A Smart Partnership: Integrating Educational Technology for Underserved Children in India

ABSTRACT
This paper explores the evolution of a large multi-stakeholder partnership that has grown since 2011 to scale
deep engagement with learning through technology and decrease the digital divide for thousands of underserved
school children in India. Using as its basis a case study of an initiative called integrated approach to technology
in education (ITE) spearheaded by Tata Trusts in India working in partnership with an increasing number of
other organizations, this paper seeks to illustrate what a large multi-stakeholder partnership in education is and
how it can work to serve education equitably. In addition to tracing the growth and development of this multistakeholder
partnership, the paper examines the ITE-related work partnership against seven characteristics of
education-industry/community partnerships re-interpreted in terms of smart partnerships at EDUsummIT 2015.
Keywords
Smart partnership, Education industry partnership, Change with digital technologies, Integrating ICT, Digital equity