Reimagining education for refugee children using emerging technologies

[Music]

have you ever tried to imagine

six hundred thousand people that’s more

than the population of miami

the civil unrest in south sudan has

displaced six hundred thousand people

but that’s not the total number the

civil unrest in south sudan

has displaced 600 000 children

into uganda alone 600

000 children refugees

who have fled to uganda fleeing

with whatever they can they often arrive

to refugee camps

having lost most of their belongings

their homes

and at times their families uganda does

a lot to help these children

providing them with accommodation and

support

part of this includes placement into

schools

but to go to school in uganda you need

to speak english

which many south sudanese children do

not know

the current solution to this is to place

children in school grades much lower

than their age

and as you can well imagine it’s

humiliating to be in a class with

students four years younger than you

this leads to bullying and often the

refugees drop out

56 of uganda’s south sudanese refugee

children population

do not currently attend school my team

and i found this situation unacceptable

and committed ourselves to using our

technical knowledge

combined with researched educational

practices to help these students learn

english quickly

and unlock their potential i want to get

you thinking

of other ways in which technology can be

used to reinvent education

as i share our work i urge you to ask

yourself

how can you help what expertise do you

possess

and how can we collaborate to change the

lives of these students

and others so let me tell you about our

work

we’re designing an entirely new english

learning program

that utilizes technology that we all

have in our pockets

a mobile phone picture a school in a

developing nation like uganda

you’re probably thinking of a classroom

full of tables at which

students sit watching a teacher lecture

at a blackboard

stereotypical views of education

continue to force this ancient schooling

system

upon many communities and in the 21st

century

many still think this is the best

educational model to promote

what if we could use a totally new

approach to teach these children english

advances in technology provide us with

many new tools to accelerate the english

learning process

and research institutions around the

world have collected

and analyzed data on the most effective

methods of teaching for decades

what are these techniques and why aren’t

we using them in uganda

right now why perpetuate outdated

methods of education

when we know better i want to introduce

you to helen

my friend colleague and mentor i met

helen earlier this year when i found

myself in uganda

teaching a stem workshop to school

children in soroti

a city to the north of uganda helen

works for the ngo

to the uganda which she established with

her sister betty

one afternoon sitting under a tree in

tutti’s compounds

helen showed us the schoolwork of a

student she was tutoring

the student was a south sudanese refugee

girl who had been bullied in school

due to her lack of english skills helen

was teaching the girl english

in the hopes that she will be able to

re-enter school to complete her studies

tutoring this girl in english took a lot

of time on top of running 2d

multiple studies have shown minimum

times of one year

for students to progress from zero to

conversational english skills

even on the most accelerated english

learning programs

unfortunately we don’t have three

hundred thousand helens

if we did uganda’s child refugee

population

would all be in school we began thinking

how can we bring the intimate one-on-one

teaching that helen was providing to

this child

to the entire refugee population being

mit

students we of course wondered how to

apply technology to this problem

we first thought what if we could design

and distribute low-cost computers

each containing learning courses

downloaded to the device

free to use at any time we explored this

for some time

then discovered another project that

distributed hundreds of thousands of

laptops

only to learn that establishing a repair

system for broken laptops

was not viable they assumed that

computers would be used as intended

overlooking how the role of children

and girls in the household was viewed in

many communities

this stumped us for a while but then we

realized

what device does almost every person in

the world have access to

a smartphone what do you use your phone

for

i’m guessing you spend a significant

portion of time on social media

maybe in an amount of time you’re

embarrassed to admit and you’re not

alone

often i find myself reaching for my

phone swiping to the same app

and mindlessly scrolling before

returning back to work

this is true across the world and it’s

true in uganda

i’ve taught students in classrooms

around the globe

and the mobile phone is the common

denominator of distraction

what if we could leverage this social

media habit to teach english

to south sudanese refugee children it

sounds kind of crazy

but stay with me as social media slowly

steals more and more of our attention

i think it’s time to pivot and design

technologies centered around it

we need to leverage existing social

media technologies

and tweak them to support learning of

course

social media alone is not the solution

imagine the chaos

teaching students with unlimited access

to social media at any time

that’s why social media learning is only

a part of a three-stage english learning

plan

that we are developing for south

sudanese refugee children

first through modern english learning

curriculums

that draw from educational research

students will begin the program

in the classroom but this classroom is

unlike any you’ve probably seen before

equipped with speech-to-text smartphones

interactive tools and multiple teachers

our classrooms will allow the students

to learn the basics

of the english language obtaining

proficiency

and basic conversational skills second

is the social media aspect of the course

a platform built specifically for

english learning

where students will interact with

pre-written social media posts

before advancing to talking online with

classmates

where students can practice

conversational english in an

ever-growing online world

we also need to promote safe internet

practices

so we’re teaching students how to be

safe when interacting with others

online finally in stage 3

students re-enter school at the correct

grade with the vital english skills

necessary to succeed

additional supplementary classes will be

available to students who require them

to integrate into the school community

students will be placed in schools with

fellow program participants

ensuring they don’t feel alone and

isolated using social media

is the key to our approach but think of

how many ways

technology can be applied to education

in non-traditional ways

what about augmented and virtual reality

the internet of things

quantum computing just to name a few

imagine what can be achieved in a

classroom if we were to lean into the

technological advances

of the past 30 years the classroom would

never be the same again

in uganda there is no longer a need to

provide

outdated education with the increasing

affordability of technology

we can bring world-leading education to

these students

south sudanese refugee children arriving

in uganda

will be welcomed by opportunity

providing english learning not only

allows them to enter the school system

but sets them up for success whether

they remain in uganda

or return to south sudan education

quality

should not be dependent on where you

call home

and it no longer needs to be it’s time

for change

in uganda the goal is english learning

but

elsewhere yemeni venezuelan and syrian

children

to name a few lack access to any

education at all

in the countries where they take refuge

let’s get back to the drawing board

innovating how technology is used in the

classroom

we need help scaling this approach and

if you have the capacity to do so

connect with others and start

reimagining education

that utilizes modern technologies in any

way you see possible

this is going to be an iterative process

not everything will work

don’t view education as a product that

we need to supply

view it as an opportunity one in which

we can bring education

that utilizes cutting-edge technology to

students across the world

what ideas do you have my work focuses

on south sudanese refugee children

but the problem is much larger and so is

the opportunity that comes with it

all across the world vulnerable

populations

whether in developing or developed

nations lack access

to vital educational resources even

within the us

rural and urban children face similar

issues

we must use technology to address this

urgent need

not only is this need apparent for

children but adults too

many adult immigrants and refugees could

benefit greatly from access to language

lessons

let’s start by reimagining education for

those who need it most

and go from there if we can create

change in uganda

imagine the impacts that can be had

elsewhere

thank you