UNLOCKING GROWTH
To catalyze the market, global tech players could use their strengths to...
Build and distribute excellent content.
A lot of the content available for children and particularly teenagers does not provide a high quality user experience and/or education.
Help build the evidence for MML.
Teachers and ministries of education are wary of new forms of learning (particularly gamified content), partly because the evidence isn’t there yet. Tech actors should prioritize sharing data and testing different ways of designing and delivering content. Ultimately, this is what will let us identify what works.
Support innovators by providing patient capital.
We need a strong ecosystem of players creating and adapting content to local school systems, but in most markets innovators can’t find capital that allows them to go after large yearly contracts with school districts/groups.
Invest in better and cheaper connectivity.
Delivering rich content that appeals to children and youth requires a lot of data.
Collaborate with innovators by opening delivery channels.
Innovators can scale faster if they can focus on what they do best: developing and adapting content and building out their client-base. Allowing quality content on to existing delivery channels (e.g. Learning Management Systems) could be a “win-win” which accelerates sector growth and improves user experience
To unlock demand, local innovators need to develop products that...
Encourage critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication alongside problem solving.
Local innovators should build in experiences and activities that encourage students to work individually and in teams to solve problems, allowing students to understand there are multiple ways to get to similar outcomes.
Allow teachers to deliver dynamic in-person content.
Local innovators should seek to bolster educators’ in-person ability to engage with students.
Are tailored to local languages, context, and culture.
Local innovators have a unique role to play in filling critical gaps due to language barriers. Building specific contextual knowledge in is another exciting area local innovators could shine.
Short timelines: Prototype and iterate to figure out what’s working.
Local innovators will need to work with students and teachers to build compelling content that meets educational standards.
Longer timelines: Build measurement and evaluation methods into core functionality
so a student’s progress can easily be tracked and shared.
To realize the potential of every child, UNICEF could work with you to...
Advise decision makers on integration of tech in to the classroom.
In the cases where we have good evidence for the impact of blended learning, we can champion its role in the classroom with decision-makers in Government and in the classroom
Help open doors for blended learning innovators
By convening Government and funders in potential early adopter countries to jointly explore how tech players can better integrate in to the educational system.
Help identify how blended learning has the most impact.
UNICEF has a network of educationalists across school systems in different contexts and countries around the world, as well a global network of youth who can (via the U-Report tool) help crowdsource and prototype ideas, and identify what’s compelling. Where tech players are open to sharing data and findings, UNICEF can collaborate on testing and evaluating new approaches in classrooms.
Develop a common measurement framework.
We do not have a good way to measure skills like communication and critical thinking; a common framework can help innovators work toward shared objectives.