James Bernard: Six Questions On The Intersection of
Education, Technology, and Development
By Tamara Straus
James Bernard is senior director of global
strategic partnerships for the education
group at Microsoft, where his team builds
multilateral partnerships in more than
130 countries. The core focus of these
partnerships is ensuring that technology
serves as an accelerator of effective
school management, innovative teaching
practice, and students’ acquisition of 21stcentury skills. The Blum Center talked
with Bernard in advance of his two-week
fellowship supported by DIL.
What have been some of the takeaways
from your time at Microsoft bringing
technology to developing countries?
One of the key takeaways has been that
there is no single answer to this question.
There are so many local contexts that are
relevant and so many stakeholders, that
every situation needs to be approached
differently. Nonetheless, I offer three key
takeaways:
Ensure that the government is included
in and feels ownership of all technology
decisions. At Microsoft, we see the
government as a major stakeholder that
needs buy-in and ownership to create
long-term sustainable change. But to be
successful, the public sector needs the
help of many other players, including
civil society, the private sector, donors,
and other nongovernmental players. In
education, many governments make the
mistake of thinking that technology—and
in particular, the devices they want to give
students—will solve all the problems in
their education systems. The reality is
that technology is only a platform and
will never be successful without the right
supports, including teacher training,
content and curriculum, and assessment
of outcomes. Not to mention that the
government also needs the necessary
buy-in from stakeholders that might
be against technology, such as teacher
unions or parent-teacher groups. So
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we work with ministries of education to
develop a long-term strategy to bring in
the right technologies for the context of
that country. We do this through a series
of policy-level discussions facilitated by a
third party like UNESCO or British Council,
but led by the ministry of education,
and involving all key stakeholders. This
should lead to an ICT [information,
communication and technology] strategy
before the government goes to tender on
devices, and will hopefully ensure that the
right choices are made.
Ensure that H