From Earthquakes to Education: Colombian Teacher Promotes Digital Learning

On August 10, 2026, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia, with its epicentre near San José del Palmar, in the department of Chocó. The tremor was felt across 16 departments and was followed by hundreds of aftershocks in the weeks that followed.

Amid the emergency, Colombian teacher and education innovator Brayan Aldair Escobar has been pushing schools to look at educational technology as a practical way to keep learning going when classrooms can't function as usual.

Escobar runs Leartica, a digital education platform he built to help teachers put together interactive digital notebooks, learning activities, multimedia resources and presentations they can share directly with students. Colombia's Ministry of Education has also taken notice of the initiative, as part of a wider effort to get schools using educational technology more.

The idea isn't only about responding to emergencies, though. Escobar's goal is to give teachers the tools to build and adapt their own material, and give students new ways to learn through digital formats.

He's careful to frame technology as a complement, not a replacement, for the traditional classroom. It's something teachers and students can lean on to keep communicating, creating and learning when in-person classes aren't an option.

With Leartica, teachers turn their own lesson plans, ideas and classroom experience into interactive digital notebooks that mix in multimedia and activities.

For Escobar, the project points to something bigger than one school district in Colombia: the idea that education technology has a role to play not just in innovation, but in helping schools prepare for disruption and keep running through it.

As schools elsewhere deal with natural disasters and other unexpected challenges, tools like this give teachers another way to keep classes going and strengthen how school communities respond.

"When circumstances change, education shouldn't have to stop," Escobar says. "Technology can help teachers keep creating, teaching, and connecting with their students."