Meet the Global Learning XPRIZE Semi-Finalist Teams and Find Out What Inspired Them (Part 2)
The Global Learning XPRIZE challenges, “teams from around the world to develop open source and scalable software that will enable children in developing countries to teach themselves basic reading, writing and arithmetic within 15 months.”
“Our goal is an empowered generation that will positively impact their communities, countries and the world.”
— Global Learning XPRIZE
Smart Girls spoke to 9 of the 11 semi-finalist teams about what inspired them to participate and why they believe education is so important. You can read about four of the teams below and another five teams here.
Meet The School of Games
Our mission is to bring basic reading, writing and math skills to hundreds of millions of children and adults across the globe. With this mission in place, we started working on the School of Games three years ago, and launched our beta after multiple testing, feedback and research cycles in March 2017. Over the course of three years, the School of Games — which started as just teaching vocabulary — has now evolved into a 15-month curriculum that provides basic literacy and numeracy to any child that has the access to a device, even without internet.
As the name suggests, the School of Games uses video games and constructivism as its main learning theory. We believe that games are self-motivating and rewarding, which is essential to keeping a child engaged in places where there is no teacher or parent to maintain accountability. While the children play on the platform and learn through the endless levels of content and games, parents, teachers and guardians can see real-time progress of every child using the software.
With the School of Games, we also have an ‘EDU’ version of our app where we specifically train women and young girls to become teachers and micro-entrepreneurs, running their own education centers. We envision these female entrepreneurs will become our brand ambassadors, and will gain critical skills in running a school and teaching the right curriculum.
Meet Kitkit School
Team Kitkit School is a special projects team within Enuma, an edtech startup co-founded in Berkeley by a game designer and developer husband-and-wife team who are also parents of a child born with special needs. Our team is dedicated to using its expertise in game design, education, intergovernmental organizations and business to develop inclusive learning software. This hard work and dedication has resulted in the production of award-winning applications that are specially designed to help all children find success in learning.
We decided to enter the Global Learning XPRIZE competition because we believe we are uniquely capable of providing high-quality learning experiences to the millions of children who can most benefit from technology-based education, including children who have learning differences, who do not speak the language taught in school, who do not have access to schools, or who do not have literate adults to support their education. We have conducted field tests with hundreds of children in Tanzania and Kenya and look forward to the field test that XPRIZE is conducting with UNESCO, the UN World Food Programme, and the government of Tanzania. The Global Learning XPRIZE competition has the potential to be groundbreaking and transformational in the field of education and gets us closer to our dream of empowering ALL children to learn independently.
Meet Leap to Know
Being based in South Africa, our team is acutely aware of the realities of living in a developing country. Having spoken with women working in the cities, we know that these women leave home for work at 3:00 or 4:00 every morning, and many of their children are without adult supervision until their mother’s return late in the afternoon or evening.
Some of the women are only able to see their children on weekends. On top of that, many girls in rural Africa have a hard time escaping entrenched patriarchal systems. We know millions of rural children don’t receive any form of schooling.
Meet AutoCognita
One of the reasons our team is so passionate about learning is because we were formed through the power of literacy. In Hong Kong, our team member Frank Ho was inspired to help solve the world’s grand challenges after reading Peter Diamandis’ book, Bold. Across the world in Bellingham, WA, our team member Dana Rozier read the same book and was inspired by the same goal.
After learning about the Global Learning XPRIZE competition, both of them realized the enormous impact solving global illiteracy would have on the world and became motivated to solve the problem.
Find out more about the work of the Global Learning XPRIZE on their website. Make sure to check out part one to learn more about some of the other semifinalist teams! Read more about the Global Learning XPRIZE below:
