Apps for Good

Too many students around the world don’t have access to education, to digital literacy and to the skills they need to solve the social problems they find in their communities. On the other hand the educational system is driving school to failure because the skills taught at schools are getting outdated as the digital transformation is happening so fast.

We believe that technology can create more equality, inclusion and be a colossal force for good to transform lives and communities around the world. 

Apps for Good is an innovative, human-centered, technological educational movement that embodies and addresses education inequalities and promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion in learning environments and communities. Our goal is to create a new global generation of problem-solvers and tech entrepreneurs.

The program delivers free creative technology courses for schools using a digital platform where all the contents necessary for the development of ideas are found, and also using the support of teatchers and specialist volunteers who represent the connection to the real economy. The learning is student-driven, with high-quality content focused on technology and social entrepreneurship. 

Apps for Good allows students to understand how technology can be used to solve a social problem. It gives students the tools, the technological competencies and soft  and comportamental skills they need to thrive and to create a better future.

The program platform is available at: https://www.appsforgood.org.pt/AppsForGood/Home

In an ever-changing world and a digital society, education systems should  contribute to that young learners have access to quality, safe, and equitable learning environments such as to prepare students with the skills and competencies for life, work and citizenship.With the pandemic, the traditional educational system was interrupted, many students were left without classes and school dropouts increased.

Portugal has one of the highest's levels in school failure when compared to European Union. This results not only in major costs for the state annually but also long term social problems. In Portugal 1 in each 5 students  fails or drops out of secondary school. On the other hand we have demotivated and non actualized educators. 30% of teachers would like to stop giving classes.  

This solution shows students the potential of technology in transforming the world.They are challenged to become drivers of change in their communities and to be equipped with the skillset and the mindset to thrive. Our solution aims to create a relevant, rewarding and meaningful learning experience for students and more equitable classrooms where technology is an enable for all, rather than reinforcing existing barriers to students from underserved communities.

Our solution, challenge students and educators to create mobile apps to solve real social problems. With a project methodology, students have the opportunity to experience the product development cycle and be in contact with a network of Experts. The methodology framework has 5 steps: Crash course, idea generation, scoping, product development and pitch. Throughout this framework, the program teachs how technology can be applied to solve a problem, along with improving students confidence and skills in problem solving, collaboration and communication. Students from 10 to 18 years old, are challenged to create their own apps (using different softwares) to solve problems on their communities and to become more active and aware citizens. 

To deliver the program, teachers and students have access to a free platform that facilitates their learning experience, allowing teachers’ experience, motivation and willingness to teach by collaborating with students and other teachers contributing to create more equitable and rich classrooms. Besides, and part of this enhanced experience, the industry experts, professionals from our partners that work in the more diverse industries, voluntaries their time to help the teams of students developing their app, bringing real-life into classrooms and enriching their learning process.

Our beneficiaries are mainly students, young people with 10-18 years old, and teachers from the various areas (even library teachers participate on our program) specially from underserved schools and/or communities.  

Our solution allows students to develop soft and technological skills and inspire them to became social entrepreneurs near underserved communities. On the other hand, teachers have access to an innovative work methodology and structure via an online free platform that supports them in the process of transforming their educational practice and pedagocy with digital use. 

Regarding our visible impact, students report benefits in terms of both hard and soft skills, such as teamwork, creativity, problem-solving, communication and programming (more than 70% report these benefits). Besides, confidence and resilience are enhanced while its relationship with school improves exponentially and school dropout rates fall.

Regarding teachers, Apps for Good was the winner of the 6th edition (2019/2020) of the UNESCO-Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Prize for Outstanding Practice and Performance in Enhancing the Effectiveness of Teachers (https://en.unesco.org/themes/). This prize is recognition that the program fosters collaborative work and implementation of new methodologies, contributes to greater levels of satisfaction and professional engagement and produces benefits in terms of the students’ learning experience and relationship with the educator. 

In Portugal, more than 40% of teachers apply the program in a curricular manner, most are women. More than 43% of students are girls, and more that 10% is underserved population.

In Portugal for 6 completed editions, we have reached more than 13.000 students and 1.300 teachers. We conduct an annual impact evaluation, consulting an academic source (Lisbon’s University Education Institute) and granting full transparency on its data and impact scope. (For more: https://cdi.org.pt/apps-for-good).

Moreover, Apps for Good Portugal has the General Direction of Education (DGE) as one of its partners, certifying our training to teachers and granting the program’s greater alignment with public policies and educational evolution and strategies while contributing to its revitalization (For more: https://www.dge.mec.pt/apps-good)

Lastly, one of the greatest insight source for our evaluation is the follow-up visits and calls that we make to teachers and schools in order to grant their greatest motivation and alignment with the program, with the methodology and with their students in order to get them until the “finish line”. Like this, we are able to be closer to them, hear them and work together to further develop our reach.

Globally the program have already impacted 5 countries and more than 3600 schools, 200 000 students and 1 200 teachers. (For more: https://www.appsforgood.org/impact)

The solution provides a technology-based free plataform that ensure that school learners have access to courses. It also includes strategies and tools for support, peer interaction, collaborative projects and guided independent work. It can be used in physical, remote and hybrid classrooms. It allows learners to develop the technological competencies and the ssoft skills they need to thrive. It also supports teachers’ engagement with new methodologies, provides collaborative ways of delivering content, redefines theacher´s role in classrooms to a more facilitator (less authoritarian). When necessary, we deliver computers, to allow that the program reaches the most underserved students and teachers.

Apps for Good started in UK and is growing at a fast pace since 2010. In Portugal we have a rooted operation in nearly 200 schools / year in Portugal since 2015. In the past edition we piloted an approach in Poland with 5 schools, in a fully remote manner but the pandemic did not allow to go further on that experience. Recalling the stage definitions from the previous section, between pilot and growth we rather consider “growth” since we are planning expansion to all the Portuguese schools. However, given that we are established in just one community (considering Portugal as such), we consider bold to say that we are already in a scaling position, although it is our target – both nationally and internationally.

Apps for Good is a technology-based solution that aims to bring students and teachers closer to new technologies by supporting the transformation of young people's ideas into real technological products (apps) that have direct benefits for the community (for good).

Apps for Good seeks to:

• Increase the engagement of learners in remote, hybrid, and physical environments providing tools tools for peer interaction, and guided independent work.
• Contribute to civic awareness, equality, social inclusion and future employability,
• Enable access to quality learning experiences with a project methodology that stimulates creative and collaboration;
• Support teachers to change their pedagogy, allowing them to communicate with students by remote and hybrid settings. The teacher became a facilitator in the learning process.

In Portugal the program is part of innovation public initiatives like the “Portugal Inovação Social” (a public initiative to promote and support social innovation in Portugal) and INCoDe.2030 (an integrated public policy initiative dedicated to enhancing digital skills). For more: https://inovacaosocial.portugal2020.pt/project/apps-for-good/ and https://www.incode2030.gov.pt/apps-good.

Our solution in 2020/21 served over 4 000 people. In the next school year 2021/22 we expect to reach more that 5 000 people and in five years we expect to reach more than 25 000 people.

We are planning to launch a pilot in 2021-22 in Colombia and Mozambique and we expect to reach 100 people in the first year. In five years we expect to reach 10000 people in these countries.

We measure our progress toward our impact goals as an ongoing ativity which produce deliverables anually. The mains deliverables are infographics and annual impact reports that are available in our site (https://cdi.org.pt/apps-for-good/#impacto).

The program is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and students are challenged to be active agents in creating solutions towards the development of sustainability goals. 

A few specific indicators that we are using to measure the program progress are:

• Number of beneficiaries: schools, students, teatchers;
• Increase in self-confidence in the use of Technologies; 
• Improvement in technological and soft skills;
• Increase in interest in Technologies;
• Increase in social responsibility;
• Application of acquired knowledge in personal, academic and professional life;
• Increased digital literacy.

For instance, the Impact Report showed that 80% of participants believed that increasing awareness about technology was a way to solve social problems and enhance skills. In terms of personal development, they reported improved problem-solving skills (80%), teamwork (85%), communication (76%) and technical skills (75%).

Apps for Good also promoted the development of ICT skills for educators in all dimensions defined by the UNESCO framework: working more collaboratively (73%), more confident in teaching (72%), more satisfied/involved (84%), closer to students (84%) and with more knowledge about students’ capacities (89%).

In 2021 Apps for Good have a team of 11 people, all full-time. Matilde Buisel has managed the implementation of the program in Portugal since it was launched. She has a Master in Clinical Psychology, is certified by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in Project Management and is certified in Pedagogical Skills. For more: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matilde-buisel-59b8b0bb/

Apps for Good is an international programme based in London that was founded in 2010.The pilot project in Portugal was launched in 2015  by the hand of the Center of Digital Inclusion (CDI Portugal) (https://cdi.org.pt/) in collaboration with Apps for Good UK (https://www.appsforgood.org/) after the invitation of the General Director for Education in Portugal.

CDI Portugal is a non-governmental organization for social and digital inclusion and innovation  and it is part of the global network RECODE (https://recode.org.br/).

Our team have six years of experience in delivering the program in Portugal in collaboration with UK team. Apps for Good is managed by a mastered psychologist women, with an operational team, essentially composed by women, that ranges in terms of backgrounds and skills – management, impact evaluation, psychologist, sociologist comms and marketing. Our team background and experience is available in our site https://cdi.org.pt/quem-somos/.

In the field for more than 6 years, Apps for Good Portugal received the Hamdan Award by Unesco that recognized the innovative approach to improving teacher performance and effectiveness for quality education for all. The program was also considered a Inspirational practices for tomorrow’s inclusive digital world by the European Commission and figured in the Financial Times top 100 for Technology Initiatives. Our team is growing and getting the skills needed to scale the program. Right now, we are working in partnership with Ernst&Young Consulting Team to plan the solution growths.

CDI Portugal and the program Apps for Good have a strong diverse, equitable, and inclusive strategy to attract talent and to drive innovative results and positive impact our beneficiaries. We establish a sense of belonging for each individual. CDI team leader and Apps for Good project leader are empathetic, and are commited to maximize joy and connection between team members, and to focus on helping individuals thrive.

We believe our program fits the Equitable Classrooms main objectives as we are trying to make educational systems evolve so that we may include more beneficiaries, reach more impact. As reaching international stages are one of our interests, being recognized as a Solver should be a significant boost to Apps for Good Growth and education transformation.

Aiming at the mentioned objectives, developing our program in terms of technology offer, both in terms of contents but also in terms of resources for students and teachers would be key to differentiate even further Apps for Good.

Moreover, the financial and talent acquisition support would allow us to reach next level in terms of impact and reach, those that are important to demonstrate and flag about our program, hence, the monitoring and evaluation importance.

We would like to partner with Educational partners, Technological partners and Content providers to support the program growth. We would like to build partnerships that contribute to accelerate our work, validate our business model, scale your solution and validate our solution impact.

Our program is aligned with the Quality Education goal (4) from the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Our program promoves the development of innovative apps that contribute to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all and specially to the refugees. 

Our program is aligned with the Sustainable Cities and Communities goal (11) from the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). It promotes the development of apps that contribute to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Our program is also aligned with the Quality Education goal (4) from the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). It aims to make STEM education more accessible and equitable and promoves the development of innovative apps that contribute to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education.

Our program is aligned with the Gender Equality goal (5) of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). It promotes access and knowlegde in technology and soft skills specially to young girls. It also promotes the development of apps that adresses gender equality in communities.

Supporting our program´s grow and scability will enhance the development of new apps to address the needs of women and girls, and to promote a world where women’s voices can be celebrated.

The program provides free technology courses and is based on an active product-development methodology that allow students to create applications for smartphones or tablets to solve a social problem, supported by their teachers and industry professionals. The platform provides the technological tools for the development of apps namely: App development, app development advanced, app in a day, machine learning and internet of things. These technologies are used to solve social problems that will have positive impact in society.

Our platform provides the technological tools for the development of apps namely: App development, app development advanced, app in a day, machine learning and internet of things. Students are already using machine learning to develop apps that can solve social problems and that will benefit humanity. Supporting our program´s grow and scability will enhance the development of new solutions based in machine learning for the good of humanity.

Our solutions uses an innovative and sustainable approach to challenge students to tack the most pressing issues of their local communities. Apps for Good  supports education transformation, in particular STEM, contribute to alliviate poverty, to a sustainable world because all the apps are developed to solve a problem in alignmnet with 17 the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Our plataform provides innovative technology that allows students to develop innovative technology-powered solutions for the good of society and the humanity.