In Focus

Feature Organization: Team4Tech

How the Tech Sector Can Continue to Help Learners in a Virtual World

Written by: Gail Shen, Program Director, Team4Tech

While COVID-19 has been devastating for 90% of learners around the globe, the impact is particularly acute for learners who lack access to digital teaching and learning resources. Without an alternative to in-person learning, education has ground to a halt for far too many students around the world. These are the learners that Team4Tech, a Silicon Valley-based nonprofit, seeks to help.

While there are unique challenges related to virtual tech support for education-focused NGOs, Team4Tech has developed tools and resources over the past seven years that help pro bono tech volunteers overcome the difficulties of different time zones, languages, and cultural norms so that they can deliver meaningful impact. The need is greater now than ever before for the tech sector to help learners around the world continue to develop and grow in this critical time.

Photo Credit: Team4Tech

For more information you can reach Team4Tech here: [email protected]

Team4Tech works to improve the quality of education for underserved learners through the integration of relevant technology solutions and capacity building for NGO staff and teachers. By engaging and training tech professionals as pro bono consultants, Team4Tech has partnered with 25 NGOs in 18 countries since 2013, enhancing education for over 65,000 learners. In the last few months, the demand for tech support from education-focused NGOs has increased dramatically – Team4Tech has seen a 5x increase in the number of NGOs applying for support. Team4Tech has also pivoted its support model to 100% virtual, providing capacity building and tech support through online training. In the process of delivering virtual pro bono support that delivers impact for both NGOs and pro bono volunteers, Team4Tech has learned three key lessons:

  1. Scope projects carefully. Before a partnership begins, Team4Tech scopes projects deliberately and ensures that the NGO partner and all key stakeholders have clear expectations and commitments. Using a human-centered design approach, thoughtful project outcomes are clearly defined from the start, and key impact metrics are tracked every six months. NGOs seeking support must have at least foundational tech capacity and resources to implement and maintain solutions and to monitor impact over time. *One of Team4Tech’s NGO partners adeptly shifted during COVID and as a result, their reach has widened to those who speak Hindi anywhere (approximately 60% of India) and they have already reached 5x more users than the originally planned onsite project.
  2. Provide sufficient training and context for volunteers. By design, Team4Tech projects emphasize the need for pro bono consultants to build empathy with NGO staff so that they can develop and deliver highly tailored, sustainable solutions. Team4Tech ensures that this happens by taking all our volunteers through a leadership development curriculum, which teaches five key capabilities: customer-centric innovation, decision-making amidst ambiguity, growth mindset, communication and collaboration, as well as the importance of advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. The lessons learned and applied on all Team4Tech projects are now even more important to navigate this rapidly evolving world.
  3. Build trust through long-term partnerships. Team4Tech builds multi-year partnerships with NGOs, focused on building organizational capacity and resilience. Even as unexpected challenges – a pandemic and global recession, for example – change the needs of an organization, trusted relationships mean all stakeholders are well-positioned to still create maximum impact. *One of Team4Tech’s NGO partners in South Africa was able to provide nearly uninterrupted support for their learners due to Team4Tech’s foundational support across the years: Teachers felt technologically confident from Team4Tech’s previous workshops, the technology infrastructure was in place, and students were already engaged with educational software that was easily accessible during COVID on their phones at home.

While there are unique challenges related to virtual tech support for education-focused NGOs, Team4Tech has developed tools and resources over the past seven years that help pro bono tech volunteers overcome the difficulties of different time zones, languages, and cultural norms so that they can deliver meaningful impact. The need is greater now than ever before for the tech sector to help learners around the world continue to develop and grow in this critical time.

Thanks Team4Tech for the article submission! 

Photo Credit: Team4Tech

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’.