Education has always played a major role in shaping a new generation of learners. Technology has helped the spread of knowledge and the advancement of civilization. With the advancement in technology, children are now engaged in education and various activities that can be conducted by parents and children.
Though there are apps created for learning, One Learning is a free app that is created by three Goans and three Romanians, with a special focus on content for Goan parents and children. The team includes Steve Sales Fernandes, director and Chief Technical Officer, Ioana Axinte is the CEO, Alisha Vas, lead illustrator and character designer, Azhar Xec, CTO (Cloud & Backend), Ligia Deac, digital marketing lead and Bianca Traista, learning design coordinator.
“We are a diverse and purpose-driven team, committed to help new parents support their children holistically. Unfortunately, 175 million (around half of pre-primary-age) children globally don’t have access to quality educational opportunities (UNICEF, 2019). The first years of a child’s life till the age of 8 years are the most important, as it sets the foundation for their whole life - linked directly to mental wellbeing, health, academic attainment and happiness. Parents currently have a lot of challenges when it comes to raising children - lack of time, resources, access to early years educational services in rural areas, continued increase of cost of living and unable to access a dedicated place for community and support. These are the reasons why we created One Learning app,” explains Steve, originally from Benaulim, who completed MSc IT from Chowgule College, Margao.
Alisha Vas grew up in Porvroim and completed her BFA from Goa College of Art, Panjim while Azhar Xec from Margao pursued Computer Engineering from Shree Rayeshwar Institute of Engineering & Information Technology, Shiroda. “Goa is very close to my heart, as three of us have been born and raised in Goa and we want to give back to our community. Our app is free, as we really want to make sure that anyone, no matter their background and economic status, will be able to have access to high quality educational opportunities for their children. All content has been created using evidence based research from leading organisations such as Harvard’s Center for the Developing Child and Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood. The studies/research looks at how the brain develops and the various ways parents, caregivers and teachers can help with creating an environment for healthy brain development. Based on this, we are working with specialists in early childhood education, teachers, students, parents and also children to develop the content,” says Steve.
They started working on the app during the pandemic in 2021 when children where forced to spend most of their time at home. This had a major impact in the children’s development and wellbeing. “My co-founder and I started researching into the problem of early years childhood education and we felt that by combining our skills (education, technology and business) we could create something that could have a positive impact in the world. From there we have been fortunate to find other experienced professionals that believed in the same vision and wanted to help,” he says.
Through the app, families will be able to continue to build strong relationships and connection with their children, before and during school period by understanding the unique way their child learns and develops, building stronger bond and connection, accessing hundreds of activities that improve the essential skills for school and life: cognitive, social-emotional, physical, creative and language and have access to leading specialists.
The content available on the app is evidence based by leading research that helps children develop their essential life skills in five developmental areas: cognitive, physical, language, creative and social-emotional. “Some example of type of off-screen activities are: role-play, creative, learning in nature, imaginary, sensory play, collaborative, experiments (STEM) and group play - to name a few. The main aim of the app is for parents to find ideas of activities (based on the time and materials they have in the house) that they can do together with their child based on their current interest and curiosity,” elaborates Steve.
One Learning will be launched in Goa in September 2023 and parents will be able to download the free app using Google Playstore and Apple store. Once the app is available, they plan to work with the nurseries and schools in Goa to help raise awareness about the app and how parents can further support their children