How can EdTech help teachers and learners affected by conflict? Artwork

Teachers' Voices

Teachers are one of the most influential and powerful forces for equity, access and quality in education. They provide children and young people with the knowledge, skills, attitude and tools needed to reach their full potential. Teachers' Voices is a podcast series from BOLD, the digital platform on learning and development. Join Nina Alonso as she shares powerful stories from teachers around the world, talking in their own words about their experiences, and listen in on inspiring conversations with international experts on learning and child development. If you're a parent, teacher, or just someone interested in learning and development, this podcast is for you. For more information, visit bold.expert

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Teachers' Voices

How can EdTech help teachers and learners affected by conflict?

January 09, 2024 • BOLD and Nina Alonso • Season 3 • Episode 6

Why is education important for conflict-affected children? How are teachers in conflict zones using EdTech? Can EdTech adapt to children’s changing learning conditions and help them to thrive?

In this episode, Nina talks to Jasmine Turner and Olena Onyshchenko from War Child about the EdTech solution Can’t Wait to Learn. Talking to Nina from Uganda, Researcher Jasmine explains that Can’t Wait to Learn is a digitized adaptive self-paced personal learning program, aligned with the national curriculum in each country it is used in.

Jasmine believes that education should not be an additional burden on parents and teachers in conflict zones. “Overall, it should be something supporting everybody, rather than adding to their stress.”

Olena is Senior Project Lead of Can't Wait to Learn for Ukraine. Based in the Netherlands, she explains what they learnt when the program was adapted for use in Ukraine, a more high-resource setting than previous contexts. As devices and video games are more common in Ukraine, the program had to be more sophisticated to capture children’s attention. “We're competing with other video games”, Olena tells Nina. The gaming, playful element is essential, she says, to reduce the stress of learning as much as possible.

Next, Nina meets Yuliana Dovhopol, a teacher who uses Can’t Wait to Learn with her students in Ukraine. “When we hear the sound of the siren, we immediately go down to the shelter”, Yuliana says. They don’t take any notebooks, so the students use their phones in the shelter and continue their learning with Can’t Wait to Learn.

Lastly, Nina hears from Oksana Kostyuchenko, a teacher who works in a hospital in Ukraine. “Our students are not at school desks, but in hospital beds”, she tells Nina. Oksana explains how students use the app to make up for topics they’ve missed, and how the repetition in the app is beneficial.

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Guests and resources
War Child Holland - LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram

Can’t Wait to Learn - YouTube

Jasmine Turner
LinkedIn

Olena Onyshchenko
LinkedIn

Yuliana Dovhopol
Facebook
Instagram

Oksana Kostyuchenko
School of Superheroes

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