Sekou Academy Learning Platform

In Latin America there is a lack of technological resources aimed at children and adolescents who want to develop cognitive skills, mathematical thinking, self-learning, as well as gift and talent development, while at the same time, understand e –learning like a new way to learn.

For this reason I have founded Sekou Academy, a proyect-base learning platform that seeks to develop these skills in our students and connect students from diferent countries and cultures using technology in order to making learning a fun and multicultural experience .

Sekou Academy can be used both by students who are educated at home by taking the entire course, as well as by students who need to reinforce or deepen knowledge, from anywhere in the world with only an internet connection and from any mobile device, Tablet or laptop. It is an alternative to remote communities where it is difficult to access basic education.

We are currently working with students who are homeschooled. We do not know exactly the number of homeschooling families in Latin America, but only in Mexico it is estimated that there are more than 20 thousand families.

In total, it is estimated that 9 million Mexican children between 3 and 19 years of age, whether by poverty, geographical location, health conditions or insecurity, do not attend a school site.

Just as we have alternatives to study high school, university and postgraduate careers on line, so we need an option where students can access the distance learning from basic education, as well as courses specially developed for children.

Thanks to Internet, more people have access to quality educative resources from any location worldwide, than ever before. However, Latin American  students do not have the tools needed to take full advantage of this opportunity because in basic education they do not receiving the training in tecnology and skills necessary for facing our changing world. Most of the efforts and innovative training opportunities, like MOOC’s, are focused in higher education.

Four years ago we decided to homeschool our three children, two of them identify as gifted. We realized that the current basic education was deficient and highly systematized. They learn in different ways so we opted to give our children a personalized education focused on developing their talents and skills.

Since then I began searching for online learning platforms and resources in Spanish, but I realized that they did not exist and decided to create my own platform because I was sure, many families had the same need to find an education children enjoy at the time the develop skills such as self-teaching, critical thinking, time management and e-learning tools to connect them with students from all over the world.

The project has been a success and has been very popular with our students and more and more homeschool families from Mexico, Argentina y Colombia are interested in our methodology. Working in projects-base learning, the students feel happier and many of them have regained confident and interest in learning they had lost. Peer communication within our LMS forums is fluid and classes in our interactive platform allow integration and socialization among students.

Sekou Academy was founded in January 2019 as an alternative to extracurricular classes to facilitate the lives of families saving driving time and money. Months later, we decided to create our own program for homeschoolers children having a great acceptance in Mexican families.

Thanks to our project-based learning methodology and the use of technology platforms our students can communicate with their peers through internal forums and chats, work in teams and even take classes together, which is very valuable and stimulating for children who study on their own and generate a sense of belonging.

Our educational platform in Spanish is designed for children to learn in a fun way and focused on their interests from wherever they are. All our content is available for consultation and download in an LMS adapted for elementary school students, they can access from a Tablet, PC, laptop or even a Smartphone through an Android or IOS mobile application. You just need internet connection.

In our first year we have completed three virtual real-time Science, Math and English courses and we have more than 30 homeschoolers from Mexico and right now some families from Argentina are very interested in enrolling their kids in the spring-summer schooling cycle. Our goal for 2021 is to have students from all Latin American countries.

The program for homeschoolers is distributed in six grades for elementary school and three for middle school. In each grade there are an average of 18 learning modules based on projects in which different subjects are worked. Students decide their own pace of work and the depth with which each module works according to their interests.

We also work with an interactive platform with 3D sound that allows students to connect to our virtual campus and take classes in real time using videogame technology, which facilitates interaction between students getting a more complete and multicultural educational experience.

We are currently a team of 14 collaborators who work in marketing on line, managing, creating content, designing, technical support, teaching and parent support to consolidate the platform and develop high quality educational content. Our goal, in addition to the curriculum for homeschoolers, is to offer a wide range of language, art, science, technology, finance and entrepreneurship courses for children and adolescents with national and international validity, to bring them closer to different disciplines and foster interest in the Learning and self-knowledge.

My solution is innovative because it seeks to develop in children and adolescents of Latin America skills that are not currently being achieved in the traditional school system. Sekou Academy seeks to train its students in the proper use of technology for the benefit of their education, as well as in their cognitive and emotional abilities so that by the time they reach the higher education they will be able to take full advantage of the educational digital resources that currently exist and even contribute to their innovation thanks to the training that they acquired from early ages. On the other hand, serving students outside the education system of Latin American countries, such as homeschoolers, is a great opportunity to create a network of global learning and joint work, offering a range of learning possibilities according to their interests, and giving a sense of belonging. We want to create the largest virtual school in Latin America and offer high-quality and cutting-edge education for all.

Based on my own need and that of many families in the homeschool community in the absence of Spanish quality educational resources online, in addition to the standardization of education and the lack of educational innovation in most Latin American countries, I decided to found Sekou Academy a platform that offers courses and educational programs for families who want to enrich their children's learning. Since its inception, and thanks to the use of the technology of our interactive platform, the LMS, the learning methodology based on the game and projects and its colorful image designed to attract the attention of children, it has been a novel resource that our students have accepted with grat enthusiasm. We have students who are still working on their projects during the holidays because of how much they enjoy their learning and activities. Including the innovative element, respect for the rhythm of learning and interests, makes the student find again the joy of learning and opens up to knowledge. We work for children and teenagers to enjoy learning. One of our slogans is "Happy learning children".

One year after starting operations, approximately 25 children have taken our courses and we currently have 36 students enrolled in the program for homeschoolers. During 2020 we plan to reach 250 students enrolled in the program for homeschoolers and launch English, photography, short film and financial education and entrepreneurship courses reaching 500 students in total. Our goal in 5 years is to reach 10,000 students.

My objectives for this year 2020 are complete the basic content of Sekou Academy elementary and middle school and increase the classes offer to one per week in the interactive platform for homeschoolers program students. It is currently one class every two weeks.

Launch Baby Sekou, a platform focused on supporting fathers and mothers in raising their children from the early years until kindergarten.

Also this year we launched the Sekou English course as well as photography, short film, financial education and entrepreneurship courses. We begin with the process automation and international payment management stage.

And finally it is very important to get a national and international certification that validates our studies. Within the next 5 years my main goal is for Sekou Academy to be 100% automated, with course-type classes, professional advisors and professors teaching classes in real time on our large virtual campus. Just like an On line University.  With an offer of courses and programs 3 times wider than now and with translation of the content into English and French. Another important goal is to launch the Sekou travel program. An international educational travel agency for families who like travel-learning.

The main barrier that I currently face is the lack of financial resources to quickly carry out the entire project. I am currently investing my own resources that right now, after two years of preparation and investment are very limited and forces me to slow down in the absence of more personnel, infrastructure and technological tools.

A cultural barrier is the parents' belief that technology is complicated, even though we have proven that children can naturally function in the virtual world. Another barrier is to find trained personnel with an innovative vision on education.

And finally the legal barrier, distance basic education is not valid in Mexico yet and our students can not accredit their studies year after year.

We currently endorse the studies through an umbrella school in the United States which makes the cost too high. Most Latinoamerican families cannot afford this certification which is in dollars.

As I mentioned, the financial barrier forces me to go slower than I would like, I am mainly investing my own resources, family loans and income from the platform to move forward with the project. I still work from home and employees are outsourcing. We are solving the cultural barrier with constant communication, support and accompaniment to children and parents through technical support and tutorials that solve their doubts. As for the staff, we have very qualified and talented collaborators but they have other jobs which prevents them from being able to dedicate themselves full time to Sekou Academy, which would make the project progress more quickly. As our enrollment grows we can have a work office and hire the necessary people. And as for the legal barrier, we are currently analyzing two options: One is to validate through a Mexican government institution dedicated to job training, which would represent an official document but would not accredit a elementary or middle school degree and the other option is to establish ourselves as a private school in the United States or another incorporated country to La Haya education agreement and to be able to credit our students ourselves, so the cost would drop considerably making the option more accessible and families could get an official transcript every year.

We are two people working full time.

Three people desinging part time.

Five collaborating people developing content.

Three people are staff for eventual support.

A financial advisor.