The education sector has been designing and evaluating EdTech for decades, but only recently through more systemic EdTech “testbeds”. However, these operate as “black boxes” with many of the processes and products invisible. GETN was created to harness growing interest to understand and systemtically document different testbed approaches to better understand and share effective testing methods.
GETN aims to collect, produce, and communicate knowledge while nurturing a global community of EdTech testbed stakeholders. In practice, this means GETN:
-Surfaces existing EdTech testbed processes and products that are hypothesised and/or evidenced to be effective for different stakeholders within the global EdTech ecosystem.
-Produces syntheses of these processes and products in open-source, written forms to both map the landscape and summarise key features of different testbeds.
-Produce knowledge resources for global stakeholders in high-, medium- and low-resource contexts that can support stakeholders to realise learning outcomes for children through the integration of EdTech in teaching and learning.
-Nurture a global community of EdTech stakeholders with a common interest in effective EdTech Testbed design, implementation and evaluation. Thus far, GETN has hosted gatherings and workshops in Italy, the UK, and Qatar.
GETN spreads by making global connections with, and between, stakeholders in EdTech, including learners, teachers, schools, entrepreneurs, EdTech developers, institutions, governments, investors, and foundations. GETN fosters dialogue through open-source research and reporting, particularly through the white paper “Towards Systemic EdTech Testbeds: A Global Perspective” which showcases practices and learnings of different EdTech testbeds in several countries. GETN has also produced the first “Tenets & Principles of EdTech Trialing Networks & Environments in the US” and continues to build on testbed work in the USA. Additionally, GETN has hosted workshops for EdTech stakeholders in Italy and the UK, as well as contributed to international conferences such as BETT and WISE.
We have done so in two main ways:
1) New engagement method: We have established distinct "task and finish groups" that brings together engaged members of the network to work together on research and community-building tasks along different topics related to Testbeds, including: policy landscapes, testbed mapping, financing, AI emergence, and regionally-focused research. These groups are continually engaging with the community and feedbacking their outputs to share new, and actionable knowledge for the community.
2) Amplified efforts to build global communitty: GETN has strategically expanded its global network with resounding success in 2025. We have held community gatherings/workshops or been invited to do so in Africa, East/Southeast Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and America. We know have at elast 270 active members in the community, and are projected to reach 1000 members by 2026. Our membership spans the Global North and South and has become much more organisationally diverse. Our members come from research institutes, EdTech companies, accelerators, foundations, consultancies, schools and school groups, and more. This growth in membership has also led to regionally focused networks in the UK and Belgium, with more members taking on leadership in these smaller networks.
We have grown substantially in 2025 and will continue to build on this momentum as the community continues to grow and discuss ways to generate authentic and systemic EdTech evidence.
Become part of the network! Visit our website at: https://globaledtech.org/ to access and read our reports. From there, you can directly reach out to us to explore how being a part of the network might support your own work.
