Reflections from TECSES Experts: Digital Pedagogy and AI in Education

In September, TECSES organised three training programmes in Surkhet, Karnali for educators, teachers and university academics on the topic of Digital Pedagogy: a five-day Training of Trainers, a five-day training at Mid-West University, and a four-day Online Teacher Training. TECSES short-term experts Tea Kantola and Ajay Kumar Yadav shared their expertise and facilitated sessions on Digital Pedagogy across the trainings. In this blog, Ajay and Tea share their reflections and insights from the training activities. 

We traveled from Kathmandu to Surkhet to facilitate training on Digital Pedagogy. During our stay, we had the opportunity to work with educators from different professional and educational backgrounds. The sessions were highly interactive and provided valuable opportunities to exchange experiences, perspectives, and practical knowledge. 

Participants came with very different levels of digital experience and prior knowledge. Some were already comfortable exploring digital tools and new applications, while others were still developing basic digital literacy. This led us to an important reflection about technology-enabled education. Digital pedagogy does not begin with a tool. It begins with people, their skills, their learning habits, their ability to question technology, and the environment in which they work. 

In the age of AI, the challenge is no longer access to technology. The deeper challenge is developing the digital pedagogical critical-thinking capabilities needed to use technology meaningfully and responsibly. AI can support teachers, but effective education still depends on human judgment, pedagogy, and continuous learning. 

Understanding Learner Needs

The Digital Pedagogy training was planned as a practical workshop where participants would learn by doing, working with different digital and AI tools through hands-on activities. 

The different levels of digital experience among participants highlighted an important principle of digital pedagogy: effective technology training is not only about preparing good content and selecting appropriate tools. It also requires an understanding of who the learners are, what they already know, and what they are ready to learn. 

This is particularly important when introducing new technologies such as AI. Teachers need not only the technical ability to use digital tools, but also the skills to evaluate them and consider how they can support teaching and learning.  

AI may be moving rapidly, but education does not necessarily have to chase every new tool. What matters is building the capacity to understand these technologies, question their outputs, use them responsibly, and determine when they genuinely improve teaching and learning. 

Digital tools can also support engagement and interaction in the classroom. During the training, participants explored quiz-based platforms such as Kahoot, which turn quizzes into competitive leaderboard-based scoring. Many teachers found this a useful example of gamification—a simple way to increase student engagement without needing advanced technical skills. 

Flexibility Requires Digital Readiness

The Online Teacher Training provided a flexible training format, allowing participants to join from different locations, while recorded sessions helped those who experienced connectivity difficulties.  

Online training requires more than simply providing access to a virtual session. Participants need a certain level of digital operational skills to navigate online platforms, participate in activities, and engage in features such as breakout rooms. Online learning also requires appropriate pedagogy, structure, accountability, and learner-support mechanisms.  

We found strong enthusiasm among teachers from remote locations to learn about digital pedagogy and AI in education. This reinforced our view that online training can provide valuable opportunities for reaching educators who may have limited access to in-person professional development.

The effectiveness of technology-enabled training depends not only on the technology itself, but also on learner readiness, pedagogy, interaction, and the learning context.

From Training to Practice

What happens after a teacher completes the training?  

When one teacher attends a digital-learning training programme and returns to school with new knowledge, the benefit should not be limited to that individual. Knowledge needs to spread from the individual level to the school level.  

The knowledge dissemination could be:  

Training → Practice → Peer Sharing → School-Level Adoption → Follow-Up → Continuous Improvement  

School leadership can play an important role in making this process work.  

For example, after a teacher returns from training, school management could ask:

• What did the teacher learn?
• What has been implemented?
• Has the knowledge been shared with other teachers?   
• Which teachers need additional support?    
• What digital resources are already available in the school? 
• Are the available laptops and digital platforms actually being used? 
• What barriers are preventing teachers from using them?  

There is enormous potential for Nepali educators to develop locally relevant educational materials for both teacher training and students. Supporting teachers to use digital and AI tools meaningfully can therefore go beyond individual training and contribute to wider changes in teaching and learning.  

The journey from Kathmandu to Surkhet was an opportunity to connect and exchange; to explore how digital pedagogy can support education, and to learn from the educators who are themselves shaping the future of education in Nepal. 

TECSES is a teacher education project in Nepal, supported by Finland and the European Union. We work to improve schools through teacher training and inclusion at the federal, provincial, and local levels of government, and Nepali universities. 

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