Ed tech in Afghanistan

I have only come across two news items in my feed in the last two months that mention ed tech in Afghanistan. The first, “Afghans tap into Twitter and Facebook as youth find their voice,” was more about social media use, although it did quote a teacher at Herat University who posted assignments and grades online and said that Facebook was the fastest way for him to communicate with students.

The second was an article titled “IKEA is My Teacher for mEducation Application Development.” In it, the CEO of Paiwastoon (an ICT social enterprise company in Afghanistan) discusses why they’re developing Ustad Mobile, a platform to “enable anyone who can use word processor or powerpoint software to make interactive courseware about any topic they want, then make a smartphone-like experience without needing connectivity, using any feature phone or better that happens to be available.” Pretty amazing goals for a Kandahar startup challenged by lack of available developers, unreliable electricity, and a Kentucky Fried Chicken that “the Taliban keep shooting rockets at”! 😉

Curious about what else might be happening there in ed tech, a little bit of googling led me to other initiatives, such as Great Idea, “a mobile- and distance-learning project for secondary education in Afghanistan to increase the quality of and access to education for (girl) students.” In an article about the project, the writer emphasized the importance of mobile technology to reach girls and women, who are often prevented from accessing traditional education. The USAID report on Afghan women and mobile technology (PDF) found that a quarter of Afghani women with mobiles used it for social services such as health and education. The report also mentioned the global “Learning by Ear” program by Deutsche Welle, which allows Afghani users to access broadcast educational content by phone in Dari or Pashto. The Afghan Institute of Learning also trialled a Mobile Literacy program for women in 2011-12, and Ustad Mobile was supported by the UN for their pilot program to improve literacy among female police officers via mobile technology.

At the higher ed level, two Afghani ministries launched an online distance learning project earlier this year for two universities. And for an interesting historical perspective on distance education and technology in Afghanistan, check out Tony Bates’s blog post.

I can’t say I would have expected war-torn Afghanistan to pop up on my ed tech radar, but I’m glad to see so much effort being put into accessing education.