Giving Compass' Take:

• Omidyar Network recently released a report on the ways other countries are scaling education technology worldwide. 

• What are the biggest obstacles facing those in the U.S. edtech ecosystem and where can donors provide support?

• Read about why education technology is a global opportunity. 

Some of the conclusions may not come as a surprise in the Omidyar Network’s report on what works in scaling education technology in different regions worldwide. Governments, educators, advocacy groups and companies large and small need to work better together. Long-term planning and investment in infrastructure for widespread and improved access to the internet and mobile devices is critical.

But what may surprise some readers of the report, released Monday, is what the United States can learn from developing nations when it comes to bringing together all parties interested in edtech.

Take Chile, for instance. By many measures, the country’s education technology ecosystem is small. Chile has “little private capital for new business ventures,” according to the report, and an edtech market valued less than a percent of the $9 billion U.S. market.

The report—prepared by RTI International and produced by the Omidyar Network, the philanthropic investment arm of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife, Pam—doesn’t explicitly say the U.S. should copy Chile. But the report praises the South American republic for an online platform managed by the central government to help schools choose and buy edtech products and services from approved suppliers.

This in turn helped the Chilean edtech ecosystem by helping edtech companies scale and subsequently invest in smaller markets.

The report praises governments worldwide for setting standards for school achievement that can help spur the development of edtech ecosystems. China’s Education Modernization 2030 Policy and Ten Year Development Plan for ICT and Education 2010-2020 are among government initiatives named that intend to improve the country’s education in the long run.

Read the full article about what the world can teach the U.S. about education technology by Wade Tyler Millward at EdSurge