Reflections from using technology

Like many of you who are reading this, Simple Education Foundation (SEF) started inside a classroom in Delhi. Here my co-founder and I observed the challenges our government teachers faced everyday while trying to make learning possible. These challenges eventually led them to give up or turn apathetic toward children. Our work is embedded in the idea of making the teacher more effective and the learner more engaged and inspired.

We work with governments to build statewide training programs for schoolteachers and principals to make learning in public schools across India more engaging and impactful for children. Our programs are centered around addressing specific teaching and learning needs we identify in the local regions. We are co-designing processes and frameworks with government institutions and educators to help them implement and scale the programs by themselves in the long term.

Understanding technology to use it effectively

When we started this journey in 2016, we were not focused on using technology. As we look back, this lack of focus was not from an aversion to technology. It stemmed from the limited idea of possibilities and use cases. I remember Rohit Dhankar Ji (from Digantar, Jaipur) once saying at a Wipro Foundation
Annual Conference, that there is no solution to the problems we are solving but only deeper understanding. I resonate with that idea so much today.

In 2016, we worked with 100 Master Trainers and 1,000 trainers in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, who eventually trained more than 85,000 elementary teachers in the region. However, our assessments were paper based. While we manually evaluated what we needed to learn from these assessments, we have very little evidence of learning from those days, let alone the data sets that we can dig into to build learning now.

Similarly, when we started working with schools in Uttarakhand and Delhi in 2017, we collected a bunch of student data. We used tools like Google Forms and Google Sheets to collect and make sense of the data. However, as we look back today, a lot of the data that we collected is not very helpful. Our understanding of student learning has evolved and the data collected back then is not helpful.

As we started deep diving into integrating technology over the last few years, we reflected back and we recognized that technology is just a tool. Our own understanding of the problem, our inputs, the output and outcome, are central to choosing and building the tech stack. Central to our story today is the strategic integration of technology into our key interventions. As we have deepened our understanding of the work we are doing and the various things that can be automated or where technology can play a role, we have been able to effectively harness the power of tools such as Google Workspace, Kobo, Looker Studio, and Zoho.

Reflecting on one’s work helps in choosing the tools

Take for example our student assessment system. Our assessment philosophy is based on learning levels and not on grades. Hence, when facilitating assessments, the team must first conduct an assessment based on the level last documented and then evaluate it and decide on the next level for assessment. This whole process can get quite cumbersome. To solve this, we built a system where we could code the assessment logic on Kobo, the data collection platform. Kobo would do the backend work of evaluation and then suggest the next best assessment for the student.

This significantly saved time and allowed us to have rich data. This was then cleaned up and analyzed on Looker Studio. The impact has been nothing short of transformative. Assessments have become efficient, backend analyses are now automated, and invaluable insights are generated instantaneously Similarly, we have built systems to observe teaching practices inside the classroom. This is in conjunction with the student data. It enables to show us whether our teaching practices are having a positive impact on our children’s learning. These learnings and the journey of building these tools have also strengthened our ease with technology.

Today, one of our key offerings to a state government is a robust training management platform, which is designed to the state’s needs. It tries to enable the state to take effective decisions. It also enables us to learn what our teachers and students need. The management platform can be used to track attendance, collect and measure learning data, and create reports. It can also be used by mentor teachers to track data from classroom observations.

Challenges in adopting technology by an NGO

However, this journey has not been devoid of challenges. Embracing novel technologies posed a steep learning curve for both our team and stakeholders – from struggles with embracing the tools to being open to innovation. We have navigated this challenge through a focus on internal training and deepening the team’s understanding of the tools at hand. We focus on developing our understanding of why we are using the tool. We also spend time showing our team members how the tools are going to enable their individual work.

The training started with a focus on building understanding of the needs that require to be addressed. Involving key team members who were working on the specific challenges has been key to building team investment and having technology champions in every team. A significant amount of feedback we received during our prototyping phase was on the absence of usable insights that could guide every team member who was using these tools. Prototyping has played a pivotal role, enabling us to pilot solutions, comprehend their nuances, and refine them before scaling. Crucially, we have made rapid decisions, swiftly rejected ineffective solutions and embraced those that are effective. Furthermore, we have designed tools with an eye on the future. This helps in ensuring not just immediate scalability but also long-term sustainability.

Lessons learned: a guide for others

Our journey provides some insights for other organizations embarking on the path of technological integration. We share a few of these here.

Prototyping for precision: The creation of in-house prototypes and their subsequent piloting is a foundational step. Properly understanding the tools ensures well informed decision-making, be it guiding tech partners or selecting the most suitable product for the task at hand.

Team training and investment: Investment in comprehensive team training is pivotal. It is important that every team member comprehends and embraces the technology. Collective investment among team members can become a cornerstone of the technology’s success.

Swift rejection, swift adoption: The ability to swiftly identify what does not work is as crucial as recognizing what does. Our agility in rejecting inefficient solutions expedited our journey toward adopting impactful tools. The pace at which we made decisions paved the way for the swift adoption of effective solutions.

Building for scale: We approached the construction of tools from a lens of scalability, even when operating on a relatively modest scale. This has proved to be invaluable. Solutions that are robust and scalable are indispensable for long term success. This is especially true in the dynamic landscape of technology.

Despite the absence of significant funding, we have found strength in collaboration and volunteering. We have joined hands with tech companies like EdZola. This has helped us build the tools. Volunteer communities like Data Kind, have helped us to work with experts from data science and other relevant fields. They have helped us build some of our tools and form relationships that have proven instrumental in our technological endeavors. This collaborative spirit has helped us build tools that we believe can create enduring change. They have already helped us build a niche for ourselves with the states and local
governments we work with.

As we continue our mission to transform education in India, we strongly believe that the correct use and adoption of technology will go a long way in making our programs powerful.