Mindhub- a technology training center for 5-15 year old chil

Online - Offline Technology classes helping 5-15 year old students from all regions to equip necessary programming skills.

1. Problem

In Vietnam, inequality between students living in the rural area and students living in the urban area is very huge and the problem is more serious in Technology education - one of the most important knowledge in the 21st century due to lack of facilities and teachers. 

2. Solutions MindHub is trying to implement to solve the issue are

- Providing online classes and self-learning service by our own video-based learning system.

- Content:

+ Scratch (5-10 year old students)

+ Python (10-18 year old students)

- Providing creative Robot model building instructions by our own system which support teachers to guide students to build interactive robots to solve problems in real life.

3. Technologies

- Content: Scratch, Python for coding skills, and Lego for Robotics

- Our system is built on PHP Laravel

- Other tools used in the lessons: Meet, YouTube

4. We deeply believe that our solutions could change lives by

- Maintaining children's dreams with practical products, fostering their confidence - a skill which is still lacking in developing countries, particularly among rural children.

- The lecture structure: recognize real problems + solve problems with technology which assist children in developing ability to resolve problems proactively.

- Lessons are designed with hands-on, game-based learning and project-based learning methods, children will learn necessary technology skills - thereby helping them to learn other technology subjects by their own later, or have fundamental ideas to apply technology to other fields

- Online method significantly reduces costs, allowing the solution to reach a larger number of target kids.

Technology skills and Confidence are very important skills for children to adapt to uncertain future. Therefore, demand of STEAM education with hands on has been growing in Vietnam recently. However, the most serious problem is unequal chances to approach the education of students living in between rural areas and urban areas and between high income families and low&middle income families in urban areas. There are some root causes of the problem.

1. Vietnamese government has not implemented any solution of the problem to the public education system.  

2. Parents have not actively acknowledged the problem and can not afford fee of private lessons

3. There is lack of qualified teachers in rural areas

Scale of the problem: Around 75%-80% kids in 5-15 year old range.

We believe that with below factors Mindhub can solve the problems

1. Students can learn coding skills by themselves with PC and internet, which have been more and more popular during pandemic period because of compulsory online lessons. Or teachers could use Mindhub content materials to teach students directly.

2. Fee is afforable

The target population Mindhub wants to improve is 5-15 year old students of low & middle income families.

The children could study

- Hard skills: coding skills & robotics skills which are necessary to future employment

- Soft skills: they feel more confident with hands on teaching methods

With above skills, children could be confident enough to challenge and chase their dreams.

Currently, most children are still being educated in the old educational method, Which is heavy on theory, but very few opportunities to access Steam knowledge. Children have a lot of dreams, but when they are trained in such an educational environment, they will be caught up in exams, old standards, and have no space and time to develop their imaginations and pursue their passions since childhood. Parents are busy and do not have many conditions to orient their children. In addition, if they do not have active access to technology, young people are very likely to fall into the abuse of technology devices, causing bad consequences on behavior and cognition.

With nearly 1 year of teaching experience, Mindhub found that with our solution, children were energized to participate in creating products, freely expressing their thoughts, and confidently make products that only existed in their imagination before. In addition, children can actively use and learn about technology by accessing programming knowledge, which can be applied to many career fields later and expand their opportunities in the future.

Solutions for technology education through courses and video systems for teaching programming subjects will help students across Vietnam, whether in rural or urban areas, coming from high or low income can easily acquire the necessary knowledge and skills in programming as well as other skills of the 21st century to effectively build work readiness.

With the criteria of low cost and easy access, we hope that MindHub's courses will improve learning outcomes for underserved students in Vietnam in particular and in Southeast Asia in general while being affordable and accessible.

The team lead is Nguyen Thu Quynh - founder of the team.

1. Utilize technology to bring innovative approach to students in rural areas, which is being popularly used since Pandemic.

- Online learning system

- E-learning tools

2. Contents itself has been introduced at initial phase in Vietnam

- Coding skills

- Robotic skill

The online video system not only allows all students to have access to practical programming lessons but also to apply and use blended learning methods. Students learn theory through video systems and practice, practice, ask questions with teachers, helping to improve learning efficiency.

Yes.

We have provided lessons to around 100 students by online method and collaborated  with 5 schools in Hanoi.

With limited resource, we are applying technologies at limited scale

- Content: Wedo lego, scratch and python

- LMS system: built on PHP laravel

- Tools: google meet, Youtube

Activities: Provide low-cost online video lessons on programming and technology, face-to-face or online courses with teachers on programming and technology

Outputs: Students gain the knowledge about programming, and equip themselves with the necessary skills of the 21st century in particular, and have knowledge and overview of the technology field in general.

Short Term Outcomes: Students demonstrate the ability to create their own projects from their own ideas applying programming knowledge to solve the problem in real life. 

Long Term Outcomes: Students master technology, know how to apply technology in practice, and expand career orientation for Vietnamese students.

In terms of educational quality, we measure the following criterias to ensure we have achieved our goals:

1. Level of satisfaction and happiness of students after the trial lesson and after finishing the course

2. Products and programming projects that students can make themselves after finishing the course

3. Changes in initiative, creativity, confidence before and after the course

We also measure the number of students attending our classes to see how many people that our products can possibly reach. 

After nearly 6 lockdown months, we have opened more than 20 classes with programming subjects such as Robotics, Scratch, Python. Each class size is small from 6-8 students.

1. Next year

- Content: Finish compact package content, including Scratch (intermediate & advanced) and Python (basic, web, AI) & Robotic model guidance

- System: Launch & enhance the system

- Market: 

+ Direct B2C customers: 400 students

+ Corporate with manufacters to bring lesson systems to workers' childrens

2. Next 3 years

- Content: Improve

- System: improve

- Market: target 1,000 students in Vietnam

3. Next 5 years

- Content: Improve

- System: improve

- Market: target 100,000 students in Vietnam

We have some below barriers: 

1. Contents: Contents are built based on famous books and courses which are implemented overseas. Mindhub needs to adjust to students' levels and Vietnamese culture.

2. Teaching: For classes with teachers, if the teacher has been working in the IT field, he or she lacks pedagogical skills, if the teacher is good in pedagogy, he lacks practical experience and skills in programming. 

3. PR, Marketing: Being backed by trusted partners is crucial to spread out services.

4. Finance

- To onboard suitable resource

- To build up scalable systems

- PR&marketing

- Improve contents

- Follow up students

Mindhub was established in October 2020.

The founder is a single mom with 5 year old son, whose is very curious about everything and especially machine, robots and computers. As a CEO of software development company in Hanoi, she can herself search and find interesting tools such as Lego Wedo or scratch to play with her son to develop his curiosity and nurture his dream to become a spacecraft manufacturer, which is not easy for all other parents, especially parents in rural areas. Therefore she decided to establish Mindhub to share her knowledge and give better chances for children to develop curiosity and nurture their dreams.

At the 1st step, she opened a robotics class at her son's kindergarten with enthusiastic support from the school. The class was very attractive to students and parents. Based on the first regconition, Mindhub expanded Robotics models in other 5 kindergartens in Hanoi until full lockdown period. To prepare better approach after lockdown, Mindhub has been building systems with various robot model building guidance, and working with many schools in Hanoi, and surrounding areas.

At the 2nd phase, Mindhub opened fully online scratch and Python courses, which have been delivered to more than 100 students in just few months. While improving contents and teaching methods to adapt students' abilities, Mindhub also create video-based learning contents and systems, with which fee would be more affordable to many students in Vietnam.

There are 10 members including

- 2 full time staffs

- 1 part time class coordinators

- 2 part time salesmen

- 5 part time teachers and content creators

As parents with more than 10 years of experience in the information technology field, we better understand how to give children access to programming subjects at an early age. But how to teach kids age-appropriate programming subjects, that's why we've established a staff team that includes: 

- Teaching Content Creators: Teachers and engineers who have experience in programming create and build together the syllabus that ensures elements of the age-appropriate approach as well as concise didactic content, appropriate to the developing situation in the world. 

- Teaching staff: Well-trained specialist and pedagogical teachers and computer scientists are sure to lead to effective and animated

- Teaching staff: Executive board members have experiences in startups

Our Leader is currently a CEO/ Co-founder of 1 of top 10 blockchain companies in Vietnam. She has also a CEO/Co-founder of Soccerhub - a Play to earn soccer management game built on Blockchain company. Soccerhub was funded 1,5 million USD at private and public sales round.

Currently, we are cooperating with 5 kindergartens in Hanoi to  provide the Robotics course for the students of these schools and the students who live nearby these schools.

By participating in the OCTAVA SOCIAL INNOVATION CHALLENGE, MindHub is looking forward to receiving comments and help from the organizers so that programming subjects can be deployed and popularized to students all over Vietnam and other countries in the world.

1. First, we need your financial supports to implement our plans

2. Second, we need your advices and trusted brand on Public Relations issues to efficiently approach our targeted audiences.