Using Education Technology to Improve K-12 Student Learning in East Asia Pacific : Promises and Limitations

We use global and regional data to show that it is possible to use EdTech to improve student learning in EAP. We present evidence that the broadcast/dual teacher model often supports student learning gains, while other approaches, including assistive EdTech, show promise. Others, such as e-readers, remote teacher-training and AI interventions have yet to demonstrate positive impacts on student learning at scale in the EAP context. Based on evidence from the EAP region and globally, we show that as the scale of EdTech interventions increases, the effect on learning generally decreases. The largest impacts tend to come from smaller-scale interventions conducted by non-governmental institutions rather than large-scale interventions by governments. We find that as the use of EdTech expands in the EAP region, it tends to increase existing learning inequalities, since not all families and schools are able to pay for, access, and use it effectively. In this companion paper to the EAP regional flagship "Fixing the Foundation: Teachers and Basic Education in East Asia and Pacific", we present the results of a regional survey of middle-income countries showing that, contrary to available evidence, most education decision makers believe that EdTech was effective in supporting student learning during COVID-19 school closures. We recommend several evidence-based EdTech interventions in EAP including the "broadcast" or dual-teacher model, and call for improved approaches for future research that consider scale, dosage and heterogeneity of impact to evaluate EdTech interventions