IEFG BIG Series: It's a wrap!

Welcome to the IEFG Brains in Gear Series. In this final conversation of this season, the IEFG's Education Technology Fellow, Anjali Nambiar discusses her takeaways from this year's BIG Series with the IEFG's Executive Director, Laura Savage and the IEFG's Senior Lead for Philanthropic Coalitions, Leonora Dowley. 

Nb: This episode was taped before the USAID funding freeze was announced. As a result, we may see a different involvement of the aid sector than we expected at the time of recording.  

This podcast was brought to you by the International Education Funders Group, curated and edited by Anjali Nambiar, with post-production by Sarah Miles. You can learn more about the IEFG at www.iefg.org. 

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Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode! And don't forget to rate and recommend this podcast to your colleagues.

You can follow the IEFG on LinkedIn here. https://www.linkedin.com/company/international-education-funders-group-iefg

Transcript

IEFG BIG Series: It's a wrap!

Anjali Nambiar

Hello everyone and welcome to the final episode of the IEFG Brains and Gear series on how Philanthropy thinks about Ed Tech. Over the past six episodes, we've curated a journey on how grant makers in education are thinking about and working on Ed Tech to improve education outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. You can listen to the full episodes on any of the platforms where you find our podcasts. In this episode, me and two other members of the IEFG team are here to share our reflections on the series. I'm Anjali an ed tech Fellow with the IEFG.

Leonora Dowley

I'm Leonora and I've been working with a group of education grant makers who are part of the International Education Funders Group, or IEFG. This year, through our Ed Tech corner, it was a collaborative space for IEFG members to come together around a particular topic.

Laura Savage

And I'm Laura. I’m the Executive Director of the IEFG. We're so glad you've joined us today for this special wrap-up episode. So, what we're going to do today is reflect together on the purpose of this series, look back at what themes across it resonated with us the most, and share what we hope you've taken away from our discussions. We'll also think about a few areas that we could have delved more into and what we might hope happens next. Let's dive in.

Anjali Nambiar

To give you a quick recap, this was the annual Brains in Gear, or BIG Series for the IEFG. These series pick an issue that matters across the education philanthropy community to explore the diverse perspectives and approaches that education grant makers bring to it, and to build understanding of key issues. For each episode, we had two education grant makers, both with different perspectives on the topic, and two buddies, an expert invited by each of the grant makers.

Laura Savage

Yes, we wanted to demonstrate the range of incredible experience and perspective that different individuals across the educational philanthropy field bring. So, I think often when you hear the word philanthropy, you think ‘money’. But we work with staff at IEFG of over 100 different education philanthropy organisations, and every day in our team we hear a unique and hugely diverse range of knowledge, perspective and connections that they will bring to the education field. So, we picked. Ed Tech for the topic of this series because we believe that almost every grant maker is already in some way working with Ed Tech. So even if they're not directly funding it or it's not the core objective of their grant making portfolio, their grantees or partners are likely working with Ed Tech or asking questions about it. So. With this series, we wanted to highlight debates that some of our IEFG members are having about the application of Ed Tech in low- and mid-income countries. And our objective wasn't only to highlight this to a broader community, we also wanted to raise these issues and questions within the education philanthropy community itself as these issues and questions are things that all grant makers are going to have to grapple with.

Anjali Nambiar

And to do that, we touched upon a wide range of topics across our six episodes. Starting from the potentials and pitfalls of Ed Tech to AI, and the nuanced topics like the evidence in Ed Tech and what Philanthropy's role is in all of this.

Soundbite 1: Asyia Kazmi

So, when we are funding, we have to ask ourselves, does the technology do better than in the absence of technology and which kind of technology makes the biggest difference?

Soundbite 2: Raman Sidhu

The only equaliser for underserved population are twofold: 1) is the political intent for equity in learning. 2) is the access to education finance for political intent to practise equity in learning.

Soundbite 3: Cate Noble

The incentives are not always aligned for product developers to have quality as well as impact, and there is a place that perhaps philanthropy can have an impact and can provide support in driving up learning outcomes.

Soundbite 4: Ana C Rold

We do not, as nations of the world, have come together yet to say, “We all agree the ethics should look this way, accessibility should look this way, regulation should look this way”. It's still a very fragmented process and I think it will come up to funders, it will come up to the stakeholders themselves to figure out a way for how to engage with UN bodies and governments to think about this process a little bit, to come up with sort of a Universal Declaration of how we manage AI.

Soundbite 5: John Soleanicov

There’s this idea that “let's do tech for tech's sake and funding kind of follows that”. And then if you're on the other side, you're trying to get that funding, you have to position your project in a way to speak to the funders. So, in a way, I'm sort of adding to your diagnosis, which is that it's hard to sell this sort of holistic interventions where tech is just a part of a broader array of things. It’s just hard to get funded for things like that. It's also an interesting reflection for the funding community. And when I say that, I think, I mean, not only foundations but bilateral and multilateral funders. They often fall into the same trap. I'm afraid the AI hype is just going to make that worse.

Anjali Nambiar

Reflecting on these conversations, several key themes have stood out to me across our episodes. One of the most impactful themes was the importance of using Ed Tech tools more thoughtfully, ensuring that they are rigorously tested to address specific problems and support to keep students’ learning goals at the centre. It was interesting to hear organisations like the Mastercard Foundation and Jacobs Foundation emphasising the need for evidence-based Ed Tech and see them collaborate with research partners like the Innovation for Poverty Action and the Edtech Hub to bridge a huge gap that's been seen in Ed Tech effectiveness research. Another powerful theme for me was the importance of partnerships. We've heard time and again that the most successful Ed Tech initiatives are those that bring together educators, technologists, community members, and founders. We heard how Funsepa was able to bring all of these different members, be it the community, the politicians and other Ed Tech stakeholders to come together and ensure that Ed Tech was truly changing the way that students learnt, also in a sustainable manner. And lastly, the theme of equity and access was a constant undercurrent throughout our series. Talking about Ed Tech in places where basic infrastructure like electricity and devices are still unavailable did feel like the reality check to all the conversations about the potential benefit Ed Tech could bring. It is clear that while Ed Tech has immense potential there are perhaps different sets of incentives. One, which comes from those who seek profitable Ed Tech, where profit could come from elites looking to mitigate the pain points in the education system, and the other who seek to help disadvantaged kids leapfrog, which may lead to their efforts not necessarily making profit which, will need grants to fund the early stage funding or the lost capital for the early years of an Ed Tech innovation. To, you know, help it find its footing before really becoming profitable was an approach that was alluded to by Raman from the Octava Foundation, and even Elyias from the WISE Foundation. And that seemed like a really interesting third approach for philanthropy, to think about when they're supporting purposeful Ed Tech thrive. These are some things that really stood out to me. But what about you, Leonora? What resonated with you?

Leonora Dowley

One of the things that resonated most was a question that also came up during this year’s. What Works Hub conference and it's about AI. When we think about it, it's likely to be a divider, but the question that a lot of people have is which way it will go. So, will it be that it's only the richer countries or people that have access to it in ways that really enrich their education and then poorer countries and people will be left behind? Or will it become the minimum standard, something that poorer learners have access to for their education, but richer learners have more than that? So one-to-one teachers or tutoring. for example. What about you, Laura?

Laura Savage

I think I was more surprised by how optimistic everyone was in every episode. Whether it was on AI, or the potential of Ed Tech to support teaching or to support the most disadvantaged leapfrog, I think every person on this podcast, whether they were the IEFG member or the buddy from across, you know, the kind of research, policy and practise field, everyone believed in the potential of technology and I think I'm much more cynical. I know a lot less than all of these experts that have spoken on these podcasts, but I fear the opposite. But I think, like you've just said, Leonora, that technology will exacerbate the education differences of the world and that there's a huge amount to do and a huge number of incentives and markets to push against if philanthropy is going to be able to do anything about that. I think that was my main take away. But I learned a huge amount as well through the course of this series about all the different experiences that our members have. So, the fact that, you know, one of the IEFG members, staff of a private foundation, has previously worked in public sector procurement of Ed Tech. Another has worked in an Ed Tech startup. Another one in private companies developing selling Ed Tech. Others worked in classrooms working with Ed Tech or in research. And I think across that that's a really rich and vibrant diversity of perspectives that you don't necessarily think of when you think of the word Philanthropy equals Money. And I think also what came through was the Ed Tech in low- and middle-income countries that real focus is still such a tiny part of the much bigger conversation. I listened throughout the series with the reflection that this Ed Tech or innovation sector in Africa is going to be quite philanthropy- or aid-funded for quite a long time. And I learnt a lot as well from all of the buddies, you know, the Code.orgs and the Ed Tech Tulnas, the Government of Malawi and their realities. I think there was another beautiful thing that philanthropy brings is this connection through this grant making portfolio to such a huge range of different perspectives. And that conversation with funders and with the different funders in each episode, that's something I've not really heard elsewhere in the wider conversation about Ed Tech and AI in low- and middle-income countries.

Leonora Dowley

Yeah. And when we were addressing about the series together, I think we also realised that sparked some sort of some bigger conversations and questions for us that we'd like to keep bringing up with members. You know, we're now reflecting on how education systems will change as a result of the current technological developments, which way it will go as we’ve just been discussing and then whether or not classrooms will continue to be the mainstay format for education for children. I mean, I think probably so, because schooling is, it's about more than learning, but cultural experience will change and learning opportunities outside the classroom will expand and that's got to be seen as a good thing for the hundreds of millions of children who are out of school and then for all the adults who didn't get a chance to learn all that they could have learned when they were younger. But we're continuing to consider what role that creates for philanthropy, for education philanthropy. And this series and then the conversations that we've had in the margins of it have sparked into others, particularly related to how philanthropy works with governments and then bridges with the private sector and bigger middle tech to shape or respond to markets and demands and ecosystems. So, we're going to continue to have those conversations with our members and in the wider ecosystem.

Anjali Nambiar

As we wrap up, I hope that each of you has taken away something valuable from this series. One of the main takeaways we hope that you carry with you is the diversity of the education philanthropy debate on Ed Tech and the importance of collaboration.

Leonora Dowley

Yeah, collaboration is something we think a lot about at IEFG and real collaboration is really not easy to do. It takes compromise and it's a lot more than just convincing other people to join your idea or project, or, in the case of funders, co-fund it. Our Ed Tech corner, our group of members who focus on Ed Tech or have that as part of their strategies, took ten months of discussion for a group of eight funders to come together for a day to discuss how they might work together more closely around Ed Tech. And I was surprised they did, because at points in the process, I really thought this was unlikely to happen. Some of them are really big foundations and it can be really hard to find meaningful ways to work with others when your strategy and your budget’s been set. But the goodwill and the intention to do more and do better together was really clear in this group of eight. The group discussed some of the challenges that we had seen come up during the podcast, and they thought about what they might like to do together about them. They were talking about challenges such as standards and evidence, the technology itself, hardware and the software, scaling, scalability, sustainability and pedagogy. And we really hope that they make use of their position as philanthropy to drive what good looks like in the sector and also to start answering the question of what to invest in and taken out and facing role as they move forward together. So, we're looking forward to seeing them on that journey.

Anjali Nambiar

Alongside this podcast, as part of my role as an Ed Tech Fellow, I was scanning the landscape of events and platforms focused on Ed Tech in LMICs and organising this information for IEFG members. I was supporting our wider team and the team at FabData to gather information on what education philanthropy does on Ed Tech to develop a detailed IEFG map of Ed Tech efforts and these two things, together with the Big Series podcast fed into a dedicated space for IEFG members to take collective action. And this space is shaped into what we call the Ed Tech corners.

Leonora Dowley

Yeah, we're really excited by the collaboration the Ed Tech Corner sparked. The members are all IEFG members. They all fund Ed Tech and they've agreed to engage intentionally and meaningfully with each other as they pursue their grant making. So, they're going to take the role of critical friends, sparring partners, sounding boards as their strategies align and then move towards more concrete collaboration and partnerships to steer what ‘good’ looks like in Ed Tech globally. The group has eight funders, but we're expecting more to join, and they agreed to learn and share with each other and then consider ways to address the challenges that they identified together around standards in evidence around technology, around, as I said, scaling, scalability, sustainability and pedagogy. And we're not sure exactly what their collaborative actions will look like yet, but they will probably focus on facilitating coordination or maybe pooling technical assistance, maybe engaging big tech may be engaging global players or trying to change the Ed Tech market structure. But what they expect to do is to move from talking to doing together. And we're hoping that in April, when we bring our members together at ‘IEFG Together’, they will be able to highlight where they've got by then.

Anjali Nambiar

Then thank you all for joining us on this journey. This has been an insightful experience for us at IEFG. We hope it has been the same for you as well. As we close this year's series on Ed Tech, we encourage you to continue exploring how we can leverage technology to create a more equitable education system and reach out to us. If you would like to collaborate, if you have any thoughts, questions or feedbacks on this series, please do reach out. We'd love to hear from you. And with that, thank you for listening.