MUMBAI: This is the story of Aman, a young boy who till very recently was engulfed in the world of drugs and has just been rehabilitated by an NGO. This is also a story of how personalized digital learning technologies are helping Aman and many more like him to get back to a life of learning, playing and growing.
An important part of the story is a Mumbai based NGO, which works with street children, counsels them and then brings them to one of their centers. It is here that they work with a team of specialists to free these children from the clutches of drugs.
The journey however does not stop here. They take complete responsibility of these children and help to mainstream them. Which means they introduce them to formal learning, help them to achieve grade level readiness and then get them admitted to a nearby government school.
Introduction to learning is easy. They have a few teachers to do this. Getting children into the government schools is also not so challenging. It is the middle task, which is the toughest.
The NGO has been finding it tough to bridge the historical learning gaps in these children. By historical learning gaps we mean that children are not at the same academic level as they should be as per their age. And because of this, children once they go to school also find it difficult to cope up with the curriculum and keep up with the rest of their class.
During a recent visit to one of their learning centers, however, one could sense signs of change. Have a look at the pictures below:
Aman and his friends were deeply involved in working on the tablets. A closer look revealed that these were educational tablets that were given to the NGO as a part of a CSR project. Everyone in the room was looking at various lessons from Math, Science and English. What was interesting was that even though there was a teacher guiding all the children, each tablet screen had a different content running.
The teacher mentioned that ever since these tablets have arrived, children find it very enjoyable to come and learn. It has become a fun activity for them. The best part being that the teacher is now able to guide each child according to his/her interest and learning levels. With a personalized learning tablet in each child’s hand, they create their own unique learning map and follow the same.
This tablet based learning lab has been set up by an organization named iDream Education. Puneet Goyal, who is one of the co-founders mentions that as a part of their core philosophy, the learning platform that sits on each tablet makes the content of all grades accessible to all the children. While learning a topic, if a child or the teacher feels that he/she doesn’t understand the topic well, the platform will guide to the basic topic in the lower grade. The child can then practice and build up the mastery in any topic gradually.
Personalized digital learning in this sense is truly transforming learning for the underserved children. It is giving them an opportunity to very happily cover up their historical learning gaps and seamlessly merge within the formal school environment. And all of it happens in a very non-judgemental environment, which is really the key. Without judging the child, the learning platform allows the child to explore the learning content depending on the existing learning level. And in a very fun way helps to keep improving their understanding till they achieve their age appropriate mastery.
Rohit Prakash, who is the other co-founder at iDream Education recently visited the NGO while in Mumbai and recorded this short video sharing his experience. Watch out for this video as the most endearing part comes towards the end, where our story’s hero Aman himself is seen sharing his excitement of learning on the tablet:
To know more about the work done by iDream Education, please visit them at www.idreameducation.org.
And if you would specifically want to know about TABLAB – a student centric tablet digital learning solution custom designed for underserved children, watch the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6lR_sFWxjE
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