Sustainable Offgrid EdTech for Education Continuity and Outcomes in the Developing World

可持续离网教育技术促进发展中国家教育连续性和成果

• 批准号: 78775
• 金额: $ 14.16万
• 依托单位: SMART VILLAGES RESEARCH GROUP LTD
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=78775
• 关键词: Sustainable; Offgrid; EdTech; Education; Continuity

_SVRG develops and supplies technology solutions and business models for cross-cutting integrated rural development, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The strength and USP of SVRG's solutions is this broad integrated approach, that works with communities to develop a systems approach to simultaneously address their main needs and priorities, usually catalysed by access to energy, ICT, and enhanced agricultural productivity.__A consistent priority raised by our client communities is improved access to education. But whereas there are any number of technologies to use when integrating energy access, or water pumping, or agricultural value addition, there are no generally available technologies for basic off-grid, off-internet, language- and curriculum-independent education support.__We in the UK are of course familiar with any number of such systems - from BBC Bitesize, to Khan Academy, White Rose Maths, and any number of basic advertising- or in-app-sales-driven basic numeracy and literacy apps for smartphones and tablets. And we have become particularly familiar with the utility and power of all of these in maintaining children's learning and engagement with education during the COVID lockdown and closure of schools.__But the communities we work with, in the developing world, face multiple challenges in this context. Existing educational material (for example free apps, or educational content environments like Khan Academy) is rarely tailored to their language and curriculum needs, and requires access to good internet connections in order to work. Consequently few schools, especially poorly-resourced rural schools, use any EdTech to support teachers' educational efforts or pupils' learning outcomes. And when, as now in the face of a global pandemic, schools close the result is that education stops. There is no encouragement for, or facilities or systems to even permit, remote/home learning by students. And the consequence is that many will fall further behind in school or may not even return to school - especially girls whose parents may have been reluctant to send them in the first place.__In this project, we will develop simple educational content - based on teacher experience - that is language and curriculum neutral and can support both preschool, classroom and home learning. And more importantly, we will develop a localised solution which enables this content to be accessed and disseminated without the need for individual devices to have internet connections. This will then form the basis of an educational component in our Smart Villages model which our client communities and schools have been asking for, and which can then be progressively tailored to meet individual local curriculum needs, from a standard core functionality. Furthermore, this system will also enable us to share broader "life skills" information which curricula and teaching in developing countries rarely cover, such as COVID awareness, climate change and environmental stewardship material, in consultation with local educators and experts._

svrg为跨领域的综合农村发展，特别是撒哈拉以南非洲，开发和提供技术解决方案和商业模式。SVRG解决方案的优势和独特之处在于这种广泛的综合方法，它与社区合作，开发一种系统方法，同时满足他们的主要需求和优先事项，通常通过获取能源、信息通信技术和提高农业生产力来促进。我们客户社区提出的一贯优先事项是改善受教育的机会。但是，尽管有许多技术可以用于整合能源获取、抽水或农业增值，但对于基本的离网、离网、语言和课程独立的教育支持，却没有普遍可用的技术。_我们英国人当然对许多这样的系统都很熟悉——从BBC Bitesize到可汗学院、白玫瑰数学，以及许多智能手机和平板电脑上的基本广告或应用内销售驱动的基本计算和识字应用。我们已经特别熟悉所有这些在COVID封锁和学校关闭期间保持儿童学习和参与教育方面的效用和力量。但是，我们在发展中国家与之合作的社区在这种背景下面临着多重挑战。现有的教育材料（例如免费应用程序，或可汗学院这样的教育内容环境）很少是根据他们的语言和课程需求量身定制的，而且需要良好的互联网连接才能工作。因此，很少有学校，特别是资源贫乏的农村学校，使用任何教育技术来支持教师的教育努力或学生的学习成果。当学校关闭时，就像现在面对全球大流行一样，结果就是教育停止了。没有鼓励，也没有设施或系统允许学生远程/在家学习。其后果是，许多人将在学业上进一步落后，甚至可能不会重返学校——尤其是那些父母一开始就不愿送她们上学的女孩。在这个项目中，我们将开发简单的教育内容-基于教师的经验-这是语言和课程中立，可以支持幼儿园，课堂和家庭学习。更重要的是，我们将开发一种本地化的解决方案，使这些内容能够在不需要个人设备连接互联网的情况下被访问和传播。这将形成我们的客户社区和学校一直要求的智慧村庄模型的教育组件的基础，然后可以从标准的核心功能逐步定制，以满足个别当地课程的需求。此外，该系统还将使我们能够与当地教育工作者和专家协商，分享发展中国家的课程和教学很少涉及的更广泛的“生活技能”信息，例如COVID意识、气候变化和环境管理材料