Solution Overview

Solution Name

Self-empowering Education Ecosystem

One-line solution summary

FCN builds a self-sustainable innovative learning ecosystem with evidence based training, learning contents and platform to bridge the equity gaps.

Pitch your solution

In pursuit of the educational crisis and bridging the equity gap, resources have been pumped into tech-base solutions and hardware yet the gap is unsolved. Alternative education policies and frameworks have been proposed and discussed however the cycle of error has been repeated for decades with no actualization and real proven practises at hand. The pandemic simply exposed these inequalities and aggravated the gap further challenging educator’s resilience and call for action. FCN has been building a sustainable innovative education ecosystem by test-prove-upgrade-distributing innovative pedagogical methodology using ICT to facilitate student-led learning in the classrooms prior and during pandemic. With this tested and proven core educational solution at hand FCN offers holistic solution ecosystem by 1) training the trainees with innovative pedagogy 2) producing online contents with secrets to effective hybrid learning 3) providing a learning platform that manages student-led learning 4) providing a platform for teacher community to share and stimulate one another and spread know-hows for constant development. FCN model can be effectively implemented in Philippines

Film your elevator pitch.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Increase equitable access to quality learning opportunities through open sourced, offline, or virtual models, especially for underserved learners in low connectivity environments

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:

Seoul, 대한민국

Is your solution working in Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and/or Malaysia?

  • Philippines

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Growth: An initiative, venture, or organization with an established product, service, or business model rolled out in one or, ideally, several contexts or communities, which is poised for further growth

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Chan Pil Jung

More About Your Solution

Which of the following categories best describes your solution?

A new application of an existing technology

What makes your solution innovative?

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FCN’s primary target are teachers who are struggling with the helplessness of their students and are failing to change the quality of education themselves.

FCN's solution is practical, activity based built on the future education philosophy, immediately applicable and proven. It not only transfers the learning skills but also the philosophical approach towards education which brings educator's behavioral change accompanied with mindset shift. 

FCN together with The Ministry of Education and the Office of Education jointly plan a teacher training project for the teachers nationwide. FCN provided in-service training on behalf of the state office. FCN built a community for teachers who participated in the training for further growth and support. FCN has gone international and created an effective teacher's training model beyond border. FCN model also went beyond classroom assisting learner's out of school, parents in the community to influence their child as well as their neighborhood. 

FCN solution is innovative because it is proven and adoptable in any learning space. 

Have you tested your solution’s approach? If so, how?

We have documented and produced impact assessment report to prove our effectiveness. Our teachers and students are living evidence to our solution and also proves our solution to be impactful in addtion to our proven record of various projects with various educational agencies and our continuing activity with various partners across the sector. 

Our solution is been recognized by the international community (cited in OECD report). Also we have developed an impact assessment framework recently of which the report is being translated for international stakeholders. 

Describe the core technology that powers your solution.

Our core technology is our educational methodology to actualize future education here and now and managing grassroots level teacher's community that is in constant innovation. 

We use existing and free online tools as much as possible because we believe the edtech is not at the centre of innovation. It is about how to apply those existing technology to assist, stimulate, promote learning. 

Our recent invention of training program during pandemic has proven that with the minimum use of online tools we can actualize student-led learning even in online. If an educator has not transform their original classroom to a student-led classroom, that educator has little chance to carry an effective learning online. 

From our collective training camp, to our real time interactive online training, we maintain participant-centred teaching and training which is the core technology of our solution. On the basis of this approach we constantly evolve and develop programs to the needs of our education partner. 

What is your theory of change?

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Our main intervention is teacher's training program that is effective, real and hands on. Our teacher empowerment program not only transfers the skills but also self-efficacy, confidence and mindshift towards future education. Once the participant acquires this elements from the training, we witnessed that the participant goes further to develop oneself even more and gets eager to share what one learnt. Building this community of changed participants, this provides a sustainable solution to the FCN's intervention. 

Which target population(s) does your solution address?

  • Learners to use in classroom
  • Learners to use at home
  • Teachers to use directly
  • Teachers to use with learners
  • Used in public schools
  • Used in private schools
  • Used in ‘out-of-school’ centers
  • Other education system actors

What are the key characteristics of your target population?

  • Women & Girls
  • Children & Adolescents
  • Rural
  • Peri-Urban
  • Urban
  • Poor
  • Low-Income
  • Middle-Income
  • Refugees & Internally Displaced Persons
  • Minorities & Previously Excluded Populations
  • Persons with Disabilities

Which categories best describe your main EdTech product or service?

  • Communication, collaboration, and networks
  • Educator training and capacity building
  • Management information systems
  • Personalized and adaptive learning

In which countries will you be operating within the next year?

  • Azerbaijan
  • Korea, Rep.
  • Philippines

How are you measuring your progress toward your impact goals?

We have list of standarised tool that is measured prior (on some occasions for a impact assessment project) and after each camp or training sessions. 

We hold original data to all the participant's measurement of which we analyze and produce report for specific projects. 

We also record interviews and focus group discussion to measure the improvement of self-efficacy and future competency skills like communication, collaboration, problem-sovling etc. 

One of the report is impact assessment framework study that we recently published that is in process of translation. 

What are your impact goals for the next year, the next three years, and the next five years? How will you achieve them?

We will be replicating in Philippines of what we have already tried out in Azerbaijan in a smaller scale as per budget. We will be using impact measurement that we have been using.  

Our initial impact goal is to empower teachers and measure their self-efficacy, confidence, methodological improvement and desire to build teacher's community to collectively bring innovation to bridge the equity gaps and continue that effort.  

Our next impact goal is to measure students in their performance as a result of teacher's transformation. 

What barriers currently exist for you to accomplish your impact goals?

  • Technology
  • Financing
  • Legal
  • Market entry

Describe these barriers as they relate to your solution. How do you plan to overcome them?

We will be constantly seeking international donor program and technological partners to aid in our mission 

More About Your Team

Please provide a brief history of your organization. What was the motivation behind starting your organization and/or the development of your solution?

In 2013, I made an educational experiment documentary with 4 teachers, the purpose was to explore the possibilities and methods of education to overcome the limitations of existing school education and to grow future competencies in classes. Through an experiment in the first semester, we found that when a learning environment based on student-led, peer-learning was created, an overwhelming learning improvement effect that exceeded expectations was generated. 

Above all, we witnessed the dramatic process of students who fell into a state of helplessness, which instantly changed to a state of complete immersion, and quickly escaped from a state of learning failure, leading to complete learning. Teachers also witnessed changes in their students, freeing themselves from the existing sense of helplessness, and witnessing a significant increase in self-efficacy and a significant improvement in professional happiness and satisfaction as teachers. 

This result means that the solution used in the experiment has the potential to fundamentally solve various problems in current school education, from educational inequality among students to the transition to future education. This was no just one of effective method, but a condition in which teachers and students can happily immerse themselves in education at the same time, and creating a virtuous cycle was possible. 

From this, FCN was born. It was essential to develop and network teachers as innovative teachers in order to spread and evolve the found solution sustainably. I felt that the experimentation and witnessed experiences were too precious to pass as a one-time experiment. 

What type of organization is your solution team?

Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit

How many people work on your solution team?

Full-time : 20 people

Members : 145 people 

How long have you been working on your solution?

7 years (Since 2014)

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?


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The most distinguishable feature of the FCN is our team consist of qualified teachers who are currently active on the educational field. Retired teacher is serving as the president of the organization who has first hand experience and understanding of the education field. Team lead has been filming and producing education documentary, researching and studying educational policies, framework, theories and its practice around the globe. Under this unique leadership and members FCN adopted OECD Learning Compass 2030 framework and speedily 'develop-test-verify-spread' solutions on a very practical level. FCN has been active in advocating future education through actualizing competency based education in their respective classroom, designing and implementing solution, recording and assessing the impact, leading the discourse around table discussion and networking contributing substantially on the educational paradigm shift in Korea. In addition to core members who deliver the solution, FCN has group of secretariat team with much international and domestic business experience who are able to design, monitor, manage and support solution in addition to media production team who can produce and edit online learning material.

Provide an example of your Team Lead’s ability to conceptualize and implement a new idea.

FCN currently has a library of more than 3,000 cases of teaching methods, which are produced as textbooks for teachers according to subjects and grades, and are distributed to school teachers and educational organizations.

The reason for creating such an amazing result is because it has a cycle of experiment => training ==> school field application => evolution ==> re-spreading ==> training.
 
Originally, the background of the team leader was a broadcast producer. Based on that experience, the results and insights obtained from school field experiments are designed as a program for trainees to effectively experience and grow.

Trained teachers apply the insights and examples obtained from the program to their classes, and try new and improved methods ==> When an effective method is found, it is shared and spread to the community ==> There are enough examples If verified, it will be used in the training program. 

Team lead was behind developing and establishing this structure. 

What organizations do you currently partner with, if any? How are you working with them?

FCN is currently working governmental partner groups on teacher training.

- Working with the Ministry of Education Korea and regional education office on developing and implementing hybrid training programs for teachers and students learning group across the country

- Working with KOICA on Azerbaijan Teachers' Capacity Building and Establishment of Educational Information System project and empowering local teachers and their community for sustainability 

- Working with Ashoka as a partner to create impact in educational space both in Korea and the world

- Working with Korea National University of Education to train pre-service teachers to become future education professionals

- Working with the city and provincial education offices, many other non-profit education organizations, local community centre and various schools from pre-school to tertiary education institutions offering customized learning programs

Partnership & Growth Opportunities

Why are you applying to the Octava Social Innovation Challenge?

Being selected for MIT Solve, it will create an opportunity to spread FCN's proven solution to more wider region and people. 

As FCN solution is increasingly recognized, the demand is ever increasing, hence we are in need of more numbers of trained human manpower who can partner and spread our solution. In particular, as the international edu-ecosystem building project is currently attracting attention as a major project, FCN are in need of much more manpower specialized for international projects and funding partners to support this movement. This award will help us to enlarge the pool of international trainers to partner with.  

In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?

  • Financial (e.g. improving accounting practices, pitching to investors)
  • Network connections (e.g. government, private sector, implementation communities)
  • Public Relations (e.g. branding/marketing strategy, social and global media)
  • Monitoring & Evaluation (e.g. collecting/using data, measuring impact)
  • Product / Service Distribution (e.g. expanding client base)
  • Technology / Technical Support (e.g. software or hardware, web development/design, data analysis, etc.)

Please explain in more detail here.

As the scale of training grows and the level of users increases, the importance of technology is increasing. For the proliferation of FCN solutions, more advanced ICT technologies that can cope with the rising level of users’ demand are still needed. In particular, if AI technology can be used to support more sophisticated matching of accumulated education-related data and education techniques, it will be possible to dramatically reduce the risk of failure and accelerate the qualitative transition of education even in environments where direct support is not possible.

Our online student-led learning management platform we are currently operating is made for a small number of users at low cost. It is urgent to prepare the system to cope with the user increase and improve the function in preparation for continuous demand and customization needs for the wider community. We are in need of technical and financial help to prepare this system.

Solution Team

 
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