By Julia Stanton and Steve Diop, British Council
With limited electricity, poor internet connectivity, and inadequate funding, it can be challenging for teachers across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to integrate technology into their classrooms. However, the British Council’s publication Teaching and learning with technology: Case studies of practice provides insights into how teachers use everyday technologies to overcome these barriers.
The publication brings together 20 case studies selected from 119 teachers and teacher educators across 20 countries, and highlights approaches from urban and rural schools, tertiary institutions, teacher development programmes and community-based or after-school initiatives. It demonstrates how teachers across SSA are adapting low-tech and digital tools to meet local needs in a context in which, as GSMA data for SSA show, only around 27% of the population actively uses mobile internet.
Making use of what is available
Teachers use what is already available to them, such as messenger apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. Although these tools were not designed for educational purposes, they have proven ideal because of availability and low bandwidth requirements.
This mirrors the teacher policy recommendations from the UN Transforming Education Summit 2022, which stress that ‘strategies that make use of already available technologies, including low-tech solutions, should be considered in order to ensure rapid impact and high inclusion’.
In addition to the messenger apps, many teachers have found ways to integrate standard smartphone tools into their teaching. Elsie Enanga from Cameroon uses her phone and a Bluetooth speaker to record student speaking samples and introduce a variety of listening activities so they can practise their communication skills. As Elsie notes, ‘This use of a low ed-tech device has sparked a lot of interest in my English language lessons. Learners all want to have their voices heard’.
Making use of AI to localise materials
Online content and tools can help teachers to localise learning materials and the availability of generative AI tools on smartphones has further enabled this process. Geoffrey Makau Mutungi from Kenya makes use of ChatGPT to produce poems and narratives that are contextualised with familiar names, places and topics and address relevant social issues like drug abuse and teenage pregnancy. He notes that his students are more engaged with the content and better able to reflect on community challenges. He encourages his students to embrace critical thinking, since they ‘need to confirm the content they get from AI’.
Umar Suraka from Ghana began experimenting with ChatGPT to help him with lesson planning. This encouraged him to run hands-on sessions for his colleagues and for teachers from other schools on how they can use AI to facilitate lesson planning and materials creation. So far, he has reached over 300 teachers, who report that AI saves time and makes them feel more confident. They find their lessons are more engaging, practical, creative and interactive, going beyond what is offered by the textbook. Importantly, teachers are encouraged to critically evaluate any outputs for accuracy before using them.
‘AI is just a helper. Treat the results as a starting point not the final answer.’
Using technology for inclusivity
Teachers find that using technology helps them solve problems in their classrooms, such as how to make their lessons more inclusive and to continue teaching when faced with interrupted learning caused by crises.
Mame Couna Diaw from Senegal turned to technology to ensure that the visually impaired students in her class were not excluded. She records short audio messages on her phone before class to help students familiarise themselves with instructions, vocabulary and lesson content. She shares these through WhatsApp and Google Classroom. The visually impaired students can listen to the recordings in advance and can use screen readers or text-to-speech functions to follow the classes more easily. This results in them being more confident when participating in class:
‘This is extra work, of course, but just to make all my students the same level […] it’s really necessary [to do this] outside the classroom or before the class’.
Mohammed Saif, a visually impaired teacher educator from Sudan, uses technology to train other teachers in inclusive digital practices, demonstrating the role that assistive technology like screen readers, AI narration tools and digital platforms can play in making teaching and learning accessible. Teachers have begun to see accessibility as an integral part of teaching. This is particularly relevant in Sudan, where the ongoing conflict has disrupted education and pushed learning online.
‘The technical skills were important; the greater change was in how teachers began to see their role: as designers of learning that includes every learner.’
Nijiki Grace from Cameroon created WhatsApp groups for each of her classes to stay connected when schools closed due to a socio-political crisis. The groups also allow her to share lesson materials and other learning resources, and to encourage peer feedback on writing tasks.
‘Digital skills are a survival kit for today’s disruptive education landscape […] When ghost towns shut schools, learning doesn’t stop – our WhatsApp groups become classrooms.’
Extending learning beyond the classroom
According to the 2023 GEM Report, technology can be a cost-effective tool to reach students and their families and improve learning outcomes.
This was found to be a common practice in the British Council’s case studies on how teachers use technology. Teachers described using their smartphones and encouraging students to use their own to offer flipped learning before and after class. Smartphones also provide an opportunity for students to continue learning and practising on their own outside the classroom.
Dr Teshome Bekele Sime from Ethiopia turned to technology to help his students continue practising English outside the classroom, as time and resources were limited. Through Google Classroom and Google Docs, students work on drafting descriptive paragraphs, take part in collaborative discussion forums and provide peer feedback. This has improved their language skills and given them confidence. Dr Teshome recommends that teachers:
‘Start small and choose simple, free tools – blended learning should complement, not replace teaching’.
Blessing Epum from Nigeria runs a free virtual reading club with seven volunteer teachers across Africa to provide weekend reading sessions with activities for children in multiple countries. Younger learners join on Zoom, while older ones use WhatsApp for interactive reading, texting and voice notes. Participants develop stronger reading and listening skills, greater confidence, improved digital literacy, and new international friendships.
‘WhatsApp and Zoom have opened a window for children across Africa and [elsewhere] to learn together.’
Overcoming the ‘usage gap’
The case studies in the report highlight how teachers and teacher educators in challenging, low-resource contexts are using technology in creative and practical ways. Teachers are demonstrating innovation, resilience and a shared commitment to supporting learner progress by adapting low-cost tools such as messaging apps and low-bandwidth platforms. We hope that by reading these case studies, more teachers will be inspired to make use of the technology around them to improve the quality of teaching. This approach could also be a cost-effective, scalable model to be considered in many educational contexts.
Read the report: ‘Teaching and learning with technology: Case studies of practice’
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