How can EdTech help teachers and learners affected by conflict?

Join educational researcher Nina Alonso for this podcast series as she shares powerful stories from teachers around the world, talking in their own words about their own experiences.

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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Listen out for

• How EdTech can impact both learning and wellbeing.
• The importance of a play-based approach.
• Adapting to children’s emotional needs.

Find out more on BOLD

Can EdTech bridge learning gaps for conflict-affected children? Aisha Schnellmann discovers how well-designed EdTech solutions can help young people learn in challenging environments.

Can EdTech support more than learning for conflict-affected children? Aisha Schnellmann finds out how EdTech solutions can support the whole child and benefit the community.

The challenges of implementing EdTech solutions for conflict-affected children – Aisha Schnellmann asks how the barriers to EdTech can be overcome to support learning and wellbeing.

Leveraging technology can make a difference in refugee children’s lives – Selcuk Sirin explains how digital games can improve mental health and educational outcomes of Syrian refugee children in Turkey.

The power of storytelling in education – In this episode of Teachers’ Voices, Nina finds out about a programme for migrant readers.

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