Six Lessons from conducting EdTech Research in Kenya

This post, by Anne Salim, is part of the iQuarterly publication by iHub Research, a series of reflections from the team on our work, and on technology and society.

Education Technology (EdTech) has been defined as “the study and practice of designing effective instruction using technology, media and learning theory.” I have been fascinated with kids and technology since my campus days, curious to see how we could stretch the boundaries of technology to provide access to equitable education to kids in Kenya. In the past four years as a researcher at iHub, I have had the chance to explore the local EdTech scene and, through evaluating different programs, have gained some valuable insights which should be considered when implementing EdTech. Majority of the insights shared are based on exploring the tracks: mobile learning (mLearning), curriculum development and early childhood.

1. The technology

The rationale behind selecting a tool for mLearning greatly affects how knowledge is transferred through it. Factors like ease of access to the tool, the policies in the country on using the selected technology and the availability of learning resources are crucial considerations for the type of tool deployed.. In some other cases, cultural trends are also a determinant of tool selection as is highlighted in a post we did on e-Learning vs e-Cramming. This post explored how various communities were using EdTech solutions and their platforms’ objectives.

2. Community

A very engaged EdTech Community in Kenya has grown since 2012. Events such as m:Labs’ Wireless Wednesdays, and EdTech Nairobi meetup have created a forum where different stakeholders engage in discussions on the ecosystem. Issues arising have ranged from infrastructure, content, languages, disconnect between platform developers and educators among others. Through engagement, the EdTech practitioners are able to cumulatively share resources and lessons learned to improve their practice.

3. Content

The information availed to learners via EdTech platforms has faced a lot of critique by different users in the country over the years. This critique is based on who created the content, its level of interactivity on the application(s), the quality of the content — whether it was vetted to pass the KICD (Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development) standards — among other factors. The overall cost of creating content locally is high since a practitioner has to either purchase it from authors or create it (through hiring educators to develop it). Both options are expensive, monetarily or time wise.

4. The follow-up

It is important to structure a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) process to review the impact your technology or program has. It’s important to evaluate the impact of the technology on its users. This can be done using structured questionnaires, user experience tests, secondary data collection and focus group discussions. During an M&E study in 2014, we found that this impact assessment needs to be done regularly to ensure that issues arising from the deployment of the technology are addressed as they are encountered. In quantitative studies, the bigger challenge is the length of time it takes to conduct the surveys and this can lead to schools being reluctant to participate in the evaluation process, as it takes away student time from class. A better way to do impact research is by embedding the evaluation within the application. It is also important to publish the insights gained; some of our research work on different EdTech topics includes:

• Kids hacker camps in Kenya: hardware hacking effectiveness in skills transfer,
• Development of local educational digital content for schools in Kenya using the mobile device as an acceleration tool to enhance learning and facilitate collaborative learning
• Growth of mobile education platforms and the impact on learning in primary schools in Kenya

(A description of other EdTech research studies conducted but not yet published can be accessed here.)

5. Training

Regular training is needed for both students and teachers on how to use the technology. During the M&E research studies I undertook, it was common for users to misuse the technology (use it for other reasons than the intended purpose) and then complain that it was not working. The training offered should cover issues like troubleshooting and how to use different functions of the application.

6. The stakeholders

Once you start using the technology with kids, your immediate community becomes parents, teachers /school administrators and the students. It becomes imperative to cater to these groups all the time since they greatly affect how successful your operations become. From our own Waza Experience (through which we are nurturing the next generation of techies) for instance, we quickly learned during the setup, that in assigning roles to our team members, we needed someone to manage parent relations, someone to manage students and their activities and a coordinator for our trainers. Trying to manage all these solely often results in something slipping through the cracks, hence the need to delegate accordingly.

Stay tuned for more insights as we continue to conduct research in this domain.

You can also check out the highlights from the 2015 Waza Experience Program here.