Crystal Assistive Educational Technology Services

We provide inclusive and equitable computing training for children and adolescents of all abilities, empowering and helping them prepare for the future of work, and providing a long-term solution to unemployment. 

- Target Beneficiary

Our target beneficiaries are children and adolescents of different abilities, especially in low and middle-income communities.

- Problem Statement

Poor access to inclusive computing education due to high cost and limited technical knowledge.

- How we bridge the learning gap for underserved children (solution)

We collaborate with technology hubs around the community, which provide the learning space and, in most cases, computers (for children without laptops) and the internet.

As a result of the shortage of technically sound teachers, we provide high-quality train the trainer (TTT) sessions for the facilitators, using our curriculum to enable them to teach with confidence and effectiveness. 

We use both our custom in-house tools and open-source tools and software to help accommodate the individualized learning needs of all children and adolescents.

We carried out a one-on-one baseline interview before proceeding with the pilot program. The interview was carried out with the participants (children and adolescents) to help us better understand their current skill levels and personalized learning needs. With the results obtained, we modified our curriculum and teaching tools to address the knowledge gaps and accommodate the learning needs of all participants.

We just concluded the first phase of our three-month pilot program in the North-West (Kaduna) zone of Nigeria. We have been able to gather relevant insights and experience, as well as feedback from participants and parents, which we intend to apply in our next cohort.

Activities

Children and adolescents are taught the theoretical aspects of technology, computational thinking, and problem-solving using teaching approaches that support equal participation in the classroom.

Outputs

Children and adolescents gain competency in various concepts of computational thinking and problem-solving.

Short Term Outcomes

Children and adolescents demonstrate their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills by creating computer programs to solve specific tasks using tools that meet their personalized learning needs and then applying their knowledge to solve more complex real-life problems.

Long Term Outcomes

Children and adolescents become more confident and better prepared for future jobs and leverage their knowledge and skills to create change and social impact in their communities regardless of their challenges or limitations.

Based on Nesta's Standards of Evidence, we are at Level 2 integration. We have completed the first phase of our pilot inclusive computing program for children and adolescents of all abilities, including those with special needs. We have collected feedback from participants of the training via endline assessments (students' final project evaluations), which are used to measure the impact of our solution and help us, and parents to:

• Track the progress and development of every child concerning creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving.
• View the entire participants' learning outcomes and program impact.

We are committed to pursuing even more progress, and our long-term targets include Levels 4 and 5. Creating a framework structure will be a part of this process, which will also help us create goals that help us assess our impact. By doing this, we can verify that we are giving these children positive outcomes and identifying areas that require improvement. One of the key justifications for our application to host a LEAP project is this.

To track and measure our solution's impact, we carry out a formative assessment at the close of each day, and summative assessments at the end of each topic(two weeks intervals). At the end of the entire training duration (3 months), an overall evaluation is conducted to measure student learning outcomes. This is carried out through a special event titled "CODE KATA DAY" or "DEMO DAY". The code kata day gives the learners the opportunity to share their success with friends, parents, and teachers by demonstrating and showcasing their final project and explaining how they developed it.

Evidence Sources

Our evidence sources include: 

• Self-evaluation with the participants
• Parent discussion forum.

Sample Evidence of a participant's final project

https://youtu.be/1zXWfSNS_Rw

Live projects links:

Website project using HTML, CSS, and JAVASCRIPT

Game project using HTML, CSS, and Javascript

This evidence form helps us stay aligned to our big picture of creating accessible and affordable education for all children and adolescents of different abilities, which also aligns with the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” 

Accessible and inclusive Computing Education for young children and adolescents of all abilities.

We would like the LEAP FELLOW to assist us with the following:

Develop a roadmap for strategic global market opportunities and partnerships as well as identify the gaps and needs required to scale the business in the next 3 to 5 years. Also, it may include identifying opportunities for product and service distribution (e.g., expanding the client base).