Technology and Learning: What We've Learned and Where We’re Going

Empirical and anecdotal data suggests that education technology increases access to learning, democratizes knowledge, and increases the breadth and richness of the learning experience.

Approaches to online learning may include virtual tutoring, video conferencing, language apps, and online learning software. Student experiences across these and many other EdTech tools highlight the advantages of online instruction, including the following.

• Improved retention through enriched engagement: Data tells us that receiving schooling doesn’t always translate to learning. The Stanford Social Innovation Review cites, for example, the ASER Centre’s Annual Status of Education Report on India. The survey findings indicate that, even with increased enrolment rates and extended years in school, only around one in every two learners in fifth grade can read second grade content. The review suggests this is true for multiple nations in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
• However, advances and developments in online learning tools combined with creative teaching methods may engage learners in ways that improve learning. Average online grade achievement tends to be similar to offline learning, but actual outcomes  depend on several factors, including class size, content complexity, and teaching skills. However, the Research Institute of America reports that eLearning significantly increases retention rates, from 25 percent to 60 percent, versus average retention rates of just eight to ten percent in physical classroom learning. This improvement is attributed to the increased control online learners enjoy over their learning process, including the ability to review the material repeatedly and in their own time.
• Access to education in emergencies: According to UNESCO, pandemic-related challenges over the past 18 months impacted 1.6 billion learners across 194 nations—over 90 percent of total enrolled learners. In response, educators and learning platforms boosted their digital learning capabilities to offer distance learning via virtual classrooms and other education technology. According to UNICEF, digital instruction was the most common, deployed by 42 percent of nations for pre-primary level, 74 percent for primary, and 77 percent for upper secondary education.  The advantage of online education was all these learners continued learning online during the pandemic.
• Opportunity for education for those out-of-school: Among its multiple benefits to educators and learners, digital learning offers greater access for remotely based learners—a substantial proportion of out-of-school children and youth. Looking beyond the pandemic, education technology and online learning provides new opportunities for the millions of children and youth worldwide currently excluded from location-based education. Today, this  cut-off from learning can occur through external factors such as conflict, lack of infrastructure and resources, cultural restrictions, or situational limitations, such as remote location, disability, hunger, or language barriers.  But as technology advances drive down the costs of computers and internet access, these millions of children will increasingly have access to online learning, giving them the opportunity to raise themselves, their families, and their community out of poverty.
• Increased democratization of knowledge: Through facilitating broader access to education in the population and across nations, online information and digital learning create the potential for far more expansive acquisition of knowledge, skills, and progress for students, that results in reducing education inequality.

The number of children entering education is growing, albeit incrementally, and that growth is in part thanks to education technology. Matt Jenner, Director of Learning at FutureLearn, reports that in 2007, over half (57 percent) of the world’s countries were providing ten years of formal education; by 2017, the number of countries had increased dramatically to 173–a 303% increase in just one decade. At the same time, the number of nations unable to deliver five years of formal learning has reduced from 47 to 32.

While enrollment rates are at their highest, there are still endemic problems with access to education. Global out-of-school rates remain high, with around 258 million children and youth cut off from schooling and subject to ‘learning poverty’. Substantial barriers to education continue to exist, which means for educators and administrators, the work is not over. Multiple disruptors drive out-of-school rates, including attacks on education, natural disasters and climate change; conflict and violence; child marriage and labor; disabilities; gender inequality; hunger; lack of sanitation, education funding, infrastructure, facilities, resources, and educators; distance and transport challenges; and language barriers.

Basic education is considered a global human right, representing one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Can technology and digital learning meet this critical need?