Letter from the mEd Desk

Anthony Bloome

Executive Director

Dear EdTech Connected readers,

We hope this issue of EdTech Connected finds you and your families in the best of health. It certainly has been a trying last year for everyone. Our hope is that there are blue skies ahead which we can all enjoy over the course of the next several months. 

Speaking of “blue skies,” this Anniversary issue of EdTech Connected represents some of the best of mEducation Alliance partner and EdTech community work over the last 10 years.

You can find within: headshots and “yearbook” comments from many of our Alliance EdTech partners champions and friends; video and interviews with leading EdTech innovators, researchers, and policymakers; and a highlight collection from EdTech webinars and other events. You’ll see reference to our 10th Anniversary event and 1st annual award show in early February. Thanks to you all of you attended and sent us your good wishes!

In this issue, you’ll also see reference to our Pi Day (March 14) launch of the first of our series of Math Power! Virtual Math Festivals. These will culminate in a large Math Power! virtual gala later this summer.  

The nine presenters we featured during this first festival represented an amazing range of tech and non-tech activities and initiatives in Africa designed to help bring the joy of math to learners. Be on the look-out for announcements about other Math Power! activities and products over the coming months — we’d love to have your support and collaboration. 

Speaking of the coming months, we will launch our open nominations call for Youth Digital Champions in early April, continue to build content for our “Pulse” digital media channel, and collect stories for our next EdTech Connected issue with focus on Digital Literacy and S.T.E.M. If you’d like more information on any of these, including contributing content and sponsorship opportunities, please let us know. Also, be on the look out for a new website! You may have noticed a new logo for the mEducation Alliance, so we are working on a great space to feature it. 

And if you already don’t subscribe to our biweekly eNews, how will you find out about all the eDonuts we’ve given away at our eCafe events? Hmm… 🙂

Great thanks as usual to my amazing colleagues, Scott and Nicole, and our indefatigable intern team, Kim, Sofia, Zola, Stephen, TL — and the newest additions Parth and Julie.

Click the photo to be taken to the 10th Anniversary and Award Show event page

All the best,

Anthony Bloome

Executive Director, mEducation Alliance

The Mobiles for Education (mEducation) Alliance is a non-governmental organization focused on the evidence-driven and sustainable role of technology in education to advance quality educational outcomes. Initially formed in 2010, the mEducation Alliance is a unique, multi-stakeholder convening platform for government and donor policymakers, other investors, researchers, and practitioners to work together, particularly in lower-resource, developing country contexts. For more information about the Alliance, including about our signature activities, visit the organization web page.

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Jax Chaudhry

Jax Chaudhry leads Project Invent, a national nonprofit that empowers youth with future ready mindsets for individual success and global impact, through invention. Originally from the Southside of Chicago, Jax loves working with students, families and partners to ensure every student can attain success as they define it. For more than 10 years, she has worked with elementary schools, high schools, education nonprofits and led regional teams and operations to ensure student success.

Michael Leventhal

Kenneth Y T Lim operates at the intersection of neuroergonomics, the learning scienceMichael Leventhal is co-founder of RobotsMali, a pedagogical and AI4D laboratory and STEM education center in Bamako, Mali. RobotsMali has trained thousands of students from elementary school to high school in computer science, robotics, and artificial intelligence, coached national robotics teams that have won 32 medals in international competitions, and developed technologies using AI and robotics for the social and economic development of Mali. Before becoming an educator in Mali, Michael worked as a technologist in Silicon Valley.s, and cognitive psychology. In 2023, he and his team were identified by UNESCO to share their work on the affordances of Generative AI for meaningful teaching and learning, during UNESCO’s first annual flagship event Digital Learning Week, international forum on the implications of Generative AI for education, in the session on ‘Preparing students and teachers for responsible use of AI’.

Enouce Ndeche

Enouce Ndeche is the founder and Director of Vijana Amani Pamoja ,VAP a community scheme based in Nairobi Kenya that uses the power and the popularity of the game of soccer/football as a catalyst for social, educational and economic empowerment.Enouce holds a degree in sociology from Egerton university and he is also the 2020 individual award recipient “Diversity and Inclusion Eminent Leader Award Enouce is also a certified Sports Philanthropy and Executive, George Washington University and is a 2023 Gratitude Network fellow.

Kenneth Y T Lim

Kenneth Y T Lim operates at the intersection of neuroergonomics, the learning sciences, and cognitive psychology. In 2023, he and his team were identified by UNESCO to share their work on the affordances of Generative AI for meaningful teaching and learning, during UNESCO’s first annual flagship event Digital Learning Week, international forum on the implications of Generative AI for education, in the session on ‘Preparing students and teachers for responsible use of AI’.