Frank van Cappelle

A Cartesian in the Court of Digital Education

Frank Van Cappelle began his career observing some Indian children learning computer skills on a wall. This is not a metaphor: it was the Hole in the Wall project, a computer embedded in a wall in New Delhi. In this way, as a field researcher, he discovered how difficult it is to make technology work in low-resource rural contexts. That early experience gave him what he calls “a skeptical hat,” a critical attitude toward EdTech that has shaped his entire trajectory. Technology, he thought, could be a window or a barrier. It would depend on how we used it.

Since then, he has devoted his life to that question. A Doctor of Education, with one foot in pedagogy and the other in software, he has worked with governments, universities, and teachers who teach with whatever they have: a blackboard, a radio, or a shared phone. Today, he directs UNICEF’s Global Learning Innovation Hub in Finland and leads its global digital education strategy.

He is not a technophile. He is more interested in uses than in fireworks. He speaks of a “disconnected AI”: tools that work without internet, translate content into Indigenous languages, and cost a hundred times less than an interactive book. In his words, “innovation” sounds like something humble: giving a teacher in a refugee camp one more chance.