Edtech Expert of the Week

Natalia I. Kucirkova is a research professor affiliated with the University of Stavanger, Norway, as well as The Open University and University College London, UK. Natalia’s research is conducted collaboratively across academia, the commercial sector, and the third sector. She co-founded and currently directs the International Centre for EdTech Impact, which connects EdTech academia and industry. Natalia is widely published on topics related to EdTech evidence in leading journals, including Nature and NPJ Science of Learning. Her research on personalised learning, early literacy, and digital books is highly cited and has been featured in The Guardian, Newsweek, and The Washington Post. Her latest book is The Future of the Self.

Can you share the mission of your organisation and the key challenges it aims to address in the education sector?

The challenge in the education sector is clear: many technologies used in education lack evidence of a positive impact. By "evidence," we mean independent, objective proof of the technology's value for learners.?

Our vision is for all children to have access to evidence-based technology. We aim to enhance learning and well-being by improving the quality of the technologies that students use both at home and in school.?

We believe this can be achieved through strategic collaboration between cutting-edge research and the innovative design of educational technologies.

What specific strategies or initiatives have been most effective in driving positive outcomes for underserved communities?

Great question, thank you. Equity is at the heart of our work, and we’re committed to continuously learning how to better address learner variability, diversity, and inclusive design in the technologies we support.?

From my experience, the most successful projects involve a participatory approach where we genuinely listen to community needs and leverage the community’s strengths to create strategies that address the inequalities they face. It takes time to do that. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to prioritise a community-centred approach in evaluation methods.?

Rather than imposing pre-made approaches and methods, it is crucial to invest resources in truly understanding the community's way of life first. Based on that understanding, we can then develop an optimal approach that identifies what works and what has the potential to succeed.

How does your organisation collaborate with EdTech companies, and how can these partnerships enhance both educational impact and business success?

It's odd that in EdTech, educational impact and business success are often seen as separate goals. Shouldn't a technology's success be measured by its positive impact on learning? I find it troubling that some technologies thrive commercially despite lacking educational benefits. Our approach connects EdTech companies with experts in relevant fields—such as matching a professor specialising in executive functioning with a technology targeting students’ executive functioning — along with curriculum and impact specialists. This multi-talented "dream team" can then work together to ensure that technologies meet market demands by delivering meaningful educational outcomes.

How does your Centre measure success, and what key metrics do you rely on to assess the effectiveness of your programs?

We believe in long-term partnerships where customers not only return but also champion our services. The success of this approach is reflected in the Centre’s rapid growth over the past two years (with no marketing budget!). However, our true measure of success is the impact we make on learners. If our support leads to well-designed and effectively implemented technologies, we expect to see better outcomes for learners.?

Our effectiveness is therefore evident in the positive results we achieve and the impact metrics from our clients. EdTech is, or should be, a partnership industry. To understand our Centre’s effectiveness, I encourage you to check out our customer list and their impact reports to see the difference we make.

What emerging trends or innovations in EdTech are you most excited about, and how is your organisation leveraging these trends?

There’s a growing trend of using certifications to signify evidence and impact, with governments increasingly adopting catalogues of recommended resources or certifications for EdTech solutions. We leverage this trend through our sister organisation, Eduevidence.org, which certifies companies based on research-driven criteria. The Eduevidence.org approach establishes equivalence across various existing certifications, allowing us to re-certify companies previously certified by organisations like ISTE, Digital Promise, LearnPlatform, or Education Alliance Finland. This means that companies can enter new markets with their existing certifications, streamlining their entry into new regions while ensuring global recognition of their impact.

What are the key priorities for your Centre in the next few years, and how do you see your role in shaping the future of education globally?

Our ambition for the next few years is to expand and deepen our presence in more countries and engage in projects that follow a comprehensive evidence cycle. We want to remain loyal to our role in co-building and sustaining the EdTech ecosystem through cross-sector partnerships. We aim to generate and share knowledge, continuously refining our approach through direct engagement with founders, investors, and users.?

We also aim to forge stronger ties with policymakers in the future to ensure that impact and evidence in EdTech are embedded in national systems. Partnering with the private sector is crucial, not just for funding but for fostering a genuine commitment to public goods in education.

Looking ahead, we want to support not just the big players but also local innovations from smaller startups tackling specific, niche problems. Finding a sustainable model to integrate these technologies into our network is a question for next year.

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To close, it’s worth highlighting the impactful work of Natalia's organisation, the International Centre for EdTech Impact. One notable example is their collaboration with Kahoot! , where they conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis revealing that Kahoot! increased student letter grades from the 50th to the 72nd percentile (or in other words by a full letter grade) on a typical test. You can read more about this study here.

Additionally, their sister organisation, Eduevidence.org, plays a pivotal role in certifying EdTech companies based on rigorous, research-driven criteria. They have awarded certifications to leading EdTechs such as Kahoot! , Age of Learning , and Edmentum , ensuring that these tools not only meet market demands but also deliver substantial educational value. These certifications have been recognized by decision-makers in several countries, further validating their impact on education. For more examples of certified EdTech solutions, visit their website.

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That's all for now folks!

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