Is Tech all we need for equitable education?
In 2018, I accidentally gave this English Lesson to a class of 4th graders in a primary school in rural Beijing.
Ever since, it has changed my life to some extent as a life-changing lesson for myself as well. The pure eagerness to new technologies and knowledge from the under-served group of students has stroke me in a profound way. At the moment, I felt a sense of purpose of life to instill meaningful education resources for these children that might curate amazing seeds inside of them and someday turn in miracles in the future.
But after a while, it soon dawned on me, tech itself is not enough.
Nowadays, Children are spending a large amount of time online, estimatedly an hour-3hour/day using technologies on weekdays, according to Dr.Barron’s presentation at the 2020 Education: The Global Compact summit in Rome, during which I thought about my experience in educational technology over the past six years and found that I had great resonance on several points.
First thing first, tech need guidance and guardrails
It is startled to find out that with free access to internet connections, rural students’ No.1 dream job is called the “BOSS”.
It surprised us all to see the outcome of a survey in 2020 for 10 classes of 4th grade in a rural school in Beijing, China. The BOSS , not even a job position, is looked up to by these kids, only because the word is all over social media with a touch of superior success financially. We can sense that there’s something wrong if our future generation sets BOSS as their dream job. They don’t know much of new hot occupations for them to be in the future but bore in mind that their parents are all work for the “BOSS”; That’s something really astonishing yet so real that they need more than just access to internet, but also guidance and regulations as well on how to leverage technologies to learn safely.
Informal schooling v.s. Formal schooling
Just like Dr.Barron’s view towards the importance to understand out-of-school education, we need to understand all the opportunities children had but then lost in all the out-of-school time, with 82% time for K12 students are informal education time. it is a good gap that can be leveraged by technologies applied in new method of learning, taken into consideration its natural advantages of being anytime, anywhere access to knowledge;
What recently we discovered a new project is to be applied in museum of Hunan( top 3 museum in China, especially on culture of Han Dynasty) where students can access to AI agent of a prince figure from ancient time that is preserved by the museum and we brought it to live in a form of Generative AI mixed with AI avatar technology. Through this method, students can access to Han Dynasty history by talking real time to this important person in AI avatar that had a whole bunch of stories to be told which is the history through him/her eyes. In such way, learning can be happened in home on a couch talking to a ancient prince, getting to know her stories about cultural features and social events happened 2000 years ago.
Concept photo of AI Avatar used in museum
Tech practices is a collaborative work involves teacher, parents and friends
“People, all children and adults need access to resources including ideas and role models all the time. These are some of the things that we don't often count when we're thinking about equity, but it is key to connection to learning partners.” said Dr.Barron, “parents who are too restrictive are restricting the range of activities, parents who sit and explore with their child are getting more out of the technology.”
To test on the effectiveness of familiy collaborative learning is one of the important directions many researchers like Dr.Barron is focusing on.
A recent case study is from University of Oxford, and I have been discussing to let them test on our own product of “Monki.ai” , a Gen AI powered AI avatar reading agent.
The on-going project features Ferraro x Game Loft, which has tested the Creativity development through joint media design; The ultimate question is “How to incorporate features into games to try to support creativity development in children; Especially through joint media engagement design within families”
How to scaffold or support their caregivers, sibling, peers and parents by joint media program in the setting of gamification of education, which normally refers to the design of media in the context of gamification process to stimulate users’ activities and foster their participation and interaction through leaderboard, point system and other socialization media and tools;
As I reflect on this journey I had so far taken, I’m reminded of one simple truth: technology alone cannot benefit learning. It requires human connection, guidance, and a shared commitment to fostering curiosity. Dr. Barron’s insights into collaborative learning underscore the importance of engaging families, teachers, and communities in the educational process. Just as technology can unlock potential, it’s the relationships and shared experiences surrounding it that truly transform learning. My mission now is clear: to create educational technologies that not only teach but also connect, inspire, and empower—bringing the most underserved students into the future they deserve.
