Inspiration
With the traditional educational system in developing countries, instructions are only based on textbooks, lectures, and individual written assignments. Because of this, learning is not done in real-time and 'live science' is never delivered. Students only learn by imagining things taught by teachers or read from a textbook. Students don’t have a direct connection to what is being taught because they can’t feel it in their present environment. Much of the subject matter in traditional science curricula relates to phenomena which are either too large or too small to be studied directly. Many learners in developing countries, especially the youngest and minority groups, are not fluent in the language of instruction.
We carried out a user survey and we found out that that the most significant obstacle facing learners is lack of access to technology followed by lack of good learning environment.
This has resulted in a wide skill gap and is faced with the challenge of redefining a foundational education to keep up with the evolution of skills required to solve problems, innovate and succeed. To solve this problem, we built Skylar.
What it does
Skylar is an online educational platform where students in developing countries can learn in real-time and gain relevant work skills and have access to job internships and global apprenticeship opportunities.
Students can enroll in Skylar to study the latest trends in earth observation, they can learn earth monitoring skills and then take an assessment.
We incorporate mix media pictures, texts and audio to make allow people in regions of low internet connection to have a smooth experience with Skylar
We offer learning incentives where students earn tokens for outstanding performance in Skylar.
After the learning process students can enroll virtual internship with a construction company in Singapore to offer their skills and in turn get paid.
We incorporated augmented reality in learning to help learners interact with what is being taught
The unique thing about Skylar is that we deliver SDG-centered learning which enables learners to participate in projects that impact the world positively.
Students will be giving mini-tasks that they can earn points after completing task.
This will enable students to experience the true importance of education
To bridge the gap of the digital divide, we've added an AI assistant in Skylar to achieve accessibility for learners with low digital skills
We use DigitalBits which is a blockchain Blockchain technology for the real world that is open to everyone.
We chose DigitalBits because it makes it possible to move money with a digital representation of money in the form of Loyalty points, gift cards, fan tokens, digital currencies and more.
One of the challenges facing Africa’s gig economy is receiving payments. Freelance and workers in Africa find it hard receive payments from global clients easily. Gig platforms are challenged by meeting local payment dynamics, regulations, and compliance. With DigitalBits we are providing a platform locally preferred payment acceptance methods.
Students can spend the token they get by buying premium educational contents from our partner organizations like IBM who accept this tokens.
How we built it
Skylar was built with Android studio with Java programming language and the augmented reality app was built with Unity engine.
Challenges we ran into
We are beginners in android app development and the time was to short.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud to have built our first prototype through tis hackathon
What we learned
We’ve gained hands-on experience through the workshops and we have seen practical ways to apply programming in the real world.
What's next for Skylar
We are going to be testing Skykar with real users, we will go to different schools to see how students interact with these games and get parents/teachers' feedback, we will then proceed to build the main product by considering the feedback we’ve gotten.
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