Summarizing mixed evidence about the efficacy of newer digital technology on learning, a new, wide-ranging report from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) contains a potential lesson for U.S. policymakers: When it comes to bridging the digital divide, a one-size-fits-all approach should be out of the question.
Authored by an independent team hosted by UNESCO, the 435-page global education monitoring report, “Technology in Education: A Tool on Whose Terms?”, is part of a regular series of updates on how United Nations partners are upholding their stated commitments to certain sustainable development goals. It was released on July 26 in Uruguay during a meeting of 18 education ministers representing nations around the world. Through this document, intended to be read by high-level policymakers across the globe, UNESCO is calling for governments to factor in their resources, cultures and goals when deciding upon appropriate uses of technology in schools.
“Digital technology has changed but not transformed education,” the report said. “Even in some of the most technologically advanced countries, computers and devices are not used in classrooms on a large scale. Technology use is not universal and will not become so any time soon. ... [t]here is no basis for the suggestion that educational success should be measured by how much spending is allocated to technology.”
Technology doesn’t need to be advanced to have an impact, the report said, but it must be context-specific. An example of this took place in China, where pre-recorded lessons were provided to 100 million rural students who previously did not have access to the same education tools as urban students. The result: a 32 percent average improvement for those students who lived well outside of cities. By contrast, the report noted, Peru’s one-laptop-per-child program has not yet shown any positive impact on learning.
The availability of free and open learning tools like e-books, popular websites like YouTube and other social media platforms is a step in the right direction, UNESCO reported. The problem is that these technologies can still reinforce gender, language and cultural inequalities. According to the report, 90 percent of free and open learning resources on the Internet were made in Europe or North America. And of the 50,000 different openly licensed resources, 92 percent were designed in English, 2.5 percent in Spanish and 1.5 percent in French or Arabic. In the remaining 4 percent, 96 different languages are represented. While translation tools are readily available, the interpretations to other tongues may not be culturally or contextually relevant.
The report also noted that many nations still lack basic infrastructure — 25 percent of primary classrooms around the world don’t have electricity, “a prerequisite to benefiting from technology." It also noted that, worldwide, classroom Internet access is below 65 percent, and less than half of the households around the globe had a computer in 2020, ranging from 7 percent in low-income homes to 80 percent in high-income homes.
In addition, the report said the world youth literacy rate increased from 87 percent in 2000 to 91 percent in 2015, but by 2020 had only increased by one more point to 92 percent. The global adult literacy rate for ages 15-64 increased to 87 percent in 2020, up from 81 percent in 2000.
To provide guidance to policymakers who can shape the future of education in their respective nations, UNESCO advises them, when considering technology in the future, to ask whether it's appropriate, equitable, scalable and sustainable. The report provides some answers to those questions, advising that old curricula can be rewritten to incorporate the use of digital tools without abandoning the main ideas and goals involved. It also said any new technology should be age appropriate, culturally acceptable, available in multiple languages and “have clear entry points for learners in given education settings.” Marginalized communities, the report stressed, should always be kept in mind.
Ideally, the report said, technology should be viewed as a partner and a supportive tool for improving education, not as the solution.
“The most effective interventions are those that put learners’ interests as the focal point and support human interaction, making use of adequate in-person support, extensive teacher training and appropriate technology for the specific context," the report said. "The best learning systems never rely on technology alone."
