The use of mobile phones has been identified as a potential way to bring the benefits of educational technology to a wider audience, including in low-connectivity settings. This is a topic that has received renewed interest recently as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and school closures. While a number of recent studies have demonstrated good…

Hardware requirements are a barrier to widespread adoption of digital learning software among low-income populations. We investigate the demand among smallholder-farming households for a simple, adaptive math learning tool that can be accessed by widely available "brick" phones, and its effect on educational outcomes. Over a quarter of…

This study investigates how pedagogical, cultural and institutional factors interact with technical knowledge in educational technology integration and how they relate to equitable and effective technology use in low-resource settings. In the context of a one-to-one tablet initiative in rural Kenya, we explore how these factors constrain or…

Electronic games delivered via smartphones have the potential to become valuable tools in HIV prevention in high-prevalence and low-resource international settings. To ground theoretical elaboration around novel mHealth interventions in contextual realities, it is important to understand the mechanisms of their effects as perceived by local…

School closures induced by COVID-19 placed heightened emphasis on alternative ways to measure student learning besides in-person exams. We leverage the administration of phone-based assessments (PBAs) measuring numeracy and literacy for primary school children in Kenya, along with in-person standardized tests administered to the same students…

Governmental and non-governmental institutions alike have rallied around technology as a potential solution for addressing the dearth of quality educational opportunities and adequately trained teachers in many regions around the world (Burns, 2011; Carlson, 2013; Dahya, 2016). This is no less true in humanitarian and refugee contexts where…

The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) has published a second edition of "Harnessing the Potential of ICTs: Literacy and Numeracy Programmes Using Radio, TV, Mobile Phones, Tablets and Computers." This compilation of case studies from all world regions presents promising literacy and numeracy programmes that use information and…

We evaluated a program to improve literacy instruction on the Kenyan coast using training workshops, semiscripted lesson plans, and weekly text-message support for teachers to understand its impact on students' literacy outcomes and on the classroom practices leading to those outcomes. The evaluation ran from the beginning of Grade 1 to the end of…

Kenya is investing in information and communication technology (ICT) to improve children's learning outcomes. However, the literature on ICT is pessimistic about the ability of ICT alone to improve outcomes, and few ICT programs have created the instructional change necessary to increase learning. The Primary Math and Reading (PRIMR) Initiative…

Different technologies have been used for decades to support adult education and learning. These include radio, television and audio and video cassettes. More recently digital ICTs such as computers, tablets, e-books, and mobile technology have spread at great speed and also found their way into the teaching and learning of literacy and numeracy…