Summer Session with the Swiss Backbone Team

On June 17th, 2024 the EEA team met the Jacob Foundation’s backbone team in Zurich for an exchange as part of the EdTech Strategy Lab workshop series. The attendees included representatives from Proedu, Staatslabor, the DEEP Consortium, Mercator Foundation and Jacobs Foundation.

During her keynote, Beth Havinga, EEA’s founder and Managing Director, presented the overall project vision and mission and shared insights from current research and past workshops.

In the subsequent interactive discussion, the applicability of the EdTech Strategy Lab within the Swiss environment was explored. 

As a general observation, group discussions around the definition and the evaluation of evidence-based frameworks triggered complex questions. Should labels be regarded as “only labels”, without giving them too much weight in practice? How might interoperability of such labels be ensured? Is “labelling” even possible in a country like Switzerland with its decentralised political system and its different coexisting cultures?

Additionally the difficulty of using specific terms like evidence and proof were identified as roadblocks to meaningful discussions between stakeholders. It was suggested that a way to accelerate the path towards a possible mutually agreed upon framework for evaluation is by involving private companies much more, as they are more open, agile and motivated to contribute compared to the public institutions.

The group pointed out the need for intensified lobbying for frameworks taking into account the specific needs of teachers and students. “Edtech” and “Certification” are big and fuzzy words with important dimensions. For instance, the pedagogical dimension or inclusion (as in lack of discrimination) are often missing. Not all evidence is created equal and resonates equally with different stakeholder types. Therefore, a better definition of what constitutes evidence (Beweis vs. Beleg in German) is required.