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David and Michele discuss how recent advances in AI are opening new possibilities for the Open App Builder and the authoring of digital tools for social impact. Drawing on IDEMS’ work with Parenting for Lifelong Health, they explore how AI agents can help reduce barriers to authoring while keeping people in control of the decisions that matter, enabling more adaptable and community-owned digital technologies.
David and Kate discuss the Farm Hack Box and the new possibilities it suggests for community-owned digital infrastructure. While conceived for farming communities, they explore how the same ideas could reshape education and other social impact contexts, enabling local AI, greater digital sovereignty, and technologies that communities can truly own and adapt.
In the first of three episodes reflecting on the International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS), David and Lily discuss the statistics education community itself. They explore why data literacy deserves to be recognised as a distinct educational priority, reflect on the longstanding relationship between statistics and mathematics, and consider why so many well-established ideas from statistics education research have yet to achieve broader impact.
In the final episode of this three-part series reflecting on the International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS), David and Lily discuss the reception of IDEMS’ open textbook initiative within the statistics education community. They explore how new approaches to adaptation, accreditation, and collaboration could strengthen open educational resources, enabling communities to build on one another’s work while preserving the expertise and contributions of original authors.
Following the first STACK Conference to be held in Africa, David and Kate reflect on what the event revealed about IDEMS’ vision for open textbooks. They discuss growing interest in adapting the approach across different African contexts, and explore the importance of local ownership, collaboration, and working with existing education systems to bring open resources to scale. They also consider how bringing together experiences from high- and low-resource settings can spark new ideas and create opportunities for innovation that flow in both directions.
David and Lily reflect on how the Explore, Describe, Present framing emerged through years of research methods support with the West African Community of Practice. They discuss how long-term collaboration helped develop a simple language for thinking about the different roles of data visualisation, including the importance of understanding your audience when presenting results.
Continuing their reflections on 20 years of research methods support, David and Lily explore multilevel data through examples from agricultural research in West Africa. They discuss how identifying the right levels can help account for variability and reveal important differences that might otherwise be missed.

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