A UNESCO publication, introduced in UNESCO’s own words:
“A new book about experiences with educational technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic and the implications for the future of learning…
“The COVID-19 pandemic pushed education from schools to educational technologies at a pace and scale with no historical precedent. For hundreds of millions of students formal learning became fully dependent on technology – whether internet-connected digital devices, televisions or radios.
“This book examines the numerous adverse and unintended consequence’s of the shift to ed-tech. It documents how technology-first solutions left a global majority of learners behind and details the many ways education was diminished even when technology was available and worked as intended.
“In unpacking what went wrong, An Ed-Tech tragedy? extracts lessons and recommendations to ensure that technology facilitates, rather than subverts, efforts to ensure the universal provision of inclusive, equitable and human-centred public education.”
You may be wondering why this report about education even shows up in a blog about affordable housing. During COVID, affordablehousingaction.org published several posts about internet connectivity for students who were directed to learn from home. The media coverage we accessed discussed disparities in access to the internet. Black people, brown people, indigenous people and people of colour were less likely than white people to have a stable and robust internet service, the computer to work on and a dedicated work space at home.
The report linked below sets these earlier posts in a global context, when students were told instructed to stay home and continue their education through on line learning. The report identifies that 465 million students had no access to education from home or anywhere else when classroom learning was suspended. The report also has an excellent discussion about alternatives to improve access for disadvantaged groups and reduce disparities rather than widen them. Learning from home, which is the site of the disadvantage, isn’t necessary.
Link to the book itself, and/or continue with critical reviews as well as a broad explanation of a ‘theatrical framing’ of the book at UNESCO: An Ed-Tech Tragedy?
