Discussions

Teach-the-World Foundation

1700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 560
Washington, DC 20006

Your Name and Title: Robert J. Torres, PhD, Chief Strategy Officer, Teach The World Foundation
School or Organization Name: Teach-The-World Foundation (TTW)
Co-Presenter Name(s): Shafiq Khan, CEO, Teach The World Foundation
Area of the World from Which You Will Present: United States
Language in Which You Will Present: English
Target Audience(s): Ed-Tech Innovators, Educators, NGOs, Teachers, Students
Short Session Description
(one line): Teach-The-World Foundation: A Call to Action To Eradicate Illiteracy Around The World
Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session: www.teachtheworldfoundation.org

FULL SESSION DESCRIPTION

This session offers:

1. An introduction to the Teach-The-World Foundation (TTW), a not-for-profit organization founded in 2016 by leaders in education, business and learning research, whose mission to help eradicate illiteracy using tablets and game-based learning applications.

2. An invitation to join us in solving the extreme challenge of global illiteracy – one of the most pressing human rights issues of our century;

3. An overview of TTW’s approach to a digital game-based learning around the world;

4. Results of the 2016 pilot in Karachi, Pakistan; and

5. A glimpse of our current pilots in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The description below outlines the major elements we will cover during the presentation.

INTRODUCTION
The world today is facing a global learning crisis of epic proportions. 263 million children are excluded from education worldwide. Every uneducated child represents lost personal opportunities, underutilized economic and social potential, and future social costs. Unacceptable levels of inequality persist, and despite the efforts of many, progress to provide all children with a quality education has slowed. TTW seeks to make a vast contribution to eradicating global illiteracy and to alleviating the critical teacher shortage the world is facing.

UNESCO estimates 69 million teachers will be needed to provide face-to-face instruction for every child without current access to primary and secondary education. The number of teachers leaving the workforce and massive shortage of teachers in developing parts of the world make this ambitious goal a seemingly impossible task that will, at the very least, require decades. UNESCO predicts that current trends continue, 42% of the 102 countries facing the biggest challenges will still not have enough teachers until after 2030.

THE PROBLEM
A sixth of the world is functionally illiterate, with devastating consequences for individuals and nations.
About 2 B people of the world’s population of 7 B are functionally illiterate. This includes large populations of entire nations and demographic groups such as women. The consequences of illiteracy are devastating, both economically and socially. It is believed to be a major contributor to the world’s biggest problems—poverty, hunger, disease, crime, intolerance.
The primary cause of illiteracy is insufficient investment in education—schools, teachers, infrastructure. Thus, a vicious cycle exists: low literacy --> low productivity --> low income --> low investment in education --> low literacy.

THE CHALLENGE
Traditional models of education do not offer solutions to the vast global illiteracy problem. While there is great interest in reducing global illiteracy, no short-term solution is apparent through traditional approaches. A critical constraint is the shortage of teachers—9 M globally and 1.4 M in Africa alone-- which could take 20+ years to solve even if funding were available.

THE OPPORTUNITY
The Digital Revolution, which has transformed business and our lives offers a great opportunity to transform education. Today, four great forces exist in the world, which, if harnessed and mobilized effectively could increase literacy dramatically. This is a massive, game-changing opportunity.
• eLearning
• Tablet technologies
• Game-based learning
eLearning/Online learning … is established and growing rapidly worldwide. However, it is largely focused at the college+ level, and not at the K – 5 levels, where it could have the greatest impact.

Tablet technologies ... are increasingly used as a powerful medium of learning in US schools. But as with eLearning, it is rarely focused on KG+ levels and is generally inaccessible to the poor. However, tablet access will rise as prices are expected to approach $20 in the next few years.

Gamification … “game-based learning” is increasingly being proven as an educational medium, and in the absence of teachers and schools, can be a meaningful substitute for traditional teaching.

OUR SOLUTION
Our aim is deliver a solution that is easily implementable and scalable. We curate the best available reading, writing and math games on low-cost, robust tablets. We then gather children in a secure, stable facility where they play these games for 2 to 3 hours per day. Daily learning sessions are entire managed by a facilitator from the community, who is trained in one week to manage the students’ schedule; keep a safe learning environment; and to trouble shoot and keep tablets charged and secure.

Our core strategy is to develop, implement and widely disseminate a technology-enabled literacy model that:
1. Dramatically reduces the immensely detrimental high illiteracy rates that drastically diminish opportunities for upward mobility and well-being of millions children around the world.

2. Capitalizes on the advances and increasingly low-cost availability of tablet and mobile technologies.

3. Utilizes innovations in highly engaging digital interactive game-based learning technologies.


4. Trains community-based facilitators whom do not have professional teacher training and thus responds to the critical need of solving for the dire shortages of highly qualified teachers.

5. Is franchise-able and can adapt to the particular needs of diverse communities around the world.

6. Pulls from current and research and practices that confirm the high impact technology programs could have on accelerating learning.

THE MODEL
At a high level, the core aspects of the TTW model include the following:
1. Partner Selection. We carefully screen and select local partners with a strong track record of impact working with underserved communities, and with a high interest in bringing the TTWF model to scale.

2. Partner Training. We work closely over a 1-2 year period to ensure:
a. Facilitators are well equipped to work with K-5 children. We offer a two-week training, followed by ongoing training once their work with children begins. The training consists of (1) monitoring children’s individualized progress and (2) basic technology skills to ensure hardware and software technology is well maintained.
b. The partner develops the capacity-building skills that will enable them to sustain the program over 5 years following our training period.
c. Post the 1-2 year period, we offer distant ongoing technical assistance as necessary.

3. Content Curation. We carefully evaluate and select applications that ensure children develop the literacy and number skills they need to succeed within their enrollment grade. Content is offered for grades K-3 currently, and for grades K-5 starting in 2019.

4. Continuous Formative and Summative Assessments. To track student achievement progress through baseline (pre-tests), interim (every six to eight weeks) and summative (post-tests) assessments for each grade level.

5. Pushing for Innovations on Personalized Learning. We work with developers internationally to push progress on the development of learning technologies that accurately capture student progress and respond to students’ needs in-situ (e.g., within learning applications, namely highly engaging game-based technologies).

OUR PLAN
Our “Think Big; Start Small” plan began with a small proof-of-concept phase in 2016, expanded to a “working model” pilot phase with thousands of children in 2017, and will lead to global expansion in 2018.

Teach-the-World Foundation will provide K – 5 education to children in areas that do not have access to schools. Taking a gradual, disciplined, success-driven expansion approach, it will execute its plan in 3 major phases:

• ✔ Phase 1 (2016): Set up the organization; pilot the proof of concept … began in March 2016. The proof-of-concept was accomplished and documented within 3 months significant reading and math gain for Pakistan 22 out-of-school disadvantaged children.

• Phase 2 (2017-2018): Develop a scalable, replicable “working model” … which is templatized and documented so that it can be easily implementable. Several partnerships have been established with strong local NGOs potentially serving 1000-2000 children.

• Phase 3 (2018+): Expand globally by franchising the model … with the support of the “global educational funding establishment” (e.g. global foundations, USAID & like, World Bank, UNESCO/UNICEF, national governments).

OUR TEAM
The success of such a bold and ambitious plan will require superb execution, which in turn requires a strong, experienced team. We are fortunate to have assembled some of the leading educational, digital and business pioneers in developed and emerging markets:

• Shafiq Khan, President …Shafiq formerly headed digital at Marriott, the world’s largest hotel chain, where he grew their digital business to $ 15 B + from internal and external channels. Previously, Shafiq led the digital transformation of the travel industry by pioneering electronic ticketing and online booking at United Airlines and US Airways. Shafiq brings invaluable experience successfully scaling a digital and franchise model.

• Imran Sayeed, Chief Development Officer …Imran is a serial entrepreneur, a professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management and was until recently CTO at a Fortune 60 company. Imran brings experience starting new ventures, scaling them rapidly as well as securing funding and partnerships to create global impact.

• Robert Torres, PhD, Chief Strategy Officer …Robert was previously a leader at the Gates Foundation responsible for educational technology, where he funded some of the world’s leading educational innovation programs. He is a recognized authority on gamified education and has started some of the leading programs in this space. Robert leads our core IP, curriculum development and deployment.

• Shirin Husain, Director Operations - South Asia: Shirin has 30 years of experience in teaching both children and adults in the developing world as well as strengthening the ecosystem to sustain such programs. She has taught at some of the most prestigious schools and colleges in Pakistan as well as in some of the most impoverished communities. She started, designed and managed our proof-of-concept Lab school in Pakistan. Shirin now leads our pilot projects.

11-6-17 Global Ed Conference Paper.docx