A recent survey by Brookings shows that over 60 million children of primary school age in Africa alone will reach adolescence unable to read, write or perform basic numeracy tasks. Over half of these children will have spent at least four years in the education system.

Technological determinism solutions, such as simply providing one-to-one computing devices, have not successfully addressed this learning crisis despite a decade of trying and a billion dollars spent. But should we give up on technology to help a generation of young learners in emerging economies gain literacy? While adaptive systems have shown great success in increasing learning gains, most design and evaluation of such systems has been limited to WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic) places. These technologies have the potential for enormous impact if they can serve the next billion learners in the Global South.

However, barriers remain to harnessing the power of advanced educational technology for all learners. More than finding the right technology platforms - how can we can address the implicit values and practices embedded in these systems that differ across contexts? My talk describes several projects that have helped to re-imagine how these technologies can respond to diversity in cultural and socioeconomic contexts through leveraging three key factors: context-sensitive design, physical infrastructure, and human infrastructure.