Click+Clack learning lab

Click+Clack Learning Lab was created 10 years ago and since then has worked to close the quality learning gap between rural and urban areas, low and high socio-economic strata, private and public offer, among others, reaching around 400.000 7-17 year old children and their families, 700 schools, 6.000 teachers in Colombia. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 emergency, the entity turned its efforts towards attending the crisis generated by the pandemic: how could the education system level-up its quality despite children’s lack of internet access in a moment where education was migrating to the digital realm?

Together with UNICEF Colombia, Click+Clack launched its first education-in-emergencies project. La Aldea, an edutainment universe based on fables that reflect the social, economical and political dynamics we as a society face on a daily basis, was the content of this strategy which was turned into a multi platform curriculum. Videos, physical and digital books, songs, radio shows were the contents that allowed 4,220 teachers to complement their work and also allow children without access to their teachers to continue studying for two years. Almost 90,000 7-12 year-old students and their families were reached by this strategy which became an ally in formal and non-formal education settings and was later recognized by HundrEd and JPMorgan as one of the 21st century skills interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean interventions with the most scalability and impact.      

After this experience, and understanding the value of the one-book-per-child strategy in rural, low socioeconomic contexts were students have never owned a book or have no access to colorful and play-based education strategies (maybe just black and white photocopies with vertical dynamics), Click+Clack designed a second education-in-emergencies-project which constituted a second phase for the later. Now the emphasis was placed on accompanying families, students and teachers in the transition from COVID-19 school closure to school reopening. Through UNICEF Colombia, this project reached 53,000 students and their families, 2,000 teachers and 162 schools. How do we feel regarding the return to school? How have we felt during the lockdown? Do we have to follow the safety guidelines regarding biosafety? How can we strengthen our mental health during such difficult times? 

In Colombia, a country exposed to several hazards per day, COVID-19 pandemic was not the exception. Since 2015 the Venezuelan political crisis has turned the country into the main recipient of migrants who escape their country looking for a better life for themselves and their families. With this context in mind, in 2020 together with IRC and the Lego Foundation, Click+Clack launched a radio strategy for Venezuelan migrant children and their families. This was made possible through the saqme universe of La Aldea, as the host of the radio show was Harry the Chameleon, a migrant animal that faces the challenges of being integrated into his new community. We have since then strenghten our network of partners and worked with the Lego Foundation, the International Rescue Committee, the ministry of Education, Unicef, UNHCR, the Red Cross among others.

We have been designing educational materials for over 10 years, and over the past 3 years, we have strengthened our links to communities all around the country. The opportunity to work with over 700 schools and communities across very different types of environments has challenged us to change the way we work: How are we sure that our contents really accomplish their task? What are the main barriers for them to be used by kids and adults? Are they useful for communities that are dealing with trauma? Could we do something different?

Our main partners and allies have been pushing us to integrate the voices and needs of the communities into the design of our programmes and educational materials: surveys, focus groups, community observation are the main areas where we are working at the moment. Together with the International Rescue Committee and the Lego Foundation, we have been building research teams in three cities in Colombia: Medellin, Cali and Soacha in order to get a better sense of the environment we will be impacting, of the way kids in those communities have access to contents and use their spare time, about the main needs and issues that they want to delve upon. Currently, with Unicef, we are preparing an education in emergency project in 5 regions of Colombia to help ed communities (30.000 students and 1000 teachers) deal with natural disasters, migration and armed conflict: we are taking the first three months of the project to build a comprehensive framework, in which we are including community leaders of those regions in our team. Some of the methods that have been considered are 

-pre/during/post surveys; 

-focus groups or semi-structured interviews to identify needs before the intervention, 

-focus groups or semi-structured interviews to assess usability and clarity during the intervention’s planning but before implementation;

-focus groups or semi-structured interviews during and after implementation to assess relevance, satisfaction and perception of impact.

Activities

-Materials are developed to meet the needs of populations in a certain type of emergency (armed conflict, environmental hazards, migration, pandemic, etc)

-Teachers are trained with materials

-Teachers work with students in their classes using the materials

-Class observation to assure download is responding to specific contexts

-Families are involved in the processes through students’ or teachers’ actions 

Outputs

-Educational community gains awareness of the importance of their preparedness before, during and after an emergency

-Teachers learn how to adapt contents to their own context therefore level-up the quality and relevance of the education their students receive

-Students develop socio-emotional skills, civic competencies, critical/systemic thinking and multiperspectivism

-Families get more involved in educational activities

Short term outcomes

-PBL projects are implemented throughout schools integrating the contents discussed in the materials

-Educational communities demonstrate a change in how they understand emergencies and how they can come together to prepare for possible shocks

-Educational communities demonstrate a change in their understanding of the importance of socioemotional wellbeing and health and their interconnectedness with education and laboral accomplishments

Long term outcomes

-Despite the type of emergency, students do not see their learning processes interrupted and communities come together as a whole to protect educational trajectories

-Students, teachers and families help others new to the strategy and/or community to understand the procedures they have developed

-Students, teachers and families as a community adapt and strengthen the procedures based on new understandings of their own contexts

Currently, Click+Clack is designing a monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) overarching plan which seeks to be implemented in the different projects implemented in the organization. The plan includes the methodology, resources and procedures to be put in place in order to collect information from the end users before, during and after interventions. Currently, according to the Nesta’s Standards of Evidence, Click+Clack is in Level 2: we gather data that shows some change amongst those receiving the interventions but we cannot infer causality. 

As part of our MEL plan we are designing feedback channels to collect end-user feedback before, during and after the implementation of the project; data collection tools together with the guidance on use(s); data workflow from the point where it is collected to the point where it is analyzed; and monitoring work plan to schedule monitoring-related events that will occur during the project. Some of the methods that have been considered are 

-pre/during/post surveys; 

-focus groups or semi-structured interviews to identify needs before the intervention, 

-focus groups or semi-structured interviews to assess usability and clarity during the intervention’s planning but before implementation;

-focus groups or semi-structured interviews during and after implementation to assess relevance, satisfaction and perception of impact.

Currently the entity works with output indicators which inform if the activities were carried out as planned, if the target groups were reached and if they accepted the intervention. Through attendance lists and delivery certificates which are later systematized Click+Clack is able to map the number of children who have been reached, number of delivered materials, of teachers who have completed a certain number of training sessions, among others. Regarding outcome indicators Click+Clack bases its information on focus groups and interviews during or after training sessions or implementations, to assess teachers’, families’ and students’ perception of impact. However, there are no current instruments or methodologies that collect information regarding changes in attitudes/behaviors, development of new skills, nor impact indicators (society changes). These two categories are the ones Click+Clack plans to address through the MEL Plan described above. 

A multiplatform curriculum and training that addresses kids and teachers learning needs in contexts of emergencies in Colombia and Latin America

Click+Clack’s business model, therefore, the contents created and projects implemented, would be strengthened if its mindset incorporated more evidence-based frameworks and methodologies. It is important to clarify that by “evidence-based” Click+Clack is not only referring to science-based or “state of the art” procedures or contents but also community co-creation methodologies. 

-It would be very important for C+C to be able to respond two questions regarding its creations: 1. “how does the end user understand certain issue that this content is addressing”, 2.“how do we know we are delivering the impact we promised?”. These research questions should then be transparent in every design (content or intervention wise): a direct correspondence between those user-based needs and the creations should be evident, and C+C should always be in the capacity to speak to the impact it’s creations have in the intended users. Thus, it world be very useful for the LEAP Fellows to help C+C design used-centered methodologies to put in place before, during and after new contents or interventions are designed.

We are foreseeing growth of our activities in Mexico and Central America over the next 5 years and this expansion will need that we will be able to capture the needs of communities that are scattered around very different regions and which have different needs.