I had the honor of representing Digital Promise at the 13th annual mEducation Alliance Symposium. This year’s symposium, “Inspiring the Next Generation of STEM Leaders – Everywhere!,” was the first global STEM education event bringing together stakeholders from developed and developing countries. Sessions focused on approaches to ensuring that STEM education is engaging, equitable, relevant, and accessible for all learners in every location, including very low-resource settings.

As part of that conversation, I presented alongside Suzanne Cole, director of operations at Blue Butterfly Collaborative, on the work of Digital Promise and Blue Butterfly to bring blended learning to primary schools in rural Haiti using interactive, mother-tongue digital science content.

Over the course of the symposium, I also attended a number of engaging presentations and discussions focused on STEM technology, engagement, and accessibility. Three key takeaways emerged for me from these sessions:

  1. There is an opportunity for mobile technologies to boost learning outcomes for all children, including the most marginalized children, when we design for and with these learners.
  2. STEM activities don’t need to be technologically complex to promote student engagement and improved learning outcomes.
  3. There is a proliferation of digital open education resources (OERs) being developed around the world, but education providers need support to navigate, curate, adapt, and integrate these digital resources for local use.

Read the full article about STEM education learnings by April Williamson at Digital Promise.