SWL Learn

We find ourselves in an era where students view education as nothing more than merely passing an exam and teachers who aren't inspired to be of service to students but think of their role as merely a duty. 

We have to look at how we're setting up our children. Are we doing enough to support them to thrive? Shouldn't our education raise us to live wholistic lives and train us with values like collaboration or being curious to reason through things and having empathy for one another? 

Education is our entire life. How do we use Education to train people to continue to learn for their entire life? We clearly have to rethink what Education is.

So we started SWL Learn; a mobile-first, STEM-based and AR-enabled service that facilitates gender balance, and we believe should be the centre of everything education. Think education, think SWL Learn.

Largely, the education system in Ghana and Africa has placed little or no emphasis on the practicality of knowledge acquired in the classroom. The result? A vast number of graduates, who are diffident in their ability to solve real-life problems. The practical skills needed to render graduates employable are either lacking or do not match employer demands. Secondly, there is the need to cater for marginalized females (such as those who get pregnant by choice or rape or play care-giver roles and cannot physically be in school). Clearly, there is the need to rethink education if the status quo must be challenged. 

If these needs did not suffice as proof, 2020 has proved it even more. The turn of this new decade has thrown the world into the most unexpected global challenge ever experienced since World War II. All forms of human endeavor have been affected, including education. The world will never be the same. The pandemic has launched the world into a “new normal”; we must now begin to necessarily adopt new ways of doing things. This is where technology functions as the force making the impossible possible. Technology cuts through all spheres of human-endeavor; education is no exception.

SWL Learn is a revolutionary learning experience for everyone any day, anytime and anyplace.

Imagine dropping your heavy school bag and picking up all your school books in the palm of your hand. We made that possible by putting together curriculum-based textbooks for K-12, and giving them to you on your mobile device. 

We made available a curated list of story-books for different age groups as well to help improve reading, engage senses through illustrations and teach values and morals such as empathy. Engagement is a great learning connection for the girl-child. 

And then we thought, what if your books could come alive? What if you could mix reality with imagination? And so we added an interactive learning section where you can enjoy your books with Augmented Reality. 

We also decided to make it possible to carry your science laboratory with you wherever you go so we optionally added the DEXT science set to the package with tutorial videos. 

Being developers ourselves we couldn't leave out training in software programming. We wanted the experience to be seamless and interactive so we created our own pseudo-programming language called "Protocode" and made it available with training videos, for self-tutoring. 

Currently, our curriculum-based content, STEM and Augmented Reality (AR) Experiences cover children in K-12. 

Our "Protocode" technology is for everyone. Traditionally, a programming class is a boyish thing. "Protocode" affords live or self-guided on-demand lessons, where young girls can also learn to programme without being stereotyped.

Research (https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00060.2006) has found that women’s learning style preferences lean more towards Kinesthetics (learning from touch, hearing, smell, taste, and sight) compared to men. The SWL Learn App uses Augmented Reality (AR) to stimulate the senses of learners, heightening their engagement and interactivity.  AR also inspires empathy. The combination of interactivity and engagement with emotion enhances the ability of students, particularly females, to remember what they’ve learned– and lead to faster acquisition of information and skills. 

Our target group enjoys self-guided education (live and on-demand), story books to improve vocabulary and instill values, stimulated learning with AR, being equipped with employable skills (Software Programming), and receiving quality education at an affordable price. 

The development of our solution thrives on a feedback loop from the reviews on the app, feedback from live Protocode class, and monitoring content consumption which will incorporate AI to create a better user experience.

Practical learning in Africa is a challenge. Research has found that women’s learning style preferences lean more towards Kinesthetics compared to men. In our revolutionary approach to education, we have provided Augmented Reality experiences that stimulate imaginative thinking. This teaches the girl-child to embrace technology and offers them an upperhand in the technological landscape. The inclusion of the DEXT Science Set offers a practical way to learn and experiment in a safe environment, that allows them to fall and try again, teaching confidence and resilience. Also, “Protocode” ensures that they are equipped with software programming skills to boost their employability.

The use of Augmented Reality (AR) characterizes our solution as ground-breaking. While there may be other digital educational apps on the market, none employs the use of this innovative technology. At SWL Learn, we have done more than digitize books and provide educational games for students; we have gone the extra mile to trouble shoot the pitfalls of our current educational system and are committed to addressing the root cause. We invest in research and development and streamline our solutions to ensure that our contribution to education truly makes a difference. 

Based on our research findings, we found that the learning style preference of females leans towards Kinesthetics. SWL Learn uses AR to improve upon engagement and interactivity, making it suitable for the girl-child.

Additionally, our "Protocode" technology is our response to thinking outside the box. We seek to introduce programming to students at an early age, so they can be STEM-oriented. Software programming is fast becoming a required skill for the global job market and we are committed to empowering our young generation for the future. We seek to demystify the notion of programming being a “boyish thing”; girls too must be equipped with these skills to meet the demands of the ever-changing job market. 

Our revolutionary educational service is available on mobile devices. The portability of these devices ensures that education can be enjoyed anyway, any time and anyplace.

Harnessing the camera capabilities of these mobile devices, we could bring the content being learned to life with Augmented Reality thus providing an immersive and creative-thinking learning environment .

Leveraging the DEXT Science set we have been able to provide the experience of portable robotics technology as well as portable science experiments.

Our proprietary Protocode technology ensures that learning to programme is as easy as can be.

We are currently training machine learning models to provided better customer experience.

Our service is loved by all our current users and this is underscored by our 4.9 rating on the Google Play store.

Every woman and girl-child that will use this service will definitely be thoroughly equipped for a bright future and better prospects in the job market.

Here are some other videos that demonstrate the service.

The Full 360 of SWL Learn

Protocode Excerpts 1

Protocode Excerpts 2

Our theory of change has the following components:

1. The Need - We seek to promote the cause of "Rethinking Education"; we seek to make education practical, experiential and empowering in a rapidly-evolving world. We believe in making education affordable and available to all - none should be denied access to quality education, or miss the opportunity to gain employable skills such as software programming. There is the need to bridge the gap of access to education between male and female. Software programming should be viewed not as a "male" skill but a gender-inclusive skill for females to also have, in order to contribute to the global earnings of females. 

2. Target Population - All learning groups, particularly the young girl-child.

3. Core-components - The use of technology such as Augmented Reality (AR), digital skills such as programming, and engaging and interactive learning facilitated by product features such Dext science lab and Protocode. Additionally, we are constantly receiving feedback from our users especially on Google Play store where we have a rating of 4.9. We also take feedback during our live teaching sessions as well. We use this feedback to improve the our customer experience.

4. Outcomes - Provision of quality education to the young generation; contributing to the wholistic development of the child; equipping the young generation, particularly the girl-child with employable skills such as programming; challenging the status quo of the traditional education model in Ghana and Africa; increasing employment rates across the African continent; helping marginalized girls (such as those who get pregnant either by choice or rape or who play caregiver roles and therefore cannot physically be in class) and young women to access quality learning opportunities to succeed. 

5. Hypothesis - The impact of a reformed educational system will be evident when the use of the SWL Learn app has increased across Ghana and beyond. 

We currently have over 400 downloads on the Google Play Store with a rating of 4.9. We seek to scale by marketing to at least 500,000 downloads in a year  and 8 million downloads in 5 years.

1. Improving accessibility of the app to people living with disabilities. We seek to make the application all-inclusive and make provisions for all parties to benefit as best as they can.

2. Developing more immersive and interactive content for our Augmented Reality and Games section. 

3. Improving user experience by employing machine learning algorithms and models to offer more tailored experiences.

4. Getting more story books especially from public domain as well as interested partners and making them interactive as well. This we believe will instill required values in our young women and catapult them for greater success.

5. Building on Protocode and moving it to other platforms. Our aim is to have some of these young women graduates help build upon the platform so that posterity can also benefit from it.

6. Developing extra practice content for our STEM section especially in the are of the Internet of Things (IoT), working closely with DEXT Technologies; our STEM education partner.

Funding for marketing, administration, customer support, research and development and for developing key features of the app for the next stage.

We seek equity or grant financing to fund our marketing and administration, customer service, research and development and app development and maintenance operations.

We are the digital innovation transformation subsidiary of SAM-WOODE PLC.

Full-time - 2

Part-time - 3

As the Executive Director and Lead Software Developer for SWL Learn, I have 5 years experience in developing cross-platform mobile applications that run on iOS and Android. This experience and exposure has made it possible for me to single handedly develop the frontend and backend server of this innovative application. Leveraging my competent skills in software development to inculcate Augmented Reality; a feat not many have achieved, and artificial Intelligence in the form of machine learning to offer customized user experiences.

Our Parent Company Sam-Woode PLC, is well versed in manuscript publication. With our digital edge, we helped move the entire manuscript production online making the process extra convenient in these covid-plagued times. The existing print-on-demand press is a valuable asset to us for our physical books production.

Through our strategic partnerships with DEXT Technologies, who provide us with the Science Set, Adroit Bureau Ltd, who have a cumulative software programming experience of over 40 years, and offer us with software consultancy services and Sales Horde, who are going to help us with our marketing and sales 

1. Adroit Bureau - Software Consultant

2. SBinc Ltd - Stage 1 Investor

3. Maverick Edifice - Technical Back-Up Support

4. Sales Horde - Marketing Consultant

5. DEXT Technologies - Providers of the Science Set

We have only just started making the service generally available and commercializing it this month (June 2020). Our current marketing channels consist of word of mouth and organic and paid ads on Facebook.

Our current rating of 4.9 on Google play underscores the admiration of our users towards our service offering.

Our revenue model is based on offering quality education at "too good to be true" prices. We employed a subscription based payment model to ensure continuous delivery of great content to our users billable annually. 

We have three subscription models, each delivery a service pack available to a predetermined number of devices. Because most of our subscription packages allow for multiple devices, more women and young girls could benefit from just a single subscription.

Ensuring financial stability will consist but not be limited to seeking for grant or equity financing and selling subscriptions to our service packages.

We believe our application here will grant us constructive and collaborative partnerships with other who believe in our cause of revolutionizing and rethinking education in Africa.

We believe that these partnerships will go a long way to provide us with capital, advice, marketing and other support services that will make this a great innovation for all, especially, women and children.

In order to achieve our objectives, we would like to seek partnerships to support us in:

1. Building constructive networks that can mentor and advise on business strategy.

2. Collaborating with us to develop even better innovative content for our service.

3. Marketing and sales of our services.

4. Providing investments or grants to further our just cause.

Partners that can support us in any of the above initiatives.

The influx of refugees in many countries, creates a general concern of they becoming a burden on the country's resources. There is also a "fear" of foreigners "stealing" jobs of citizens. Truth be told, refugees or migrants who are not economically integrated will inadvertently depend on the state. In effect, taxpayers’ money are resorted to to cater for them. To address some of these concerns, it is important to think of how refugees can be empowered to become employable. Many of these refugees come along with their children. We believe the best gift to give these young ones is education.

Should SWL Learn be awarded the Andan Prize, our financial capacity would be strengthened to do more, so we can expand our efforts to cover refugee inclusion. 

A few decades ago in Ghana, there was a lot of discrimination about education the girl-child. It was not until the late 1990's that active campaign efforts and TV commercials promoted the cause of sending your girl-child to school. While the situation has seen significant improvement, there is certainly more that can be done. 

As explained in responses to previous questions, the SWL Learn app is tailored to engage interaction and engagement in a way that is suitable for the girl-child. Girls retain information best by relating to their senses - sight, feel, touch, smell etc. Through the uses of AR, this is made possible in the app. 

Winning the Innovation for Women Prize, will strengthen our financial capacity to do more, so we can expand our efforts to advance the cause of women and girls, particularly across the African continent.

A few decades ago in Ghana, there was a lot of discrimination about education the girl-child. It was not until the late 1990's that active campaign efforts and TV commercials promoted the cause of sending your girl-child to school. While the situation has seen significant improvement, there is certainly more that can be done. 

As explained in responses to previous questions, the SWL Learn app is tailored to engage interaction and engagement in a way that is suitable for the girl-child. Girls retain information best by relating to their senses - sight, feel, touch, smell etc. Through the uses of AR, this is made possible in the app. 

Winning the Innovation for Women Prize, will strengthen our financial capacity to do more, so we can expand our efforts to advance the cause of women and girls, particularly across the African continent.

In Ghana, a mass literacy campaign was started in 1951 as part of an overall community development program. The primary aim was to teach adults to read and write in their own languages as well as in English. Since then, there have been continued efforts to address the issue of illiteracy in the adult population. Resource material in the SWL Learn app are made easy to understand and fun to study. What better way for illiterate adults to learn English and many other concepts of interest to them?

Winning the Gulbenkian Award for Adult Literacy, will strengthen our financial capacity to do more and expand our reach, so we can contribute to the promoting Adult Literacy in Ghana and beyond. 

The development of the innovative features in the SWL Learn app has been made possible by the use of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Augmented Reality. We are committed to staying abreast of emerging trends and incorporating ground-breaking technology into our product development, in order to deliver the best digital solutions. 

In the event that we are awarded the AI for Humanity Prize, we will use the sponsorship received to invest into Research and Development (R & D). We place a lot of priority on  R & D because we believe in a culture of continual learning. 

SWL Learn was born out of an intense desire to be of use to society and the world at large. Our problem-solving attitude keeps us going. SWL Learn App is a solution that is beyond our personal interest. We are inspired to do what we do because we believe we can make a difference. 

We are committed to rethinking education and helping the entire African continent do the same. We envision the world being a better place, because we invested in giving our children quality education.

We believe that being awarded the Future Planet Capital Prize will grant us the following:

1. Networking opportunities to connect with the world’s largest investors to profitably address global challenges.

2. $200,000 in investment funds. With this, our financial capacity will be strengthened to scale up our efforts on a global scale.