This post first appeared on The Patatas’ website. The Patatas, a Potato company, is on a mission to use technology and innovation to better education and create social change.
Through our pilot and longest running project ‘Digi-Eskwela’, we managed to understand several problems that the staff on the ground faced. The first being transportation – the Tiwala teachers commuted between locations with items such as mobile routers, projectors, a laptop and up to 20 tablets being carried in a single backpack. Bulking up in both size and weight, it also did not help that they had to squeeze into tightly packed jeepneys to reach their locations. The classrooms that we had the privilege of visiting also showed a lack of infrastructure and were extremely vulnerable to natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, floods and typhoons.
Through these observations, The Patatas created ‘CaseStudy’, a cost effective digital solution that is meant to operate in unfavourable conditions and yet retain its portability and customizability to the needs of the users on the ground.
Housed in a single waterproof and shockproof unit, users are able to easily transport and set up quickly in different locations without facing complicated logistical issues. Each ‘CaseStudy’ when deployed is meant to operate as a classroom, complementing the teacher with audio/visual and information support. With ‘CaseStudy’, we hope that this will open up more opportunities to bring technology into more remote communities.
The Patatas is currently in discussion with several organisations to bring ‘CaseStudy’ to communities located in Kenya, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
