In the developed world, e-learning resources like Khan Academy, YouTube, and Wikipedia have been important additions to the classroom. However, in areas lacking electricity and internet access, teachers and students have never been able to take advantage of such content. At LumenEd, we are building technology that supports these activities anywhere in the world. The most useful instructions can be found in the form of a list at prime-essay.net.
Previous efforts to introduce technology into schools have focused too much on gadgets and too little on teaching. Our goal was to break this habit, and design something completely from the ground-up for classrooms. Our result was a unique device built to display audiovisual content and to complement a video pen pal program.
The Bright Orange Box allows teachers to teach, and students to learn, without worrying about internet, electricity, or anything else. It runs on an internal lithium ion battery, and can be charged from a wall outlet or with a portable solar charging kit. It works just as well in a modern city as in a rural village.
The device is designed with a classroom in mind. With a powerful projector and stereo speakers, you'll never have to worry about kids at the back of the classroom not being able to see or hear. It’s small, light, and durable so that teachers to carry the device in and out of classrooms without any complicated installations.
Our custom touchscreen interface is simple and intuitive, making the device accessible to those with limited exposure to technology. The interface only includes the essentials, and does not require a keyboard or mouse. With content stored on swappable USB drives, it takes only a few seconds to load content onto the device.
We believe motivated learning is a two-way street. In addition to watching videos, students should be able to create and share their own. We include a camera and microphone on the back of the device, to be used in our video pen pal program, which establishes relationships between classrooms from around the world.
While the Bright Orange Box is our proof-of-concept, we are developing a more scalable platform. This involves redesigning the device to be manufactured. At the same time, we are incorporating feedback from our partner schools, and exploring additional technologies to include in the platform. This will complete our vision of a cost-effective, portable, and power efficient device, designed specifically for the classroom.