ONEBILLION
28 October 2016onebillion is a non-profit organisation that provides literacy and numeracy teaching to under privileged children in some of the remotest and deprived parts of the world including locations in Malawi, Uganda and India. The organisation develops English and Maths apps for 3-6 year olds that cover the whole curriculum – onebillion’s aim, and the clue is in the title, is to bring education to one billion marginalised children.
The Project
To fulfil their aim onebillion has set up what they call ‘oneclass’ learning centres where local teachers teach the entire Maths curriculum to young children in their own language (the Maths app is already available in over 50 languages). Pupils are monitored via the internet and so far it has been proven that what used to take 18 months to learn is now accomplished in just 6 weeks, these results along with the independent research undertaken by the University of Nottingham are helping fuel the project.
To enable teachers to share material with every child in the class they needed a self-contained, secure solar-powered projection solution. The end product included the projector, a tablet, a media streaming device to view films from the internet and other sources, speakers, long life battery and all associated cables.
The Project
Because the oneclass learning centres are in some of the most remote regions in the world they have faced some huge challenges; lack of electricity, dark classrooms, availability of text books, class sizes (up to 300 pupils), transport and communications.
onebillion required a single contained device, a protective and easily portable case, allowing the classroom teacher to use the app and project onto a classroom wall. The case needed to contain all the equipment safely and securely – weight, protection and durability were key to the issues that needed to be accounted for during the design process and product development planning.