Across the globe, edtech continues to change the possibilities around learning and teaching. It is only a few years ago that classes were restricted to physical lectures, talks and objects; but students and teachers can now have access to a diverse range of a digital toolbox that enables teachers to teach and students to receive online lessons and revision materials.
Education Technology popularly known as Edtech, refers to software designed to enhance teacher-led learning in classrooms and improve students’ education outcomes. Some of the perfect examples of edtech solutions include: AI and Machine Learning, Gamification, Cloud Technology and Mobile Learning.
One of the major challenges that teachers have been faced with for years is being able to provide individual attention to students in a class of many students in a single lesson. With data and AI, teachers are able to understand the learning pattern of each student and tailor the learning experience for maximum efficiency and improvement of learning outcomes of their students.
It is obvious that not all subjects are liked by students in the course of their learning. Some subjects can be stressful and boring to them and this leads to poor performance and attitude towards learning. However, if interaction is applied in this scenario, there can be a positive uptake.
Mobile learning has revolutionized the experience of learning. At Eneza, a direct partnership with an MNO (Safaricom PLC) has put us in a unique position to be able to provide learning materials to millions of users at a significantly reduced cost to them. Our partnership with Safaricom in Kenya enables us to scale our content by utilizing their network and billing API’s.
A subscription to Shupavu291 SMS learning allows the Learner to learn with unlimited messages; allowing them to take as many lessons, quizzes, revision papers or ask questions to teachers using the Ask A Teacher feature.
Kenya leads the way in the continent when it comes to smartphones penetration with 91% of kenyans able to access a phone. Out of the 53.8 million Kenyans, 46.8% have access to the internet according to a research by GSMA. Even though the smartphone penetration is high, internet affordability still remains one of the biggest challenges to internet uptake in the country. This makes it difficult for smartphone owners especially in rural and deep rural areas to miss out on learning via the internet.
From our years of experience since inception in 2013, we believe that SMS based learning levels the playing field when it comes to access to learning materials. All you need to have is a basic 1G or 2G phone.
Edtech has the power to achieve the desired learning outcomes. The challenge is how do we create access to all? At Eneza, we believe delivering the content via SMS is the first step.