ScratchPAD Education

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This project is about educating the children in villages using standard educational content in the form of audio/video on their tablets(cheap ones like Aakash). This will help village children get "real" education!

Standings & Awards

51 out of 1313 in Asia
26 out of 779 in Education
50 out of 935 in Design
63 out of 1066 in Blended
143 out of 4003 Overall

39

VOTES

Innovators

Imparts education to children in villages thereby bringing them at par with any international level student.

In countries like India, there are innumerable number of villages. Children over there go to government-run schools and the person teaching there is generally not qualified enough(in most cases). So education imparted to the youngsters is not valuable enough. They aren't really learning anything. A teacher might be unknowingly imparting incorrect knowledge to these youngsters.That's a big risk to the future of these youngsters.

The approach to avoid the risk is to give these students a new alternative to their hunger for knowledge. The ScratchPAD!

The ScratchPAD is a cheap tablet like Aakash. The tablet would carry an application developed specially for this purpose using some Open Source Technologies(to reduce the overall cost).

Parts of the ScratchPAD Education program:-

1. Educational Content

Videos from websites like KhanAcademy would be indexed and fetched into a database. Then a curriculum would be decided depending upon the international standards, for each level of education. Depending upon the grade of a student, the content would be distributed.

2. Distribution and Syncing of content

The distribution of tablets would be first done by promotion team who would go to schools in these villages and teach the students and teachers, how to use the device. Upon doing that they'd be instructed to bring their devices to VDC's for syncing the content. The devices would be brought in by school authorities, students need not go anywhere. VDC's would also be somewhere close to the schools. VDC's would sync the data in every 3 weeks. The device would be updated accordingly.

3. Village Distribution Centre(VDC)

VDC's are responsible for solving technical problems and for searching and making the content available. Personnel in VDC's would also educate teachers and students in new schools about the usage of the tablet. VDC's would also keep a track of course completion by each student. If necessary number of VDC's would be increased.

4. Advertising Team

Advertising Team is responsible for promoting the use of tablet and spreading awareness. Targeting correct schools, promoting the content should be done in such a way that parents find the reason why its being done.

Support Your Idea Optional (5 - 7 minutes for three uploads)

Supporting Document:

application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation icon

Overview of the ScratchPAD education and the components/flow

Business Model

Roadmap to Success Optional (1 - 3 minutes to upload)

Roadmap to Success:

roadmap_to_success.pdf

Sponsors, Investors, and Supporters

FIVE PROJECT QUESTIONS Required (60 - 90 minutes)

1. What is your innovation?

It will innovate the way education is imparted in villages. This will help village children get the education that matches the international standards. The content would be authentic and made to suit each village in terms of language. Content would be in audio/video format so as to make the subject interesting. Internet already has all the courses available for free. We just need to share it into places where they'll have the biggest impact and in places where internet is not available.

2. Who gains the most?

Children in villages would gain the most. After completing their education they can opt for jobs in cities or any locations. They have the knowledge required. This will help them uplift their standard of living as better jobs would be available for them. No matter where they study, they can be sure that what they are learning is authentic! Thus this will help in narrowing the economic gap. Children would bring around development in their villages which will help overall development of country.

3. Who pays?

Donors, NGO's, Governments, Village Panchayats, Firms. ex: P&G http://bit.ly/TfCzAK has more info. Village Panchayats are local self-governments at the village or small town level in India. They are responsible for proper working of villages and its people. Since state governments find it hard to reach all the villages, village panchayats play a great role in administering these villages with their own methodology and cultures. Investors from NEN-like organisation

4. What is your success?

Within 3 months, agreements would be made with the school where the idea would be implemented. Within 6 months, this methodology of teaching would be incorporated with the normal method. Within 12 months, village children would adapt themselves to this new type of learning. Within 1.5 years, we would be able to see an improvement in the grades for such children. Then the project would keep on extending to other potential villages.

5. How will you do it?

For a small pilot test, this would be done in public schools for tier 2 cities, for grades 5-8. Then if its successful, we need to contact NGO's to start up this operation in a village. Gauging the performance we'll decide the potential villages that can be transformed in short period of time. Also, a contact with tablet manufacturers is required as devices need to be as cheap as possible. We already have contact with schools that are ready to incorporate this idea.