Meet Team4Tech
Posted by Remya Padmadas on March 30, 2017The idea for Team4Tech was born in 2012, when Julie Clugage and Lila Ibrahim, witnessed the “transformative power of education”: Julie worked in a school in rural Guatemala while Lila worked in an orphanage in Lebanon. After working closely for years at Intel Corporation, to advance education and economic development through technology, they launched the Intel Education Service Corps in 2009. This program was met with incredible support as a large number of Intel employees began volunteering their time and expertise to the improvement of education.
In September 2012, they had another idea: creating a platform accessible to talented professionals from a variety of technological companies, to improve the quality of education around the world. With this in mind, in May 2013, they launched their first project in Kenya with a total of nine volunteers. The plan was to introduce an adaptive learning software solution to increase the education level of the primary school children. Within six months of this implementation, the students had doubled their literacy test scores. Since this project, Team4Tech has engaged in many similar projects, broadening their impact on education standards. One such project was run in November, 2016, in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh by Dawn Kwan, the project manager for Team4Tech.
VMware and Udaan Mewat Teachers
She led a project with CARE India's Udaan Mewat school where a team of VMware employees brought technology to augment the teaching and learning objectives for a residential bridge-building school for girls, who had previously dropped out of school. Udaan Mewat is an innovative 11-month program where a group of 80 girls complete Grades 1 - 5 through innovative teaching methods, and continue their studies in government schools. After 5 weeks of preparation, the VMware volunteers spent a week in Mewat, showing the teachers how to use the technology provided - building long term sustainability of the equipment.
One of the tools used in this program was Pratham Books' StoryWeaver. Dawn taught three of CARE India’s master trainers, who work with government lower and upper primary school teachers (giving them a reach of over 1000 teachers and 50,000 students), how to use StoryWeaver. She reported that they “loved StoryWeaver's wealth of stories, the ability to translate and the ease of creating new stories.”
CARE India trainers learning about StoryWeaver
She also shared Varseena's story with us. A student in the first batch who had graduated from Udaan Mewat, Varseena learned how to use StoryWeaver. “She's extremely bright and created a story, and taught her story to the rest of the Udaan students”. Varseena will play a continuous role in the implementation of StoryWeaver since she was asked to teach the teachers how to use the platform. On the last day, one of the teachers even used a downloaded Pratham Books story in her class.
Team4Tech has clearly made a lot of progress in bettering the education system all over the world through their programs and outreach. The existence of platforms like StoryWeaver and KA Lite (an offline version of Khan Academy - also used by Team4Tech) makes this job easier and more fun for the students. The technological aspect of this is what excites people the most and, in a world where electronic devices have taken over lives, introducing education via technology engages the audience more than anything else. This is why, although few in number, organisations like Team4Tech are successful in completing their goals.
Be the first to comment.StoryWeaver Selected as Finalist for the WISE Awards 2018
Posted by Maya H on April 10, 2018We are delighted to share that Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver has been selected as a finalist for the WISE Awards 2018.
StoryWeaver, an initiative of Pratham Books, is among 12 finalists chosen by the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) for their innovative and impactful approaches to today’s most urgent education challenges
Each year, the WISE Awards recognize and promote innovative projects from around the world that are addressing global educational challenges.
StoryWeaver is an innovative digital platform which harnesses the power of technology, open licensing and collaboration to address the global scarcity of books for children in mother tongue languages. StoryWeaver also allows for content to be translated and versioned for localized needs. This responsive platform has published over 7500 story books available in 109 languages, making knowledge accessible to children and educators beyond global access barriers.
Suzanne Singh, Chairperson of Pratham Books, said StoryWeaver’svision is to massively scale the creation and distribution of reading resources for children in mother tongue languages. Our endeavor is to address the global scarcity of books for children and arm every child with the power of knowledge and opportunity. By providing access to thousands of storybooks, the platform has enabled educators to make classrooms more engaging, libraries more diverse and most importantly, make learning fun for children. With StoryWeaver, we have opened up a new pathway to nurture a generation of readers”.
Stavros N. Yiannouka, CEO of WISE, said: “We congratulate StoryWeaver for making it to the finalist stage. Each of the 2018 WISE Awards finalists has constructed an effective, tested solution to a global educational challenge. Whether it’s ensuring fundamental education for refugees or creating the next generation of empathetic and conscious leaders, each project is already transforming lives, and provides an inspirational model for others to adopt. This is vital to our mission at WISE, which centers around collaboration”.
The 12 projects come from eleven countries and were shortlisted for their innovative solutions to education challenges and their positive social impact. The awards finalists were picked from a pool of 413 projects, and evaluated according to strict criteria. They must be successful, innovative education projects that have already demonstrated a transformative impact on individuals, communities, and society. They must be financially stable, have a clear development plan and be scalable and replicable.
For further information, visit http://www.wise-qatar.org/wise- awards.
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About the WISE Awards:
Each year, the WISE Awards recognize and promote six successful innovative projects that are addressing global educational challenges. Since 2009, WISE has received more than 3,200 applications from over 150 countries. Up until now, 54 projects have won the WISE Awards, from a wide variety of sectors and locations for their innovative character, their positive contribution and their potential for scalability and adaptability. These projects represent a growing resource of expertise and sound educational practice. Year by year, WISE is building a community of educational innovators which offers a fertile environment for groundbreaking collaborations. Today the WISE Awards network comprises pioneering projects that are helping bring real change to societies and communities.
Be the first to comment.Celebrate Hindi Diwas with these Hindi language books
Posted by Asawari Ghatage on September 14, 2022
This Hindi Diwas, celebrate the Hindi language with some of our Hindi-first books. This means that these books were first written in Hindi, and then translated into other languages. Our Hindi Diwas celebration list includes books by Hindi literary stalwart the late Kamala Bhasin, features whimsical silly poetry and also some simple books for young ones about how to count in a fun and engaging way.
क्या सभी लड़कियाँ एक जैसी होती हैं? ज़रा सोचिए…
क्या सभी लड़के एक जैसे होते हैं? ज़रा सोचिए…
देख भँवरी की सतरंगी किताब, दोस्त सभी चकित हैं आज। भँवरी ने बताया यह पीपल के पेड़ और मूँगफली मामा का कमाल। चलिए जानते हैं, कैसे हुआ ये धमाल!
उत्तर भारत में बचपन, गर्मियों और मोहल्ले की गलियों का एक अनोखा रिश्ता है और वह है ठंडी-ठंडी कुल्फियों का मीठा सा स्वाद। आइये नन्ही भँवरी के साथ इसका मज़ा आप भी लीजिए।
पिटारा खुलते और गप्पू गोले के बाहर आते ही क्या क्या नहीं होता! गड़बड़ घोटाले की एक लड़ी सी फूट पड़ती है। तो आइए पढ़ें यह अगड़म बगड़म कविता।
चीकू में कुछ भी ख़ास नहीं था। पर एक दिन इस साधारण सी लड़की ने सब को दिखा दिया कि हर कोई असाधारण बनने की क्षमता रखता है।
Read more Hindi-first books on StoryWeaver here.
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