OER4Schools

OER4Schools is a Centre for Youth Empowerment and Leadership (CYEL) award winning initiative that was launched in 2014, with the overarching aim of supporting the development of young children from rural communities in Kakamega County.

This holistic early childhood education and brain-training programme is conducted in a flipped learning environment through a variety of technology based gamification, hands-on activities and guided play.
The primary objective of these activities is to engage children in their own sphere, in the quest to enrich their growing minds.

Our pilot project that was funded by AFRINIC, JustPeoples, Spark International, and The Pollination Project, targeted rural and undeserving kids aged between 2 years and 8 years, and sought to improve the lives of this at-risk children and their families by helping them cultivate and sustain the culture of early childhood development-rich environments, and motivation for reading.

Many rural and low-income children enter first grade with a significant learning gap compared to their urban wealthier peers. 70% of low-income third graders fail to read proficiently at grade level, compared to just 5% of their peers in urban settings.

OER4Schools is thus committed to intervening early to improve early childhood development that will culminate to improved literacy skills and literacy instruction in preschool and Early Childhood Development Education Centers (ECDEs), an aspect that will help close the achievement gap in reading, writing, and intuitiveness.

Our novel idea incorporates the use of technology (tablets/e-books) in a “flipped learning” environment, in efforts to support and provide learners with valuable learning tools needed to stimulate early childhood brain development through a variety of gamification (animations, interactive fun quizzes, Baby TV nursery rhymes, pictures, mind maze), hands-on activities and guided play. We are of the belief that engaging pupils in their own sphere will enrich their growing minds.

The initiative serves young rural children, many of whom are from low income settings, thus have little or no access to early brain development programmes as compared to their urban counterparts.
This means that by the time they enter first grade, they encounter a significant learning gap (compared to their urban wealthier peers), a fact that largely contributes to a widened achievement gap and low literacy skills and instruction. 

Intervening early to bridge this gap therefore immensely improves early literacy and grade-level reading skills of these young children in preschool and Early Childhood Development Education Centers (ECDE).
This is mainly achieved through our professional development of preschool and early elementary classroom (grades 1-3), by providing appropriate socio-technological innovation tools, book,  and other learning materials that are age and reading stage appropriate.

Our solution has designed an early childhood capacity building development model that incorporates the use of social and technological innovations (pre-loaded kids tablets/e-books), gamification and guided play, aimed at delivering high-quality learning opportunities to young children and rural Early Childhood Development Education Centers (ECDEs) in Kakamega County.

Our solution works to: 

• Ensure the holistic needs of young children are met to maximize the realization of their full potential, physical health and well being.
• Ensure the brain development programme is Child-centric, and that it gives the child the freedom to engage in their own sphere.
• Strengthen community based management of early childhood services as the most effective sustainable development.
• Address issues of vulnerable and marginalized children, and provides affirmative action for them. Non discrimination of children and or their families on basis of gender, religion, tribe, economic status, health status and disability.

We are of the belief that these will empower kids gain:

• Increased passion for learning by engaging them in their own sphere
• Improved concentration and attention span
• Strong linguistic foundation
• Increased creativity
• A well developed photographic memory
• Strong visualisation skills
• Sharpened observation skills
• High-speed information processing ability

The project is also an avenue for research on best practices in early childhood education in rural areas in Kakamega County

Our novel idea is different from other approaches as it incorporates the use of technology (tablets/e-books) in a “flipped learning” environment, in efforts to support and provide learners with valuable learning tools needed to stimulate early childhood brain development through a variety of gamification (animations, interactive fun quizzes, Baby TV nursery rhymes, pictures, mind maze), hands-on activities and guided play.

Our project has designed an early childhood capacity building development model that incorporates the use of social and technological innovations (pre-loaded kids tablets/e-books) and guided play, aimed at delivering high-quality learning opportunities to young children and rural Early Childhood Development Education Centers (ECDEs)

OER4Schools envisions building capacities with 10 rural schools and Early Childhood Development Education Centers (ECDEs), in efforts to reach 2,000 kids in two counties, within a stipulated time of one year.

The anticipated impact of the innovation is to:

• Catalyse passion for learning among 2,000 rural young children
• Build capacity with 10 Early Childhood Development Education Centers
• Improve concentration and attention span of kids
• Build strong linguistic foundation among kids
• Increase creativity among kids
• Empower kids develop a sharp photographic memory
• Improve spatial intelligence
• Impart strong visualisation skills
• Sharpen observation skills
• Fine tune auditory processing ability
• Instill high-speed information processing ability

We are currently serving 300 (two schools), we anticipate to serve 2,000 in the coming year (10 schools), and 6,000 in the next 5 years (40 schools)

Our goal is to scale from 2 to 10 schools, then eventually 40, in effort to keep intervening early to bridge the brain development gap in efforts to immensely improve early literacy and grade-level reading skills of young children in these preschool and Early Childhood Development Education Centers (ECDE). This will be achieved through our professional development of preschool and early elementary classroom (grades 1-3), by providing appropriate socio-technological innovation tools, book,  and other learning materials that are age and reading stage appropriate.

We solely depend on grants and individuals of goodwill to run our initiative.

Of the 10 targeted ECDE Centers, only 2 have teacher technology transfer capacity courtesy of our OER4Schools pilot ECDE project.

However, the fact that the 10 ECDE Centers have basic requirements such as electricity, and proximity point to wireless technologies, it will be easier for our innovation to be introduced/scaled, and integrated into education to drive ECDE goals and needs, to effectively and equitably address the key needs of lifelong learning for the young children in the marginalized communities.

We will conduct training and capacity building with educators/practitioners for ECDE/brain development programme  implementation

3 Full time staff
2 Volunteers
1 Contractor

The team comprises of technologists, educators, and community development practitioners.

Further, the team has been involved in running the pilot phase of the early childhood development programme (OER4Schools) for the past 4 years, thus have all it takes to successfully implement the scaling of this project

Just Peoples
https://www.justpeoples.org/
Helping people and businesses make a social impact by matching them with micro-projects which address global poverty.

Our innovation works with ECDEs in marginalized and poverty stricken rural areas, and it incorporates the use of technology (tablets/e-books) in a “flipped learning” environment, in efforts to support and provide learners with valuable learning tools needed to stimulate early childhood brain development through a variety of gamification (animations, interactive fun quizzes, Baby TV nursery rhymes, pictures, mind maze), hands-on activities and guided play.

We currently are not earning any revenue, but are assessing the viability of the following sustainability approaches:
 Endowments – Not for Profits continued funding of the OER4Schools initiative (UNESCO, UNICEF, COL)
 Membership – Other neighbouring Early Childhood Development Education Centers (ECDEs) subscribing to be part of the larger consortium of the OER4schools initiative
 Donations from individuals of goodwill to support the OER4Schools initiative
 Sponsorships from companies though Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
 Government support/partnership (Ministry of Education/Kenya National library/ICT Ministry)
 Public-Private Partnership Initiatives (Baby TV, Ubongo Kids)

We are applying with the hypothesis that:

• Use of technology in “flipped learning” environments stimulates early childhood brain development
• Use of technology improves student curiosity, performance and satisfaction
• Use of technology widens participation in education
• Use of technology helps at-risk learners to gain a strong interest in their studies
  

The Expected results are:

• Increased access to teaching /learning e-models for delivery and access of early childhood development and primary education curriculum  
• Use of relevant high quality teaching/learning materials for delivery of early childhood and primary education curriculum (audio, video, simulation, animation).
• Increased learners’ motivation and need to participate in learning experiences that extend beyond their classrooms.
• Improved child concentration and attention span
• Improved strong linguistic foundation
• Increased child creativity
• A well developed photographic memory
• Developed strong visualisation skills
• Sharpened observation skills

Google
Facebook
IBM
Web Foundation

Their partnership could be vital in terms of support with technology/devices/Internet