EdTech unboxed: The untapped sandbox potential

As digital tools increasingly mediate how children learn, play, and grow, we’re also seeing a sharp rise in concerns around data collection, surveillance, and equity, especially in educational technologies (EdTech). EdTech is no longer just a set of tools, it’s a fast-evolving ecosystem where data governance is a matter of children’s rights.

At the Datasphere Initiative we design and test responsible sandboxes – collaborative spaces for stakeholders to safely explore data practices and technology in real-world contexts. This blog explores how sandboxes can shape EdTech development and deployment, and evaluate existing technologies' educational and social value.

The data governance gap in EdTech

EdTech platforms collect vast amounts of data, from learning patterns to emotional responses. But few are designed with meaningful input from those they affect most: children, parents, and teachers.

For instance, learning platforms might unintentionally bias performance data, and digital tools could use invasive tracking. These aren't just technical design flaws; they’re governance failures reflecting broader problems in how we govern data.

Amid the hype around AI and “personalized” learning, governance is struggling to keep up. New technologies enter classrooms, but they’re rarely tested against safety or educational standards.

Why this matters for children

Untested or poorly governed EdTech can undermine learning outcomes, leaving children at a disadvantage by reinforcing bias, invading privacy, or deepening inequality. When children's data is collected without safeguards, it can lead to profiling and discrimination that follow them into adulthood. 

Responsible EdTech holds enormous promise for transforming education systems around the world. When designed thoughtfully, these tools can adapt to diverse learning needs, offering personalized content and pacing that help each child thrive, and making learning more engaging and relevant. They can extend access to quality education for students in rural areas, humanitarian settings, or underserved communities, in underserved settings.

The sandbox potential

Sandboxes are structured, time-bound environments that allow new technologies, services, or policies to be tested in the real world under close observation and safeguards. Originally used in highly regulated sectors like finance and health, sandboxes create a safe space for experimentation, emphasizing agility and accountability. This makes it possible to identify risks, evaluate impacts, and adjust designs before broader implementation.

While sandboxes have traditionally been led by governments and used by private companies to ensure compliance (see sandboxes in Brazil, Chile, Finland, Egypt, Saudi Arabia) a new generation of responsible, community-centered sandboxes is emerging. New sandbox models bring in civil society to co-create and govern technology (see IFOW’s sandbox). In education, this shift opens up powerful opportunities to ensure EdTech is inclusive, rights-respecting, and aligned with learning needs from the start.

Reimagining EdTech through sandboxes

As education systems increasingly rely on digital tools, sandboxes offer a timely and practical way to rethink how we design and govern EdTech. They create inclusive, accountable spaces where regulators, tech developers, educators, families, and children can come together to co-create and test solutions.

The Datasphere Initiative's sandbox methodology ensures these spaces are not just for testing but for meaningful engagement and impact. For companies developing EdTech tools, sandboxes provide invaluable real-world testing with direct feedback from the communities that will use them. This controlled, collaborative environment allows companies to refine usability, data practices, and educational effectiveness, mitigate risks through structured evaluation, build trust, and ensure their technologies are aligned with the needs of students, educators, and families before scaling, all based on meaningful, diverse input.

However, this potential can only be realized when children, teachers, and communities are active participants, not just passive recipients. And that is where sandboxes come in. Educators should guide how these tools are used in classrooms. Students should have agency over how their data is used. Communities must trust that EdTech reflects their values and actually enhances learning. The Datasphere Initiative’s sandbox approach embeds mechanisms for feedback and iteration to keep the process sustainable and impactful. Without trust and inclusion, even the most advanced tools risk doing more harm than good.

Imagine, for example, piloting a sandbox in a school district where a new EdTech tool is about to be introduced. Instead of a top-down rollout, the sandbox would provide a safe space to evaluate the tool’s data practices, assess potential risks, co-design ethical safeguards, and ensure the technology aligns with learning goals and child rights. This process would place children’s perspectives at the center, not just as users, but as active contributors to the design and governance of the tools that impact their learning opportunities and experiences.

A way forward

If we want to govern EdTech in a way that protects and empowers children, we need to move beyond reactive policies and toward proactive, inclusive design. Sandboxes offer a concrete, flexible, and participatory approach to bridge this gap.

We must invest in approaches that are not only ethical but practical; that recognize local contexts while connecting to global frameworks; and that prioritize the lived experiences of children navigating digital environments.

For more, visit UNICEF Innocenti's page on good governance of children's data.