10 educational innovations that are setting trends

Although the World Health Organization officially declared on May 5, 2023 that the Covid-19 pandemic was no longer a global health emergency, educational technology (EdTech) innovations, which were developed rapidly at the beginning of the pandemic to ensure that all students could access education, continue to grow rapidly. HundrED, the Finnish non-profit organization that identifies, evaluates and disseminates educational practices worldwide, is a good example of this. As it does every year, HundrED has just published its Global Collection, featuring what it considers the 100 best educational innovations in the world. The Observatory has taken a look at it in order to tell you, in this post, what the main trends of the year in educational innovation are and to highlight some of the ones we found most interesting.

You only need to look at the education websites and the latest reports published by international organizations that deal with educational issues, such as UNESCO or UNICEF, to guess where HundrED was heading with regard to current trends. Indeed, the exhaustive analysis of the current state of educational innovation reveals that the trends identified in the 2023 Global Collection are firmly rooted in today’s pedagogical reality. These trends not only reflect the evolution of educational needs, but also respond to the emerging challenges and opportunities in a constantly changing world. And they are: EdTech and Artificial Intelligence as methods to facilitate the objectives of the innovations, the development of teacher agency through professional development, 21st-century skills, and inclusion and well-being. Let’s take a look at them.

EdTech and Artificial Intelligence

In 2018, HundrED published a report examining the perceived needs of all education stakeholders worldwide. It made no mention of educational technology, and only one innovation (Lexplore) referred to the use of AI. This contrasts sharply with this year’s report, in which a quarter of the selected innovations relate to EdTech and AI (22 and 4, respectively). The educational technology sector is expanding at full speed, with technology seen as a means to overcome barriers to access and a cost-effective way to reach thousands of students.

Development of teacher agency

Teachers drive educational change in their classrooms, so it is no surprise that innovations related to their professional development are at the forefront of educational transformation. This year, 13 innovations focus on teacher professional development as a method for achieving innovation goals. Teachers play a critical role in student outcomes and are therefore fundamental to the adoption of innovative approaches. Developing their agency is vital if we want teachers to feel empowered and take responsibility for their own professional development.

Future skills

Thirteen of this year’s featured innovations focus on future skills, mainly 21st-century and ICT skills. These educational proposals focus on equipping students with the skills they need to face the challenges ahead, using a variety of approaches to develop these competencies.

Inclusion and well-being

Both inclusion and well-being emerged as key themes in this year’s Global Collection, with ten featured innovations in each of these areas. In the field of inclusion, HundrED’s proposals focus on gender equality, bullying prevention, student empowerment, rural education, support for displaced children, special education and the promotion of diversity. On the other hand, innovations related to well-being concentrate their efforts on mental health, self-esteem, compassion, physical well-being, mindfulness and the creation of healthy learning environments. These proposals prioritize the educational experience as a whole, not just the development of specific skills.

Looking ahead to 2025

But HundrED does not stop at analyzing current trends. That is why it also identifies key areas of interest for the coming year. In this regard, the organization encourages innovators to focus on aspects such as sustainability, inclusive education, financial education and the promotion of “student voice”.

Sustainability remains a challenge in education due to the lack of clear measures and its place in the curriculum. Opportunities to learn about sustainability are often found outside scheduled lessons, which underscores the need to integrate this topic more meaningfully into the school curriculum.

Inclusive education, especially in relation to gender disparity, is a global challenge. Lack of access to education affects millions of girls, limiting their potential and contravening UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goal 4. Gender bias in education is also an ongoing problem, reinforcing stereotypes and limiting girls’ aspirations. That is why HundrED wants to see more inclusive innovations that address this disparity.

Prioritizing children’s rights, in particular student voice and agency, is crucial for their active participation in the educational process. Students who feel that they have a say in their education are noticeably more motivated academically. HundrED seeks to highlight the value of student voice in education and wants to feature student-led innovations in the next Global Collection.

10 innovations to improve learning in vulnerable environments

Below, we highlight some of the innovations featured by HundrED. It has not been easy to choose from among the 100 selected by the organization. Our selection has tried to balance geographic criteria (always staying within vulnerable environments) and thematic ones.

Building a village to educate girls (India)

An old African proverb says that it takes a whole village to raise a child. The Indian organization SwaTaleem has moved from words to action and set about building that village. Although India has an education budget of $27 billion, it is estimated that it will take more than 300 years to achieve gender equality because of its 102 million “child brides,” high school dropout rate and poor academic results. SwaTaleem tackles these challenges through an innovative approach that combines in-person methods and low-cost technology to create a thriving environment for girls and for those who make decisions about their future. With its high levels of academic achievement and the committed collaboration of stakeholders, this initiative has the potential to rescue 53 million girls from poverty and child marriage.

Accelerating lost learning (Guatemala)

Children in Central America lost more than four times as many school days as the rest of the world during the pandemic (UNICEF). Schools were closed for 2 years and remote learning was not accessible in the communities where we work. Most households had no electricity, let alone access to technology. Now, two million children are at risk of dropping out of school due to learning loss. The Accelerated Learning Recovery Program is a small-group tutoring program adapted to extremely poor rural and indigenous communities in Guatemala, Honduras and Panama. They work with students according to their learning level to develop numeracy and literacy skills, with the aim of achieving functional literacy in just two years.

Creating learning apps in 7,000 languages with Alpha Tiles (Mexico)

One billion people speak a language at home that is not among the 150 most widely spoken languages in the world. Put another way, 98% of the world’s languages have no literacy game apps. Alpha Tiles is an open-source platform that makes it possible to create a basic literacy game app in one week. Its creators dream that all those children who speak a minority language will be able to learn to read and write in the language they know best.

TAW Academy: fun learning for African children (Nigeria)

Every year in Nigeria, more than 30 million children experience education through rote learning, which makes their learning process monotonous and boring. At TAW Academy, they design innovative and fun learning tools that turn core subjects such as math, reading and STEM subjects into games and fun activities. In this way, they improve learning outcomes in these subjects and develop skills for success in boys and girls.

Code Mitra: democratizing programming education (India)

Code Mitra is a free, open-source, interactive platform for learning programming. It is used on mobile devices and is based on block programming to develop 21st-century skills among the most disadvantaged students, such as problem solving, design thinking, computational thinking and logical reasoning among students in schools with limited resources. This affordable digital tool enables students in the most remote areas to acquire digital skills, thus narrowing the access gap for students and educators and paving the way to democratize programming education.

Inspiring digital creativity with CoolThink@JC (China)

CoolThink@JC is a large-scale computational thinking (CT) education program based in Hong Kong. Its goal is to inspire digital creativity, encourage the proactive use of technology for social good from an early age, and extend computational thinking education to all schools.

Democratizing public school governance (India)

Poor governance limits the ability of any institution to fulfill its goals. Schools are no exception. That is why the organization Samarthya works to ensure that everyone involved in the educational process within a community can make their voice heard. In this way, they can assert their interests and hold their leaders accountable. To this end, they have activated the so-called School Management Committees (SMCs), which are a local platform required by law for dialogue and collective action. They also set up other structures, such as parent-teacher meetings, which promote the active participation of all stakeholders.

Bringing “emotion” to education (Colombia)

The pandemic devastated a school system that was already underfunded and overburdened. This resulted in a crisis not only of learning but also of mental health. Edumoción develops pedagogical practices and improves the emotional well-being of educators and students through a content platform with more than 25 courses that address a variety of needs and an online learning community where educators engage with and support each other. It is evidence-based and reflects the Latin American context, but it is highly flexible and adaptable through personalized learning paths.

Sapieduca: the power of play and formative assessment in a single app (Brazil)

Sapientia was born out of a need among teachers in Brazilian public schools: keeping students engaged and improving formative assessment. The solution resulted in a platform that allows students to develop their personal projects; obtain performance metrics; check study progression; promote game-based activities in the classroom; and launch challenges aligned with Brazil’s National Common Curricular Base (BNCC, for its initials in Portuguese). Sapieduca is a gamified application that allows students to participate in thematic challenges, questions and problem solving, improving the learning process as a playful and engaging activity, and it is a formative assessment tool for teachers, who can obtain simple, customizable metrics and track them to improve their teaching strategies.

Skalo: artificial intelligence for inclusion (Colombia)

All of us who have been students have faced educational barriers of some kind at some point, whether emotional, physical, difficulties with a specific subject, a learning diagnosis or a disability. Skalo was born from a father’s attempts to overcome the educational barriers his son with cerebral palsy was facing. With its algorithm, it helps teachers manage learning diversity by calculating optimal accommodations and strategies for each student, and it generates data for pedagogical decision-making on learning barriers and inclusion.

Educational innovations are not simply one-off solutions; rather, they represent a transformative drive toward an education that transcends traditional barriers. These innovative proposals not only address specific challenges, but also point to a future where every individual has the opportunity to reach their full potential, regardless of their initial circumstances.