21st-Century Learning Space for All

A program consist of mentors, an offline tools, and LMS content bridging the technology learning gap in Malaysia

In Malaysia, there is a learning gap between privileged and underprivileged students. Our solution aims to bridge that learning gap.  

Coding, data, analytics, machine learning and other STEM concepts are core knowledge applicable to any career in the future. Artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, 3D printing, and other emerging technologies will play a role in every aspect of our children's lives.

Each child should have the opportunity to have access to technology-integrated learning despite their shortcomings such as inability to afford such learning, networking access and lack of guidance from experienced educators. 

Thus, we would like to provide students from B40 communities with a program that can nurture their inborn passion to learn and equip them with life skills, which provide a competitive edge in a future dominated by machines.

Our solution is a program consisting of three main pillars, mentors that are passionate in children education, offline tools which is Raspberry Pi to allow offline learning and our Learning Management System (LMS) with technology-integrated content. It is not based on a technology-driven curriculum, but rather a curriculum with a mentor-driven program using technology. Our solutions will improve students' digital literacy and they are able to apply open source technology tools to real-world challenges and problems thus creating more opportunities. 

Malaysia is aiming to become a developed country ready for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0). However, the syllabus that covers this area (primarily STEM) is exam oriented and theory focused thus lacking in practicality. Students lack life skills (e.g., critical thinking, creativity, collaboration) and STEM literacy (e.g., coding, data analytics, machine learning) and they are not ready for the I4.0 workplace.

To address this problem, privileged students are enrolled in private cram schools, coding classes, academic enrichment programs, and other after-school activities that provide quality support. By contrast, underprivileged students from B40 (the bottom 40% of household income) families lack equitable access to these learning opportunities, leading to a learning gap between privileged and underprivileged students. This learning gap is the specific problem that we are solving.

We are targeting the school children of today in underprivileged  communities, especially students from B40 (the bottom 40% of household income) families that cannot afford access to technology-integrated learning.   

Our solution will empower and equip them with the right skills and values to prepare them for the future workforce. Also, it will inspire them to stay motivated to excel in academics, service, and other areas of interest.

The solution that we provide, consist of 3 important pillars: mentors, an offline LMS and technology-based content The underprivileged communities, especially in the rural area, have difficulty in gaining access to technology learning due to connectivity issues and also the educational content can be too advanced to learn only by themselves.

In order to tackle the connectivity issue, we aim to provide a Raspberry Pi to our target communities which allow them to gain access to our LMS offline. 

Our technology-based content is curated based on open source technologies and it is industrial driven, which encourages innovation along the process of learning. Our LMS content is also delivered by a creative spiral approach that nurtures creativity among the learners. These elements are very important to prepare them for the future market.

The deliverance of our content using the pedagogy that promotes self paced learning with a guidance of mentors which are very important to make sure no students are left behind. Our mentors are carefully selected from technical backgrounds with the heart to teach.

This solution which contain 3 important pillars, are aligning with these important challenges:

• Increase equitable access to quality learning opportunities through open sourced, offline, or virtual models, especially for underserved learners in low connectivity environments.

• Improve literacy, numeracy, and social emotional learning milestones while supporting a diverse range of learning pace and styles

• Strengthen delivery of STEM and 21st century skills for learners to effectively build work readiness

NURUL ADHA UJANG

Our mentors are not full-time salaried teachers placed into classrooms to impact students. They  include members of underprivileged communities. 

Our LMS is offline for underprivileged students in communities that lack adequate Internet connectivity such as rural areas. It uses self-paced instruction and applies interactive learning for course delivery.

Our technology-based content is constantly updated based on industry feedback. It implements a project-based, student-centred pedagogy and uses free and open-source software (e.g., Scratch).

We have tested our solution through various communities of learners. We have learning centres located around Malaysia that educate students who can afford to use our solutions. Similarly to our mentioned solutions except for the use of Raspberry Pi, we focused on delivering our LMS content with the guidance of dedicated mentors to these students during weekly classes. We endorsed a showcase platform for students through a competition program where students embark on a journey of learning and applying the technologies that enable IR4.0. Through this competition, we provide a selected LMS content to our participants especially from the rural areas. From our LMS, with the guidance of mentors, students are able to make use of this program developing tech skills and life skills at the same time. https://younginnovators.my/ 

We deliver our lessons using technology similar to world-class universities - Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) - consisting of online modules such as peer discussion, portfolio building, quizzes, and assignments.

Learning platform is made available offline through Raspberry Pi for participants who do not have access to the internet. 

We believe that providing an offline learning platform allows those in rural areas to have access to technology-integrated learning which seems impossible in the first place. Deployment of the tools with fun content can increase students' interest to pursue in STEM learning which are important in the I.R 4.0 industry. With guidance of dedicated mentors, encouraging  project-based learning will help students to develop life skills which involve collaborating with others, articulating their project, thinking critically and creatively. 

The combination of tech skills and also life skills will prepare them for the future workforce in the STEM industry which offer well compensated careers. At the same time, we also aim the students to use their newfound STEM skills and have a broader perspective beyond their small community: to identify financial and social problems thus uplifting their own community. 

The key tools that we are aiming in measuring our progress are the numbers of students that are able to finish our course and their ability to produce their own respective projects. We would like to encourage them to enter technology competitions showcase where they have the chance to apply their technological learning and life skills they learnt throughout the program.

Next year: Students have knowledge about digital tools, coding and programming and to showcase their respective projects by the end of the year. The students will be having the ability to be trained as mentors

Next three years: Trained students acquire self-learning ability and a continuous learning mindset. They are able to apply what they learned by running their community centres which are already equipped with our resources. Thus, continue to train a new batch of learners.

Next five years:  These mentors (from the communities) collaborate beyond their surrounding communities. They will be working with others across geographies and further collaborate creating more opportunities. 

We are seeing financial as one of the barrier as we would like to scale this solutions to reach high number of beneficiaries. 

We are hoping Octava Foundation can be one of the seed funding for us to start with this specific solutions. 

Another barrier to include, cultural as we are trying to break the barrier to emphasize on the importance of technology learning which not be deemed as important among the members of the communities. 

The seed of Chumbaka was planted when two founding partners of DreamCatcher, Choo and Chin Soon, discovered that some engineering graduates had poor grasp of basic science concepts despite having high grades, and were not motivated to learn.

They realized this is largely because the younger generation spend a lot of time studying, instead of experiencing hands-on science. The many hours Choo and Chin Soon spent as children building projects from components scavenged from broken toys had given them a feel of scientific phenomena which formal blackboard-approach schooling could not, and also instilled in them the joy of learning.

They started running hands-on science workshops for children. As both coincidentally grew up playing with motors, their first outreach program was for kids to build motors.

Separately, Teach for Malaysia fellows Nigel and Zhi saw the exact problem in the schools they were teaching in. They decided to adopt project-based learning in their classrooms. Through that they experienced how hands-on tech projects continuously motivated their students to learn inside and outside of the classrooms. This informal learning approach inspired the students to realize their own potentials and many went on to achieve their aspirations in STEM-related fields.

With a similar dream of inspiring all children to become life-long learners and realize their full potential, Chumbaka was founded with Zhi and Nigel in the pioneering team. They are today joined by like-minded partners throughout the country.

10 (for this Challenge) which consist of a team lead to oversee the operation, 2 community leaders, 1 main mentor, and six community mentors.

Our team consists of 2 community program managers that have experience in developing plans and implementing outreach programs through different communities of learners.

Yuen Yuen Khaw is the Community and Innovation Program Manager located in Chumbaka Cyberjaya and has been handling various educational projects for years. She is a TFM Fellow teacher with passion in ensuring quality education for all students as she teached in high need schools and refugee community centres. Her passion became the source of ideas to apply for this challenge. Nurul Adha Ujang is the Community and Innovation Program Manager in Chumbaka HQ. Although new in technology education, however, has vast experience in project management, collaborating with different stakeholders to ensure outreach programs can be delivered in a smooth manner. 

Our team also consists of a tech and design consultant from Chumbaka HQ which will provide an important role in creating the educational content. We will be having dedicated mentors coming from different universities with passion for reaching out to communities in need. 

We are currently having  3-year program focuses on activation of Clubs for 10 Primary & Secondary Schools in Klang, Malaysia. This is achieved through capacity-building for teachers and students in schools, by building a model school club in each school that will be a reference for others.

The participants are motivated teachers but they couldn’t run their school STEM clubs effectively due to lack of expertise and content. Hence, we train them with technical subjects and develop their soft skills. They then transfer and apply the knowledge learned from the training to their students. The students then compete at competitions to showcase their projects. 

Trained students become the mentors for the new batch of students. 

Yayasan Sime Darby, Yayasan Hasanah, Hap Seng Group, OSK Foundation, Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Research Sarawak, Malaysian Collective Impact Initiative, Ministry of Education Malaysia, and various local private and public universities. They are funders and supporters.

We apply to the Octava Social Innovation Challenge because:

• Our solution centred for people in the underprivileged communities. This matches the objective of The Challenge.

• The Challenge could assist in connecting us to the leading minds in social impact.

• Funding to support the program

We have an existing solution for education technology, and we wish for the marketing of it to be expand further across South East Asia. We would require good partnership in terms of public relations.