When we talk about technology and education, especially in global contexts, it’s tempting to reach for the shiny solution — the ‘quick fix’. But the most transformative uses of educational technology don’t begin with code or hardware. They begin with listening, with humility, and with an honest look at context.

Technology should serve education — not the other way around

At War Child, we work in settings affected by crisis, conflict, and deep resource constraints. Over the years, we’ve learned that sustainable impact doesn’t come from innovation alone. It comes from pairing digital tools with deep contextual understanding, co-creating with local actors, centering cost-efficiency in the design process, and continuously adapting based on what we hear from learners, governments, and teachers. This is exactly what ‘Can’t Wait to Learn’ is all about.

At the 2025 Yidan Prize Conference , these themes echoed through panel conversations, hallway chats, and gallery sessions. Together with educators, researchers, funders, and policy shapers, we explored how to unlock meaningful learning futures, not just for some children, but for all.

We don’t need a new app. We need to ask the right questions

During our panel, Professor Punya Mishra asked a question that stayed with me: how can we guard against the tendency to oversimplify the problems we’re trying to solve with technology in education — particularly when those problems are not our own?

In education — especially in low-resource or crisis-affected contexts — it’s all too easy to parachute in well-intentioned but misaligned solutions, treating technology as a silver bullet. But if we don’t center the realities of learners and educators, even the most beautifully designed tools fall short.

That’s why we always come back to a set of grounding questions:

• What is the actual problem we’re trying to solve?

  
  

• Who is defining it?

  
  

• Will this solution truly work for the children and educators who need it most?

  
  

Three anchors for meaningful edtech

From our work on ‘Can’t Wait to Learn’, and in the dialogue at the conference, three essential principles emerge — pillars that must guide any attempt to harness technology for learning:

1. Context comes first

Technology alone is never the answer. In Chad, Jordan, Lebanon, South Sudan, Syria, Sudan, Uganda, and Ukraine, our approach always began with understanding each unique educational ecosystem. Rather than asking how technology can ‘solve’ a problem, we focus on the following:

• What challenges do we need to address first? Infrastructure, teacher capacity, literacy gaps, sociocultural factors?

  
  

• How do priorities at the government and ministries of education align? Technology needs to strengthen existing systems, rather than create a parallel response.

  
  

• How can the technology be adapted? How can it support national curricula, local languages, and offline functionality?

  
  

• How can we design solutions that are both impactful and cost-effective? So quality learning can reach more children, especially in the most resource-constrained settings.

  
  

2. Co-creation is key

Programs built with communities — not for them, are the ones that last. That includes everything from ensuring local ownership to drawing on culturally grounded practices. We’ve seen this in action when children inform game design or when partners and ministries of education shape implementation strategies.

3. Continuous adaptation should be the default

As one conference participant put it, “design is never done.” We must be willing to learn from unintended consequences, iterate with humility, and embrace feedback loops. This is especially true in edtech, where assumptions can be upended quickly by what happens on the ground.

Bridging Research and Practice: Making Evidence Usable and Impactful

A recurring undercurrent in many of the sessions was the tension between research and real-world application. Rigorous research is essential, but it must also be usable.
Several discussions touched on the challenge of translating insights from randomized controlled trials or academic studies into decisions that educators and policymakers can act on in real time.

We need better bridges — tools, language, and formats that help decision-makers make sense of data without oversimplifying it. And most importantly, we must also value other forms of evidence: the wisdom of teachers, community narratives, and experiential knowledge. These are equally vital to driving change.

The most powerful innovations in education are not necessarily technical

They’re relational. They’re iterative. They’re grounded. The conference was an important reminder of that. So let’s stay close to the realities of teachers and learners. Let’s build with, not for. And let’s not confuse flashy with effective.

If we can do that, we won’t just catalyze technology for learning—we’ll rehumanize it.

——
Marwa Zahr
2024 Yidan Prize for Education Development Laureate
Implementation and Practitioner Lead – Can’t Wait to Learn, War Child Alliance