Programme uses cartoons for fun, effective teaching

Learning, they say, is a continuous process. People learn through different modes, which each deems appropriate to grasp new ideas.

These modes of learning include but are not limited to lectures, music, playing, observing and watching.

Some children respond best to songs, other pictures, words and rhythms. And this is what Jumpstart deploys to teach everything from reading and spelling to mathematics.

An adventure-based company called d-school has introduced jumpstart, a software that could revoltutionalise leaning in the face of the introduction of Competency-Based Curriculum by the government.

D-school majors in production and supply of artificial intelligence learning solutions from toddlers, preschool, kindergarten to primary school and colleges in Africa.

The jumpstart software delivers learning in the natural and personalised learning environment of the children.

The programme embraces individual learning styles, generates unique and engaging activities, builds confidence, promotes individual creativity and self-expression, and motivates reward structure and parental involvement via lesion assignments and progress report.

In the model, students from grade one to 12 simply need to log into the system on a computer or even a smartphone and start learning with the help of robotics and a little assistance from the teacher.  

Gregory Ochieng’, the headteacher of Facebeth Academy in Kakamega, says the programme is interactive and captivating and, therefore, arouses interest for learning in children.

“It is about identifying competencies in individual learners just like the CBC introduced by the government three years ago to replace the 8-4-4- system of education,” he says.

Ochieng says the programme provides the highest integration with learners because it uses cartoons to convey messages in a mode the learners want and understand better.

“The programme has helped us improve English language development and grasping concepts for the three years we have used it. The programme is learner-centered and provides learners with the best way of understanding English, Maths and Science,” he said.

Ochieng says that learners are able to speak fluent English and have grasped mathematics and science concepts by the time they are leaving pre-school.

After the lesson, the system automatically grades the learner’s progress and notifies the teacher of the learning progress. Even parents are able to assess the learning progress of their children by logging into the learning resources at home, he says.

CONCEPTS GRASPED BETTER

George Kamau, a parent, said the programme has had a big impact on his children, who use it in the school.

"The level of reasoning has improved greatly and the children seem to understand the concept of Maths, English and Science better by using the programme,” he said.

The programme is capable of delivering all the competencies envisaged in the new CBC introduced by the government. The CBC is now in grade three.

Some of the schools using the programme include Booker, Hill School, Face Beth and Jab Star academies in Kakamega county. Mudasa and Safire academies are using the programme in Vihiga county.

Other users are Golden Elite and Acacia Crest in Kajiado, St Bakita schools in Nairobi, Blessed Assurance in Syokimau, MM Shah in Mombasa and Little Ramp and Kipkeino in Eldoret.

Under the programme, the child chooses which teacher he or she wants to guide them through a personalised learning.

The Kindergarten jumpstart package comes with 30 activities and games, more than 500 lessons, learning analytics, personalised player experience and originally composed music.

The technology removes the pressure of competition among learners. It makes every child a winner and produces a universal learner who can fit in British, American or African education systems.

D-school team leader for Africa Wycliffe Kibisu says children love watching caricatures. They can watch them the whole day, mastering what the cartoons do and say. The programme uses the same cartoons children love to deliver mathematics, English and critical thinking.

“The model could lessen the requirements for teachers in classrooms and help address their shortage if adopted by schools across the country as the mode of learning,” Kibisu says.

The programme is fun and uses cartoons, which makes learning interesting and effective.

“The child can read, reason and compete with any another child in the world. When we talk of children in Singapore and Malaysia being able to make planes, our children can only do that when we give them skills that will make them long-term learners and not crammers,” Kibisu says.

Some of the students, who started with the 8-4-4 system until class eight, went through a British system for grades 9-10 and are now doing an American system for grades 11 and 12.

PLANETARIUM

To make learning, particularly science, even more interesting, the d-school academy in Kakamega has introducing astronomy and space learning by establishing a planetarium that further makes children love science.

A planetarium is a domed building in which images of stars, planets, and constellations are projected for public entertainment or education.

The planetarium, launched three months ago in partnership with Jumpstart California and Bakerere University in Israel, will help the learners have a real feel about how the space works as a practical way of learning science.

Catherine Lumasai, the d-school manager, says it is the first planetarium in East and Central Africa.

“Like in most developed countries, children as early as Kindergarten begin visiting space stations to understand what astronauts do and what science can do, and that is what makes the majority love science,” she says. 

Here, learners get visual study of astrophysics, chemistry, stars and space in general, she says.

In the planetarium, learners get a live view of the planets, location of the planets, galaxies, real-time updates of what astronauts are finding in the space and to see where the space stations are.

“We must move away from the current situation, where our children are taught science like teaching our children how to go to heaven because none of the teachers who teaches them for example about space has even looked through since they were born,” Lumasai says.

The complete project will cost Sh56 million. It already has a lunar and solar telescope installed.

The planetarium is open to all schools and colleges across the country to do benchmarking from kindergarten, high school and universities.

PARTNERSHIP

The group has partnered with Compassion International to roll out the Jumpstart in its over 400 learning centres across the country, running from Busia and Kaimana Maya in Mombasa.

“We’re also engaging with county governments to acquire the programme for their ECDE programmes. If the programme is used in ECDE teaching the children, Jumpstart is the mother of ECDE,” Kibisu says.

He says that all children in ECDE who uses Jumpstart programme becomes good readers, mathematicians and thinkers able to seek for knowledge on their own.

Kibisu says d-school has also partnered with Zetec University, who want students producing gaming solutions to include the software in them so the users can access the programme.

“We’re engaging with churches to have the programme rolled out in all schools they sponsor and convert all their Sunday schools into learning centres,” he said.

Also under pursuit are partnerships with all computer sellers, resellers and distributors so the jumpstart programme is included in the computers as a solution that can deliver learning at home, and the Kenya Private Schools Association to assist in spreading  the programme as agents of the group.