“It was really dusty!” says El Hadji Yaya Koné, reflecting on his early teaching days using chalk on a blackboard. Professor Koné laughs as he recalls the “big shift” from chalkboards to writing on plastic transparencies for overhead projectors. Looking back, he now sees the “old school” tools he used as a young educator as the starting point for a scholarly path shaped by constant change.
An unexpected detour
When Professor Koné immigrated to Canada from Côte d’Ivoire, where he was a qualified teacher, he needed to get a teaching certificate in Quebec. “I had to work somewhere, because without a teaching licence, I couldn’t go into a classroom,” he says.
The unanticipated career pause proved to be serendipitous. Professor Koné found a temporary job in telecommunications selling mobile phones and internet services in a call center. While doing the telemarketing job training, he saw how the company used different technologies to help new employees learn. “As a teacher, I said to myself, ‘Wow, we could do a lot with this.’”
With his licence in hand, Professor Koné spent the next 10 years as a high school teacher, experiencing the edtech (educational technology) revolution in real time with students. From interactive whiteboards, smart phones and learning apps to creating online school communities, the profession was changing rapidly.
Professor Koné’s growing passion for edtech led him to graduate studies, first earning an MA via Université TÉLUQ, Quebec Distance University, and then doing a PhD at the Université de Montréal, both exploring online and distance learning. He’s now an associate professor and vice dean of graduate studies in the Faculty of Education.
Leaning into ‘technopedagogy’
The use of digital tools is standard practice in most 21st century classrooms. Referred to as “technopedagogy” in the scholarly literature, it refers to using technology to support lesson design and teaching strategies informed by learning theories; all with the goal of enhancing learner experience.
As a seasoned “techno-pedagogue,” Professor Koné frames his teaching and research around four interrelated themes: online instructional design, inclusive online learning, teacher professional development, and cross-border distance education.
This comprehensive approach guides his thinking about all emerging technologies.
“I always consider two questions first,” says Professor Koné, “how can we use this for teaching? and can it enhance the student learning experience?”
“We can mobilize technology to support learning and, at the same time, help refugee students rebuild their lives through higher education, even when they are in remote areas...”
El Hadji Yaya Koné
— Associate professor, Faculty of Education
Online learning in conflict zones
Professor Koné’s expertise in emerging technologies brought him to the Community Mobilization in Crisis (CMIC) group. The CMIC’s work is guided by the principle of education as a human right, even though refugees’ access to higher education is often limited in conflict zones or host countries. CMIC’s researchers were seeking new ways to expand and strengthen opportunities for online education. Professor Kone’s research spoke directly to this need.
In collaboration with colleagues from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Professor Koné received a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Engage Grant to study connecting refugee students to online higher education opportunities in Niger, in collaboration with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
This study shows that refugee students’ use of digital learning tools is shaped by access barriers, the availability of social support networks, and the central role of community activities in promoting well-being. It highlights the need to prioritize preferred learning resources and to evaluate the effectiveness of digital tools to better respond to refugee students’ educational needs.
The researchers will seek additional funding to implement a second phase of the project, which will deepen understanding of the relationships between students’ perspectives on their personal situations and the specific contexts of host communities. This insight will guide the design and implementation of customized virtual learning resources that support their aspirations for empowerment and professional growth.
“We can mobilize technology to support learning and, at the same time, help refugee students rebuild their lives through higher education, even when they are in remote areas where resources are very limited,” Professor Koné says.
“Never in recent history has this idea of refugee learning been so relevant, with so many conflicts worldwide,” he adds.
Centring the human in EdTech
The advent of artificial intelligence is accelerating innovation in edtech while introducing complex challenges and ethical considerations.
These issues will be front and centre this spring on campus when Professor Koné (with co-organizers from the Faculty of Education) will host a contingent of international scholars from various disciplines for the 2026 Association for the Pedagogical Innovation and Professional Development Conference.
A consistent theme in Professor Koné’s research is that this conversation about edtech and AI begins and ends with people, rather than with technology.
“The key point for me is this: human beings first,” he says. “Then we try to see how we can support them. Because if you don’t understand what they are going through, how can you help?”
Professor Koné adds: “What I want to leave as a legacy is to make sure that we pay attention to one another, and we use our knowledge to build better living conditions together.”
About El Hadji Yaya Koné
El Hadji Yaya Koné is an associate professor and vice-dean of graduate studies in the Faculty of Education. He is a specialist in online learning and teaching in higher education. Professor Koné’s research explores instructional design, inclusive online learning, teacher professional development, and cross-border distance education.
Professor Koné leads the Educational Technology and Distance Learning (ETDL) research group. His recent co-edited volume IA et enseignement post- secondaire à l'intersection des perspectives des parties prenantes. Développement d'un réseau de spécialistes (2025) is a multidisciplinary analysis focused on AI-related challenges in education.
