Reflecting on EdTech: From Classroom Theory to Practice in Nepal

Undertaking the EdTech (CS 6460:Educational Technologies: Foundations) course at Georgia Tech was a deeply enriching experience. It helped me make sense of much of the work I had engaged in earlier, often intuitively without formal frameworks to articulate it. Taking the time to reflect on both the course and my past experiences has led me to revisit some fundamental questions, especially around EdTech.

In class, we explored themes of equity in education technology. But I find myself wondering: does most of today’s EdTech primarily serve resource-rich, privileged contexts? Is there a design approach that truly centers the realities of under-resourced and marginalized communities, one that works within their constraints rather than around them? Much like the framework of "How People Learn", should we also be asking Why People Learn? Perhaps the two are deeply intertwined. Understanding why people learn might fundamentally reshape how we design for learning. Reflecting on Sugata Mitra’s ideas, should learning even be bound by time in the ways we traditionally structure it?

These are not questions I expect immediate answers to. Rather, they are reflections, fragments of thought that feel important to hold onto and revisit.

The course itself was both engaging and thought-provoking. Moving forward, I know I will continually return to the EdTech systems I worked on in Nepal, re-examining them through the lenses and frameworks introduced here. In particular, my experience with Open Learning Exchange Nepal (OLE Nepal) stands out.

OLE Nepal is a non-profit organization dedicated to bridging the educational divide through technology. It has developed a suite of open-source, interactive learning tools accessible via web browsers on both mobile and desktop devices. These resources have been deployed in over 1,500 rural schools and community libraries, reaching more than 400,000 students across Nepal.

Some of the learning environments developed by OLE Nepal include:

• EPaath: A free digital learning platform offering over 500 interactive modules aligned with the national curriculum. It also includes an accessible version for hearing-impaired learners through Nepali Sign Language (NSL).

• Hamro Ramailo Kathaharu (HRK): A collection of animated local stories and language games designed to build early literacy, foster creativity, and cultivate a habit of reading among young learners.

• Math & Science Games: Interactive educational games for grades 6 to 10 that promote STEM learning beyond traditional classroom methods. These were developed with support from the MIT J-WEL, incorporating insights from experts in game-based learning.

I also had the opportunity to work with the OLPC XO laptop, those iconic green machines that, while far from perfect, continue to quietly mediate teaching and learning in thousands of public schools across rural Nepal. Even today, they remain one of the only pieces of EdTech infrastructure available in many of these contexts.

Looking back, this course has not only deepened my understanding of educational technology but also reframed how I view the work I have already done and the work I hope to do moving forward in EdTech.