foundation (CSF) hosted an X/ Twitter Chat on 30 May 2024, where we were joined by experts and practitioners from the education ecosystem to share their reflections on the theme ‘#SabkaEdTech: Harnessing EdTech for Continuous Learning at Home’. This blog features key insights and highlights from the digital discussion. 

We were joined by Srikanth Talapadi (CEO, Amiti Software & Chairperson, Chimple Learning), Karthik Menon (Lead – Operations, Government Partnerships, Pratham Education Foundation, Ritesh Agarwal (Vice President, Ei Shiksha, Educational Initiatives), Tarun Jain (Associate Economics Professor, Ravi J. Mathai Centre for Educational Innovation, IIM Ahmedabad), Vineeta Garg (Head – IT Department, SRDAV Public School, Delhi and Global Teacher Prize Top 50 Finalist 2020) and Harish Doraiswamy (Project Director – EdTech, Central Square Foundation) for this discussion. 

Highlights from the discussion

To get the conversation started, panelists were asked to share a core ‘summer break’ memory from your their school days where learnt something in an unconventional way. All panellists responded with interesting memories from their childhood summer days, highlighting how small, everyday experiences sparked a larger interest in areas like engineering, science, and mathematics. It was an interesting segue towards getting our panellists thinking about the idea of learning in ways that go beyond traditional techniques. 

Access has been seen as one of the most commonly discussed roadblocks when it comes to EdTech adoption in India. In this view, even though there are multiple solutions on the market, a limited number of them have been able to penetrate the low-income segments. CSF conducted the Bharat Survey for EdTech (BaSE) 2023 as an effort to bridge this information and access asymmetry in the EdTech ecosystem. The detailed report provides policymakers, educators and EdTech creators with reliable data for informed decision-making surrounding EdTech access and usage.  

The survey revealed that 72% of children (from all the surveyed households) had access to smartphones. Of the children who had access to smartphones at home, more than 60% used smartphones daily. Given this scenario of improved access to smartphones in India, all panellists agreed with the fact that teachers and parents are slowly but surely moving towards the wide acceptance of EdTech solutions, especially after the pandemic. Harish Doraiswamy from CSF very accurately pointed out that even though acceptance is increasing, finding affordable and high-quality solutions is still a pertinent challenge. 

The third question was based on a recent Policy Note by the World Bank which highlighted the importance of remote learning even during school closures. CSF asked, “How do you think quality EdTech solutions can support a child’s learning curve when schools are shut?”. Panellists emphasised the use of EdTech not just as an educational resource, but as a solution that can also teach children “social-emotional skills like self-awareness & decision-making, which are essential for their well-being”, as stated by Global Teacher Prize Top 50 Finalist Vineeta Garg. Moreover, they also noted that the options for personalised learning and student engagement are useful approaches offered by EdTech solutions which can create a learning environment for students, especially when schools are closed.  Tools like Mindspark by Educational Initiatives, can help children learn anytime and from anywhere. 

On being asked about areas where present EdTech learning solutions could improve for better parental/ community engagement, most panellists highlighted the importance of using local/ Indic languages in order to make EdTech more accessible. The consensus was that parents can be more engaged in their child’s learning journey when they receive progress updates in their local language through accessible platforms like WhatsApp. Srikanth Talapadi from Chimple said it the best when he stated that, “Parents and communities respond better when content speaks to them”. CSF further added to this discussion by highlighting its project Tic Tac Learn,  a YouTube channel which is a repository of over 12,000 videos that are open-source, high-quality & curriculum aligned to ensure every child learns in their native language. 

Lastly, the panellists were asked about the intersection of AI in EdTech — “How do you think it (AI) can shape the learning outcomes of students and teaching requirements over the coming decade?”. Most panellists underscored the use of AI in general admin work which frees up more time for teachers to engage in “instruction and student interaction”, as stated by Ritesh Agarwal from Educational Initiatives. Karthik Menon from Pratham Education Foundation noted that by “building awareness and adding a social/human angle to EdTech”, the adoption of AI-based EdTech solutions can gain greater acceptance, especially in rural areas. The discussion also highlighted how AI can be leveraged to bridge learning gaps by creating AI chatbots and personal tutors at a low-cost.

Conversations about community engagement, accessibility and integration of AI usage are very important when it comes to building EdTech for India. This Twitter Chat highlighted many such prominent themes and brought to light an array of interesting perspectives about the use of EdTech for at home learning.