The Cardboard School

Education is under attack in the Sahel region: in the last three years teachers were threatened and killed, education facilities demolished, and learning materials burned, leading to the closure of over 1,260 schools, even before COVID-19 (UNICEF report). 

Our solution is the Cardboard School, a frugal virtual reality school which empowers learners and teachers to meet in shared immersive classrooms through the use of low-tech VR headsets. It provides a safe and engaging alternative to in-person education for an entire generation of children in West and Central Africa which risks being deprived of an education.  

Contrary to most virtual reality-enabled solutions which require prohibitively expensive hardware, the Cardboard School radically democratizes access to experiential immersive education with a frugal low-tech hardware set-up. It unlocks exponential educational opportunities for children who no longer have to choose between education and safety: it is an unclosable school.  

The Sahel region has seen a significant spike in attacks on students, teachers, and schools since 2018 (Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, 2020). 85 attacks on education in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger between January and July 2020, despite Covid-19-related school closures between late March and May. At least 27 attacks on middle schools were recorded in Mali when schools reopened for children to take their exams in June 2020. 

This follows an extremely concerning trend that has been operating in the region for the last 3 years. The number of schools forced to close due to rising insecurity in conflict-affected areas of West and Central Africa tripled between the end of 2017 and June 2019 (UNICEF, 2019.) 1.9 million children across Central and West Africa had missed school as militant groups opposed to secular education have stepped up their attacks (UNICEF, 2019). Once out of school, children are at greater risk of being recruited by the armed groups or forced into child marriage. 

 As classes resume after Covid-19 related closures, schools are likely to face increased risks of attacks (Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, 2020). 

The Cardboard School is a virtual reality-powered school which allows learners and teachers to safely and remotely connect in networked 3D classrooms with the use of a low-tech mobile VR hardware set up (cardboard + controller for under $15). 

Users simply need a frugal cardboard headset, an XBOX-type controller, a smartphone and a wifi connection. They insert the Cardboard School URL, personalize their 3D avatars and immerse themselves in an experiential school day. Every class is a 3D adventure: History class allows us to time-travel to the specific time period currently studied, Science class is held on a Mars base, English class takes you on a tour of US landmarks, etc. 

This virtual school is built on the emerging and inclusive open-source webXR standard which makes it independent of specific VR platforms and accessible across a variety of devices: mobile VR, smartphone, tablet, desktop. 

This social webXR school is built in the A-frame framework and webGL, and utilizes machine learning to produce personalized avatars based on photorealistic pictures that users upload of themselves. 

It can be used both at home in remote learning scenarios as well as inside physical schools for in-person interactions as a complementary experiential learning resource. 

Our solution serves the 1.9 million children who are denied access to education because schools have been targeted by extremist attacks in West and Central Africa (UNICEF, 2019), and who currently lack a viable remote learning alternative. They are the generation of children that are currently at risk of growing up without an education, which makes them more vulnerable to recruitment as children soldiers in armed groups, or early forced marriage, domestic abuse and sexual abuse. 

This Cardboard School Initiative is directly inspired by the resilience and leadership of children we have interfaced with during a project we did in collaboration with Save the Children West Africa ‘No School No Peace’ to use VR to raise awareness on the vital importance of the Safe Schools Declaration.  

Maryam Ahmed, 19, Youth Ambassador for Save the Children Nigeria, said it best as she shared :  “Because of armed conflict, many children can’t pursue an education, which puts a strain on their intellect, and if you do nothing about it then you are compromising our lives. Many issues are linked to armed conflict, which affects children. Issues like early marriage, rape, malnutrition, no access to education, etc. I advocate so that these issues are eradicated and so children have a safe environment to grow. A child’s toy should be an action figure, not a gun”. 

Through this VR advocacy initiative in collaboration with Save the Children, we got the chance to learn directly from children ambassadors and youth leaders about the issues they face in West Africa and their determination to get an education in spite of all odds. During this project, we were immensely inspired by the unshakable resolution children had formed to address the safety and equity gaps that jeopardize their chances to have access to education. While collaborating with project coordinators from the Burkina Faso and Senegal offices of Save the Children and learning from youth ambassadors and their testimonies, we also realized that we did not just want to do advocacy work to raise awareness: we most importantly would like to build a solution with them. That is how the project of the Cardboard School was born and developed. 

“Where I'm from, parents are scared to send their children to school”, shared Purity, 14, from Nigeria. With the technology that is now available to use, it does not have to be that way. It is unacceptable that children would have to choose between their safety and their education. That is why we built a dream 3D school in the clouds that is virtually unclosable. 

Children growing up in the Sahel region currently do not have an equal opportunity to access education because of targeted extremist violence. They are faced with the impossible dilemma of having to choose between their education and their safety. We built a cloud-based unclosable school for them where they can log in and safely learn in ways far more engaging than traditional first-world schools. 

The Cardboard School drastically democratizes access to remote experiential immersive learning with a stimulating, frugal and massively accessible VR-enabled solution, thereby maximizing the chances of every learner having an equal opportunity to learn, grow and thrive. 

We have selected the “prototype” stage of development because we are not pilot-testing the Cardboard School yet. We have a prototype for it with a series of thematic 3D classrooms for a STEAM-based curriculum. We also have integrated a third-party machine learning-powered solution which automates the generation of personalized photorealistic 3D avatars for users to embody in VR, based on a single input photograph (either taken via a webcam or uploaded to the platform). . 

Although not yet pilot-tested, the Cardboard School is built upon the same webXR technological framework as other of our initiatives which have been pilot-tested or are currently being pilot-tested on 3 different continents in the US: the Career Simulator with Miami-Dade County Public Schools and with the Department of Education in France, a social webVR interfaith harmony program sponsored by the United States of Peace in Pakistan (in partnership with the world’s 5th largest mosque). 

The Cardboard School tackles the issue of radically democratizing immersive remote learning solutions in an unique way by strategically combining frugal low-tech hardware, open source webXR frameworks and state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms. Each one of these technological bricks is innovative in itself, but the alliance of all three definitively sets this initiative apart from other VR-enabled edtech solutions.  

The Cardboard School is a one-of-a-kind edtech endeavor, as it is designed to be the equitable and unclosable VR school that can bring immersive remote learning to at-risk children.

Its equitable pledge is built on three core features:

• Frugality: the school does not require high-priced VR headsets to run, just affordable hardware coupled with a smartphone,

• Accessibility: As a device-agnostic webVR solution, the school provides massive access to 3D stimulating environments which act as classrooms where teachers can share their screen, upload 2D and 3D content, share 2D videos and 360° videos, etc. 

• Personalization: the VR school has its own machine learning-powered avatar customizer which allows students and teachers to customize personalized 3D avatars. 

The 3D School could catalyze frugal innovation in the edtech VR space. Ultimately it could act as a marketplace for ed-tech 3D webVR-ready items (CGI classrooms, 3D student uniforms, 3D models of learning resources directly mapped to STEAM curricula, etc.). When we reach a later phase and are ready to scale up, we can welcome a host of VR designers to upload and monetize their edtech content through our Cardboard School platform. 

The Cardboard School currently is a prototype that has not been pilot-tested yet. We would like to do a pilot-test in West and Central Africa with 250 students in the upcoming months. After a successful pilot-test that will allow us to fine-tune the technology, and design more 3D classrooms, we anticipate the solution to rapidly scale and impact 1,000 people in one year, and 50,000 students in 5 years. 

The Cardboard School model is inherently rapidly scalable as it relies on low-tech affordable hardware components and 3D webVR-ready software. If we want to build a biology class (on a miniature scale from the point of view of flowers for instance, for a course on photosynthesis), we build it once and then reuse it X amount of times, implement it in Y amount of educational systems and directly impact Z amount of children. 

Although the Cardboard School is yet untested, we do have a series of concurrent pilot-tests for similar concepts which rely on the exact same technological framework: 

• A Career Simulator with Miami-Dade County Public Schools

• A Career Simulator with the Department of Education and Office for Employment within the French government, with a focus on the “93” (underserved banlieue of the Paris area) 

• An interfaith dialogue platform in webVR, sponsored by the United States Institute of Peace, to facilitate peaceful dialogue between Muslims and Christians in Lahore, Pakistan, in an effort to prevent the outbreak of religious violence, terrorist attacks and persecution.  

Our evaluation framework to measure our progress includes the following metrics: 

• Tech metrics: number of thematic classrooms 3D modeled, number of thematic avatar clothes 3D-modeled (example: astronaut suit for science class on Mars), 

• Impact metrics: number of partnering schools, number of enrolled students, number of classes held. 

5 intrinsically passionate social entrepreneurs, developers and developers currently work to get the Cardboard School in the hands of learners across the globe.

• Dr. Alexandra Ivanovitch, Creative Director

• Fabrizio Popescu, 3D Environment Artist

• Reda Tinebinal, 3D Avatar Artist

• Eléna Pageon, 3D Generalist 

• Chris King, webVR developer 

Our team is internationally recognized for its pioneering VR initiatives for social impact in a variety of sectors: healthcare, education, peacebuilding. We are currently delivering 3 different webVR projects for the government on three different continents, in the USA, Europe and Asia: with local government (Miami-Dade County Public Schools), with the US federal government (United States Institute of Peace - Pakistan Branch) and with the French government. Last year, we were awarded an innovation prize from the US National Academy of Medicine for our groundbreaking work in VR for the mental well-being of older adults.  

Our team has the much needed experience and interdisciplinary expertise it takes to deliver scalable edtech impact through immersive technology: 3D modeling skills, webVR development competencies, direct experience in the field of education, major govtech precedents.

As an award-winning technologist and former educator with 10 year experience in the field of education, Dr. Alexandra Ivanovitch is perfectly positioned to lead this edtech initiative. 

Our team is also representative of the population we are aspiring to serve. Our talented 3D artist, Reda Tinebinal, stems from the Moroccan beach town of Agadir and is the first person in his family to graduate from college and to hold a higher education degree. He has directly witnessed and experienced the transformative power of education and its ability to open up doors. In that respect, he is extremely eager to give back and offer unique educational opportunities to youth that might not be so fortunate as him. 

We were founded in 2017 thanks to a grant from the Roddenberry Foundation. The Roddenberry Foundation was started by the son of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek. As an interdisciplinary and international team of developers, designers, entrepreneurs, we embody the revolutionary values of radical inclusion which the TV series pioneered in the 1960’s. 

On our personal Starship Enterprise of a team, we currently have 5 different nationalities on board: Canadian, French, Moroccan, American, Roumanian. Everybody is coming from a different ethnic and cultural background: Asian, African, Caucasian. No one is alike and yet we are all intrinsically driven by the same ideals. We are a woman-led team in a ferociously male-dominated space: 3D, VR, gaming, tech in general. 

We are applying to SOLVE because we inherently believe in its global community of creative social entrepreneurs and its crowdsourcing methodology. We believe we can find our next team member or next client at a SOLVE stakeholder meeting because we will be reunited with teams who are driven by the same insatiable thirst for scalable tech-enabled solutions to humanity’s most pressing challenges. 

We know that the SOLVE team of mentors most probably has already tackled the challenges we will face tomorrow and we would greatly appreciate the game-changing opportunity to benefit from world-class guidance. 

• Given the power of the SOLVE network, we would like to be connected to such an ecosystem to facilitate recruitment of new team members and/or board members. 
• Given our B2G business model, we would most appreciate the opportunity to be mentored by SOLVE partners and supporters so we can perfect our pitch to governments and education ministries. 
• Given the strength and legitimacy of the SOLVE brand, we would greatly benefit from mentorship in the field of public relations. 

We would like to meet and exchange insights with the Chief Innovation Officer of the Sierra Leone government to discuss the possible pilot-test of the Cardboard School in his country.  

Our solution is fully adapted to cater to the needs of U.S.-based primary and secondary classrooms. 

Our VR Career Simulator project which we developed for Miami-Dade County Public Schools provides an experiential career exploration tool through social webVR. It empowers students to previsualize different potential professional futures, immerse themselves in the lives of professionals in 360°, embody counter-stereotypical figures of success in 3D (based on true stories). 

For more information, please visit the initiative's website: 

https://dadeschools-vr.net

We would use the prize funding to: 

• extend the number of professional careers currently featured in the Simulator;
• pilot-test the simulator in other school districts;
• purchase more head-mounted displays. 

The Cardboard School can be used as a low-tech educational resource for refugees to guarantee continuous access to education. 

We would use the prize funding to: 

• continue 3D-modeling more thematic immersive classrooms;
• develop learning resources in 3D;
• purchase cardboard viewers. 

Thanks to its low-tech frugal hardware and stimulating 3D experiences, the Cardboard School can help make STEM education more engaging, accessible and equitable. 

What if we had science classes on Mars? Learning about physics by exploring a planet with modified gravity suddenly makes that physics class much more personal and tangible. 

Imagine a school where you learn about photosynthesis by miniaturizing yourself, being immersed in a garden at grass-height and adopt the perspective of a flower.

Math class makes much more sense in 3D. Now that you can actually climb a fractal pyramid, that course on fractals suddenly becomes obvious. 

We would use the prize funding to: 

• develop more STEM experiential classrooms,
• purchase cardboard viewers for a pilot-test.  

The Cardboard School, if globally implemented, would be a huge leap forward for the advancement of girls' education around the world. In West and Central Africa where we would pilot-test the initiative, boys' education is traditionally prioritized over girls' education. Providing alternative remote learning solutions, such as The Cardboard School, would augment girls' chances to have facilitated access to continuous education. 

We would use the prize funding to: 

• develop more experiential classrooms,
• purchase cardboard viewers for a pilot-test.  

Thanks to its low-tech frugal hardware and stimulating 3D experiences, the Cardboard School can help make STEM education more engaging, accessible and equitable. 

What if we had science classes on Mars? Learning about physics by exploring a planet with modified gravity suddenly makes that physics class much more personal and tangible. 

Imagine a school where you learn about photosynthesis by miniaturizing yourself, being immersed in a garden at grass-height and adopt the perspective of a flower.

Math class makes much more sense in 3D. Now that you can actually climb a fractal pyramid, that course on fractals suddenly becomes obvious. 

We would use the prize funding to: 

• develop more STEM experiential classrooms,
• purchase cardboard viewers for a pilot-test.