In Focus

mEducation Alliance Event Recap

In response to COVID-19, the mEducation Alliance transformed its annual in-person Symposia event into a series of virtual webinars. These webinars aligned with the overall 2020 Symposia theme of Play and Technology for Lifelong Learning. The first two webinars of this series were Going Global: Adapting High-Quality EdTech Games for Low-Resource Settings (June 2020) and Coding Global: A Digital Literacy Partners Forum (July 2020). Both webinars covered various interventions that could address the continuity of learning during the pandemic. Play Every Day, the largest 2020 symposia event (September 2020), is featured in the section below.

Play Every Day

September 14 - 16, 2020

Play Every Day was the largest of the three 2020 mEducation Alliance virtual symposia events covering three days and including over 80 presenters and 500 active participants from 25 countries. Each day began with opening remarks from an mEducation Alliance staff team member and then included keynote presenters. These remarks were then followed by the formal program of concurrent morning and afternoon sessions each aligned with one of the event’s sub-themes. Some sessions were organized as roundtable discussions and others as interactive workshops in which attendees could complete various activities with session moderators. The event also provided attendees with the opportunity to virtually network with each other and visit exhibitor booths, just as if they were at a physical event!

For more information about Play Every Day, you can browse the event program which includes the full agenda, abstracts, and bios of all the presenters. Below you can find links to all the recordings from the event and quotes from some of our participants. As a special bonus, please check-out our mEducation Alliance Play Every Day playlist for many of the presenters’ pre-recorded session videos.

Event Web Pages 

Presenters from Adapting Games for Offline Learning Part 1
Play Every Day Registration
Games and Play for Inclusive Education

Presenter Quotes

“The future of education is clearly mobile. mEducation Alliance’s virtual event successfully brought into spotlight some of the amazing global EdTech and mobile learning initiatives around the world. I hope this initiates efforts towards global scaling and adoption by those who dare to dream of a futuristic education ecosystem that supports all learners and furthers the societal and economic progress of nations. Kudos to the entire team at mEducation Alliance for showing the world what is possible with mobile technology.” 

Surinder Sharma, CEO & Co-Founder, Smart Kidz Club, Inc.

“The mEducation Alliance symposium is always one of the key highlights of the calendar year, for me. It’s always great to renew friendships and form new ones. I am grateful to everyone who worked extra hard this year, under challenging circumstances, to help make this year’s symposium the worthy event it was.” 

Kenneth Lim, Research Scientist, National Institute of Education, Singapore

“There are days and weeks when our burden seems so heavy.  Working globally, we see only the massive problems of communication and  of resources that hamper our efforts at bringing technology and modern education to the hard-to-reach areas of the globe. The Play EveryDay conference was a real tonic, a real boost.  We met people from all over with fresh new ideas for involving children, teachers, and governments in new educational initiatives. Perhaps more important, we felt like a global team attacking a global problem.  I return to the work with renewed enthusiasm.” 

Mark Saul, Senior Scientist, Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival (JRMF)

Also a huge thank you to all of our Play Every Day Sponsors for contributing to the event! 

Dr. Bo Stjerne Thomsen, Vice-President and Chair of Learning through Play, The LEGO Foundation

Don't forget to watch two video contributions from Muzology and Ubongo! 

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’.