Edugamification: education for all

An inexpensive, easy-to-use educational device for children currently marginalized from the educational system, which would support their literacy and numeracy learning in a fun, engaging way.

The problem the solution aims to solve is the educational crisis that affects the whole world, but specifically the Latin America region. UNESCO declares, throughout the world, there are at least 771 million young people and adults who cannot read or write, two-thirds of them are women, as well as 250 million children who do not acquire the basics of literacy skills. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the worst disruption to education in a century, 617 million children and adolescents did not achieve minimum reading levels (UNESCO 2022). UNICEF determines that by age 10, every child should be able to read, as those left behind have a harder time catching up later on. In one of their latest studies, they determine that without early and systematic intervention, the majority of at-risk readers rarely catch up. Failure to read by nine years of age portends a lifetime of illiteracy for at least 70% of struggling readers (The World Bank, 2022). This means that Children who lack proper access to education early on will face lifelong hardships ahead. This is the reality of millions of children nowadays, as approximately 1.6 million children of primary school age are out of school in the region (USAID, 2022). In Argentina, this is a very relevant problem, especially after the pandemic. Nowadays, more than 650,000 children between the ages of 4 and 17 are outside of the educational system in the country. This poor access to education has affected the literacy and numeracy of children everywhere. 

As studied by UNICEF and UNESCO, foundational skills, such as basic literacy and numeracy, have profound impacts on society. For individuals and families, education leads to higher productivity and earnings, poverty reduction, higher rates of employment, better health outcomes, and greater civic engagement. For societies, education contributes to faster innovation and growth, better-functioning institutions, greater intergenerational social mobility, higher levels of social trust, and a lower likelihood of conflict. Women empowered by literacy have a positive ripple effect on all aspects of development. They have greater life options for themselves and an immediate impact on the health and education of their families and, in particular, the education of girls. Foundational skills can have even greater impacts than other forms of knowledge. Reading is a fundamental tool for empowering children’s education, as learning to read can be viewed as a proxy for foundational learning in other subjects.

This problem has been greatly amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic, which involved school closures in most countries of the world but was especially long in Latin America (The World Bank, 2022). Among the main reasons why the region continues to suffer from an educational crisis are low connectivity and poor access to electronic gadgets.  Especially in vulnerable households, this lack of resources has constrained the possibilities of remote learning, which inhibits them from accessing online, technology-based solutions to their educational problems.

The solution is a device that uses low-cost and accessible technology to support marginalized children practice basic literacy and numeracy skills in a fun and engaging way, overcoming some of the barriers they might face in their daily life.

The device would offer different pixel games, which would allow the child to identify letters, form simple words and learn basic math concepts such as sums and subtractions, among others, all while playing. In this way, the children would be able to develop the knowledge needed for their development journey early on and reach educational milestones timely. The outcome of this project would be an improvement in the overall quality of life of the children and better future development opportunities for them and their families.

Some of the features that could be developed are different content levels based on the age of the children so that the learning journey can be adapted to their necessities and keep challenging them as they develop; a storytelling system, as per which the user’s character accompanies them in their learning journey and gains points as they advance; voice instructions that would enhance the learning experience. By adding elements such as different characters and a point system, it could be possible to encourage the children to play together with the device. In this way, the probability of them using the device regularly would be increased, as they would be positively influenced by their peers to keep engaging with the games.

The device would come with an easy-to-read “user manual” that the parents of the child or community members can use to facilitate the children's learning. Additionally, it will empower families to become champions for the education of their children, by communicating the importance of enrolling in school and helping their kids study.

Our project will focus on children between the ages of 3 and 8, who are starting their alphabetization journey and learning basic math. The children most in need of this type of device are young children in extremely marginalized communities or environments, who receive little to no educational support in their childhood. But even for children who do at some point enter the formal educational system, the quality of their educational experience is affected by their general vulnerable condition. Many children in Argentina are forced to work as children, are affected by hunger, and lack basic services such as running water and electricity. All these factors affect their learning outcomes. Even in countries where primary education is public and mandatory, like Argentina, children in vulnerable situations face these unfair barriers and have lower educational outcomes. This device could help sort out some of these barriers. 

These children have their entire learning path hindered if they do not have access to proper literacy and numeracy training early on, as UNESCO determined that once some educational milestones are not reached, it becomes harder and harder to catch up later. In this way, poverty is perpetuated and their chances of reaching their full potential in life are diminished. 

Our solution would not only serve the direct beneficiaries but has the potential of transforming the educational system of the region as a whole. As determined by the World Bank, one of the biggest drivers to decrease the amount of population out of school is to increase education enrollment at the bottom of educational trajectories. By promoting childhood learning and by empowering the kids' environment to support their learning, it would be possible to create a turning point in their lives. If these kids and their families were to be given access to new educational opportunities, they could feel better prepared to engage in formal educational systems. If the delivery of the devices were to be accompanied by a policy change campaign, promoting the creation of pre-primary educational institutions, the families impacted by the program could access life-transforming opportunities. 

I am a young professional who has invested the last years of my life working in education-related initiatives. In 2019, when I started university, I joined the Social Action club at my school, where we provided scholarly assistance to children in a vulnerable neighborhood in my community. Our work was in person during that first year, but as the government declared a lockdown in response to the covid pandemic in 2020, our work was done virtually. We helped children that suffered greatly from the school lockdown to continue their learning journey.

After that experience, I continued to participate in educational initiatives. In 2019, at the age of 19, I co-founded the Argentinian chapter of the Junior Achievement Argentina Alumni network, a platform where we empower young people through educational programs focused on entrepreneurship and employability. Since then, we created more than 11 events that have impacted 400 people from Argentina and the region. In 2021 I joined the global shapers Buenos Aires community, where I participated in several projects focused on creating a positive impact. In 2022 I led a project focused on digital inclusion, which was focused on bridging the digital divide for people in vulnerable situations. We provided lessons on technology topics to young people in marginalized neighborhoods. These experiences allow me to once again have contact with young people in these conditions, which reaffirmed my initial understanding of their situation: they had access to unreliable internet in their houses, the access to technology devices was not always granted.

I am currently employed at Junior Achievement Americas. JA is the biggest NGO focused on financial literacy and economic empowerment of youth. By working in this environment, I am constantly exposed to different educational programs. Since the organization is shifting its focus to Business-to-Consumer programs and the usage of more inclusive channels, I have been learning about these topics through my work. My position is in the Partnerships Development Team, where we contribute to the financial sustainability of the organization by acquiring grants from the private and public sectors. This experience has given me the skills and knowledge necessary to be able to create a plan for the financial sustainability of this project.

My leadership record has allowed me to become well-integrated into the networks of youth organizations. I am a member of the Melton Foundation community, the United People Global network, the Junior Achievement Alumni network, and the YouthLead Ambassador community, among others. 

This trajectory has allowed me to be well-positioned to lead a social enterprise focused on granting educational solutions to underserved youth. 

As explained above, I have a solid trajectory working on education and experience working with children from vulnerable communities. My first-hand work with them over the years has reinforced for me the importance of an initiative like this one. But the experience that impacted me the most was the educational support I gave to my student from the Action club at my university in 2020. During that year I became the personal teacher of a 6 years-old boy from that district. After his school closed, he lost proper contact with the formal educational system, so instead of proper teaching, his only tutoring came from our informal classes, to which he connected with his mother's phone, the only technology device available in his house. I spent those months learning and preparing content for our lessons, trying to understand how to help him acquire literacy and numeracy skills. And what proved to be the most successful was the use of online games, where he could learn in a fun, engaging way to recognize letters, form syllables, and do some basic math operations, among others. Nonetheless, he could only access those games during the times our lessons took place, as his mother’s phone was mostly unavailable to him for the rest of the day. Moreover, during our classes, I would navigate the online websites on my computer and he would play the games by taking control of my shared screen on zoom, and not access the game platforms directly (which are sometimes difficult to access through a phone and not completely reliable in terms of security). This experience inspired the idea of this project, as a device such as the one I plan on developing could have been very beneficial for him.

During the development of this idea, I surveyed and had open conversations with educators from different areas: formal and informal educators and leaders of NGOs. They all agreed on the importance of the problem, the lack of enough solutions that focus on solving this problem, the usefulness of using games as a way to strengthen the learning experience of young people, and the potential positive impact that this specific idea could have. 

The solution is innovative as it utilizes an already existing technology and applies it in a new context to solve an issue present in most of the world. Making use of these types of devices would allow for an innovative way in which to address the educational crisis. This technology would be cheap, readily available, and easy to use, and it would gamificate the learning experience, which is proven to have positive results in the learning process, both in terms of engagement and final results. Contrary to existing platforms that offer educational games, this device would not need an internet connection to function nor would it depend on the family having a device such as a phone, which would solve the biggest challenges to accessing these types of opportunities for young people in vulnerable situations.

Educational games have been proven to be an effective way in which to promote learning. Researchers demonstrate that “reading not only relies on language abilities but it also involves the ability to visually extract information from the page, a high control of eye movements, and an attention system that guides the acquisition of the written text”. Video games can enhance these additional skills that reading requires. 

Repetition has been proven to help young children learn and retain knowledge. This device can help them not only acquire basic knowledge but also internalize the discoveries they make by repeatedly having to make decisions on the game. 

New and innovative channels to educate children have been developed in the last years, to provide students most marginalized with the possibility of receiving proper education. Some of these methods being implemented are classes through TV or radio channels, the use of Whatsapp or SMS to provide content, and others. These inclusive channels have proven to be useful to allow marginalized children to maintain a level of education. But even the level of access to these channels is below the universal levels in Latin America (The World Bank, 2022). This device would not perpetuate existing barriers, as it would be designed to reach those most marginalized. 

• The first impact goal would be to develop the device, in partnership with students from universities or technology communities who would be able to assist and orient me in the process. 

• The next impact goal would be to test the prototype with a focus group from the vulnerable communities I am already in contact with.

• The following impact goal would be to impact 500 children from vulnerable communities in Buenos Aires, particularly those who are currently homeless. We could reach these children by partnering with churches, food banks, and social workers, among others.

• Additional impact goals would be to empower a community of young people to become activists for the product, by creating a network of ambassadors who would assist in reaching these vulnerable communities and the adoption of the device by the family. In the first year of operation of the product, the objective would be to have 100 ambassadors across Buenos Aires and other provinces of the country. 

• Once the product is further developed, new communities from Buenos Aires and Argentina would be reached. Even children from other countries of Latin America could benefit, and if the language of the games is adapted, the whole south American region could be influenced (Brasil is a big market where this solution could be implemented). The device could also increase its impact by being open source so that the beneficiaries can access a variety of games with different levels of difficulty. Through a website where the codes for different games were available and with the help of ambassadors of the project who would upload the games to the devices, more learning opportunities could be accessible to more people. In this way, the kids could still engage with the device as they gain more knowledge. 

The technology utilized would be based on Handheld electronic games, which are very small portable devices for playing interactive electronic games, often miniaturized versions of video games. The device would have the controls, display, and speakers as part of a single unit. The screen would be composed of a grid of small pixels. Mini videogame consoles are easy to acquire nowadays, although some work would need to be invested in the development of the coding to create the educational games. 

The basic structure of the device would be composed of: a screen, a printed circuit board, an AVR microcontroller, push buttons, a battery (although it would be ideal to be able to power the device through a solar panel), and a case (which could be 3D printed or otherwise created using recycled plastic, so that the cost of the production materials would be reduced and the project would have a triple positive impact). A more complex version could add an additional 8-bit processor and a RAM. Additionally, a speaker or a similar element could be added so that sound effects or instructions can be added to the device. The device would use already existing technology so that with the help of an expert in electronics and programming it could be feasibly developed.  

It could be programmed in Arduino IDE (based on C/C++) a common programming language for these devices. The project could be open source, by creating a website where the codes for different games would be uploaded. In this way, the communities could upload more games into their consoles with the help of the ambassadors and volunteers working on the project.

A source of inspiration for this project has been the Java Unit, developed by Soraya Fouladi. Even if her device has a different purpose and target audience, the fact that it could be developed encourages me to believe that the concept I have in mind can be developed too. 

Since this device has yet to be developed, a great amount of time in the next year would probably be spent on the development and testing of the prototype and product. 

Nonetheless, before the product is launched the project could still generate a positive impact. Firstly, the project would begin creating a community of educators in our country and even from around the world who would be interested in becoming champions of this idea, promoting quality education for all, and becoming prospective volunteers to support the launch of the device once it is ready to be marketed. We want to rely on the knowledge and skills of our community, to empower them to become agents of change.

In the first year of the product being launched, the project could potentially impact 500 children. The last census determines that around one thousand children are homeless in the City of Buenos Aires. Through partnerships with food banks, churches, and other civil society and relief organizations, we could focus our first year of work on impacting at least 50%, but hopefully more of those children. Additionally, other children, who are not as vulnerable, could also be impacted during the first year. Reaching these children would be easier, and we could still generate a significant impact in their lives.

In order to reach this target audience this first year, we could implement a rotative process by which we would create an initial batch of 200 device units and rotate them every 3 months to different children. Through this process, we could test the device, get feedback to improve it, and create an early impact on the beneficiaries. Additionally, we would prove the feasibility and impact of the project, which would attract donors and allow us to increase production. Afterward, more units could be developed, to reach a point in which every child would keep their own device. 

Once the project grew, it would expand to the other provinces of the country and eventually to other countries in the region.  

• Technical: the device must be created, even when it uses already existing technology. Nonetheless, we would first need to contact experts who would help us develop the device. After the initial creation of the prototype, we would need to establish a production process for the whole product and its additional components of it (such as the user manual). 

• Financial: the project would need capital seed for the development of the initial prototype and product. We would need money to contract the experts to develop the idea (even if we could work with students and communities of developers who would help us free of charge, we would need to pay for certain services). Once the initial product is designed, producing it would require to have seed capital.

Since this project is in the idea phase, it does not have any partnership yet. Nonetheless, due to having worked with impact programs in the past, I am very well connected to social organizations and NGOs that could help me reach the beneficiaries I want to impact. In relation to the development of the device, since Argentina has a highly accessible public university system, I am confident I would be able to partner with students or teachers who would be able to create the device. Additionally, I am connected to people working in the creation of educational content and with an organization focused on developing virtual educational games who have already expressed interest in the idea and the willingness to help me in this project. Lastly, I am very well connected to the international ecosystem of youth leaders globally, which can be a useful resource to find partners willing to help with this initiative.

Our main stakeholders would be the customers (who would help sustain the project financially), the volunteers and ambassadors of the project, the community, and the beneficiaries.  

The main customers would be the grant customers, who would provide the financial means for the project to exist. Those actors could function as donors, from both the private and the public sectors. In the first case, the private donors could align their donations to their individual Corporate Social Responsibility strategies as they would be able to contribute to the creation of solid and measurable impact. Additional private donations could come in the form of individual giving, from people who would like to donate to this cause and sponsor students in their learning journey. In the case of the public sector, the government and municipalities would be able to receive assistance in the resolution of an extremely pressing issue, effectively and transparently. The organization would be able to sustain itself by acquiring a fee from most donations that would be used in the payment of salaries and other administrative fees. Moreover, certain investments would always be destined for the constant improvement of the technology of our solution. 

Another strategy to engage different customers could be through selling services to people that can afford them, in order to have the revenue to invest in subsidizing products for the beneficiaries. We could develop a training program for people who wanted to develop skills relating to promoting educational opportunities (the target group could be teachers, and corporate workers, among others). 

Our key beneficiaries would be the children that would use the product and would not be charged for the device. They would receive the product sponsored by a private or public donor. 

An additional important stakeholder would be the volunteers and ambassadors, who would be able to develop their skills, learn how to create campaigns and take action and develop their professional skills while fighting for a cause they believe in.

The value our project would produce can be divided into two, the value provided to the users and the value provided for the general population. The users will be benefited from access to educational content early in their development, which can be transformative for their academic path ahead. They would be able to access a device that is engaging and helps them reach fundamental milestones in their learning path in a fun way. The device would spark their creativity and allow them to have an enriching activity to do, even when they face difficulties in their daily lives. 

For the general population, an initiative that focused on promoting literacy and numeracy and encouraged children’s interest in education would help prevent great economic losses. As studied by the World Bank, the learning losses during the pandemic will translate into a decrease of 12% of the lifetime earnings of students at school today. The organization estimates US$ 2.3 trillion in losses on GDP the for the region in the future. This situation will potentiate the economic crisis in the region and cause significant losses in human capital and productivity. Moreover, the community of the beneficiaries will also be transformed. Not only through the effects the device would have on their kids, but also through the campaigns and the activities the volunteers and ambassadors of the projects would generate. Through the user’s manual, they would be taught about the importance of accessing education and they would accompany their kids in their academic journey, watching them learn and access more opportunities in the future.

The project has a great scalability potential, as it not only could expand inside Argentina but could also be used in different communities in Latin America and the world. It could even be programmed with different languages so that it can reach more communities. The impact could also be scaled among the reached beneficiaries, as more games could be added.

The financial sustainability of the project would be reached through grants and donations from the private sector and contracts with governments.

An important source of income would come from private actors, whose mission and vision matched the objectives of this project. This income could come in the form of grants tied to specific impact goals the private partner wanted to reach. They could also come as individual donations from people who wanted to be a part of the project and would become the sponsors of a number of children that, thanks to their contribution, would be able to access the device. Additionally, crowdfunding methods could be used, especially for reaching the initial capital needed to develop the idea or around specific events or milestones of the project. Finally, as explained above, methods such as developing an additional source of income such as selling training opportunities could be developed. 

Contracts with governments would also be a potential source of income, as governments would be interested in investing in an initiative that would allow them to reach their own impact goals as policymakers. 

An additional possibility for the future would be for the organization to open an endowment fund once the project reached a certain maturity and size. In this way, after the project gathered a certain amount of money, it could sustain itself financially by investing in the shares market. If we were to reach this level of maturity, the financial sustainability of the organization would rest on a more solid basis, which would almost ensure the continuity of its existence.