Team4Tech

Advancing 21st century education in underserved communities through technology training and solutions.

According to a UNESCO 2017 report, 617 million children and adolescents worldwide are not achieving minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics, and of the 387 million primary school-age children unable to read proficiently, 262 million are in school. This data suggests that the quality of education needs to be examined, improved, and perhaps even transformed, especially in developing countries. Distressed economic conditions, combined with scarce government funding, result in a lack of opportunity for both teachers and students. Schools have poor infrastructure, and teachers have little training and few resources. Additionally, technology is contributing to a disturbing inequality and widening digital divide. Nearly 40% of schools across 65 developing countries lack access to computers and the internet (2017 UN Secretary General Report). Without digital literacy and universal access, the growing demand for employees with technology skills favors those who are better educated, well connected, and well off.

Team4Tech works to expand opportunities in developing countries by matching technology volunteers and solutions with high-impact local education organizations. We help these organizations amplify their educational impact through capacity-building workshops and the integration of relevant technology solutions in programmatic activities. We leverage the power of information and communications technology to improve access, extend learning spaces, and provide multiple ways of effectively delivering learning resources and opportunities. During our three- to five-year collaborations, we use a human-centered design model to support our nonprofit partners as they establish foundational digital infrastructure and literacy, integrate relevant ed tech solutions into teaching and learning, and begin to build students’ 21st century skills through project-based learning (making, coding, robotics).

Over the past five years, Team4Tech has engaged nearly 400 technology professionals on 41 immersive service learning projects in 14 countries to advance the quality of education for underserved students, while simultaneously providing leadership development for the employee volunteers. To date, our work has benefited over 30,000 learners, and has mobilized over $7.5M in pro bono consulting services and technology grants for our local nonprofit partners. Our solution integrates the right technological tools, content, and pedagogical models to help students in underserved communities and developing nations gain critical 21st century skills, which will in turn expand their economic opportunities and contribute to the reduction of poverty.

Our approach leverages a growing desire among technology professionals to achieve greater purpose in their work. Each year we engage over 100 pro bono technology professionals and have developed one of the most efficient operating models in the industry, reaching across 14 developing countries. For every dollar we spend, we create over 3x in value through the pro bono consulting services we catalyze. By ensuring that all of our technology grants are supported by pro bono capacity building over three- to five-year collaborations with our non-profit partners, we deliver a holistic, sustainable model of technology integration and support.

Team4Tech’s approach is grounded in research around how technology can effectively advance the quality of teaching and learning. Technology-assisted learning, together with teacher-training programs, have the largest positive effects on learning outcomes (World Development Report 2016). A meta-analysis of 77 randomized education experiments in developing countries (McEwan 2015) found that the largest mean effects of school-based interventions on learning were produced by treatments with instructional technology and teacher training. Guided by research, Team4Tech focuses on integrating relevant technology, content, and pedagogy to produce measurable improvements in teaching and learning.

Over the next 12 months, we seek to double the number of capacity-building projects we implement with nonprofit partners - growing from 10 to 20 per year.  This will allow us to reach 20,000 learners per year and move us closer to our goal of benefitting 100,000 learners in our first decade.

We will also continue to build upon our curated educational resources to support project implementation with our non-profit partners.  We are developing an education partner program with ed tech providers whereby they will offer their products and services at a discount within the context of our projects.

By 2023, we seek to have directly benefitted 100,000 underserved learners with improved educational opportunities by engaging over 1,000 pro-bono technology volunteers and contributing $30M in grants and skills to local education nonprofit organizations.  We will achieve this by doubling our number of corporate partners (viable given our qualified pipeline of 26 new companies engaging in 2019), and increasing our number of projects to 20+ per year.  In addition, now that we have implemented successful solutions with our first cohort of non-profit partners, we are supporting them as they seek to scale through their local educational ecosystems.

We use detailed criteria to carefully identify local nonprofit partners with the necessary capacity, track record, scalability, and demonstrated commitment to improving education. We collaborate with them to scope projects to ensure quality deliverables can be achieved within specified timelines and to define success metrics.  We then recruit corporate partners to provide financial sponsorship and pro bono consultants with the relevant capacity building skills.  We meet at least quarterly with each non-profit partner to support the local solution implementation, to track progress against the defined metrics, and to help plan for scale in their local education ecosystem.

Since 2013, nearly 400 Team4Tech volunteers from 28 technology companies have participated in 41 projects with 18 non-profit organizations in 14 countries, benefiting over 30,000 students and teachers through $7.5M in pro bono services and technology grants.  According to our documented Solutions Roadmap, we implement projects through three phases (Digital Literacy & Foundations, Teaching & Learning Integration, 21st Century Skills) over a three- to five-year period with each non-profit partner.  Students benefit by building their digital literacy skills, accessing relevant educational content, and advancing their creative problem solving skills through exposure to making, coding, and robotics activities.

With the foundation we have put in place, we’re confident that we’ll be able to bring relevant, effective educational tools and curricula to at least 70,000 additional students by 2023 — and that many of those students will use their new skills to secure better jobs and become leaders and mentors in their local communities. We have seen literacy skills double among participating first-graders on our Kenya project, and job prospects improve dramatically for program graduates in Vietnam.  In the next 12 months we are scheduled to roll out more projects in Cambodia, Costa Rica, Malawi, Montana (US), and Vietnam.

Our team brings over 20 years of collective experience in the fields of education, technology, corporate social responsibility, and international development.  Our Executive Director worked at Intel for 10 years prior to founding Team4Tech, where she launched and grew a successful prototype for our program. Our Board Chair, Lila Ibrahim, is well connected in the technology and venture capital sectors to attract many tech partners for our work.  Our Program Directors have a wealth of experience and degrees in international education, allowing them to effectively structure and lead our projects with pro bono volunteers and nonprofit partners.

80% of Team4Tech funding comes from corporate sponsorship of our service learning projects for technology professionals. This funding covers the full cost of our operations and the pro bono capacity building provided to our nonprofit partners. The remaining 20% of our funding comes from private donors and supports the matching cash grants we make to our nonprofit partners for the purchase of necessary hardware and software implemented within the projects.

We believe that the increased visibility from the Solve awards would help us connect with new, high-impact nonprofit partner organizations, as well as technology companies who would like to engage their employees in service learning projects focused on improving educational opportunities for underserved students around the world. We are also interested in partnering with ed tech experts at MIT to collect feedback on the resources and solutions we have developed for our projects.

Our solution depends upon identifying the right education nonprofit organizations who can benefit from technology integration, and finding technology companies interested in engaging their employees on service learning projects. We believe that increased visibility from the Solve Challenge will help us identify additional partners in each of these categories. Additionally, we would be interested in partnering with MIT students and faculty on our education technology solutions roadmap and toolkit, to further improve it for use by our nonprofit partners.