Study finds significant shortage of educational technology to help children with disabilities
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Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Mar 26 2021
An 'astonishing' deficit of data about how the global boom in educational technology could help pupils with disabilities in low and middle-income countries has been highlighted in a new report.
Despite widespread optimism that educational technology, or 'EdTech', can help to level the playing field for young people with disabilities, the study found a significant shortage of evidence about which innovations are best-positioned to help which children, and why; specifically in low-income contexts.
The review also found that many teachers lack training on how to use new technology, or are reluctant to do so.
The study was carried out for the EdTech Hub partnership, by researchers from the Universities of Cambridge, Glasgow and York.
They conducted a detailed search for publications reporting trials or evaluations about how EdTech is being used to help primary school-age children with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries. Despite screening 20,000 documents, they found just 51 relevant papers from the past 14 years – few [...]