Students in low-performing rural communities don't need patronizing sympathy, they need:
stable, attentive, one-on-one help.
Who Are We?
Learning for the Nations mission is to leverage hi-tech resources and business partnerships to help struggling schools in remote areas. Hi-tech resources and educational content make education more effective, and help bridge the performance gap between students in rural vs urban areas. It can also effectively promote the character growth necessary to improve students' quality of life. We're rolling out with select small-groups in individual towns and expanding to entire provinces and regions, brining the best US educational content to the places in Taiwan with the most need, especially elementary and middle schools.
The Challenges
What's the problem?
Good teachers can’t reach every student
It is difficult to maximize the effectiveness of teachers by teaching in the traditional way. It takes years to train teachers to teach, and their influence is limited. It is even more difficult for them to go to the countryside. The non-metropolitan area (provincial and mountainous teachers) has a high turnover rate. Many teachers only want to return as a springboard for a good area and leave for a year, but the remaining teachers have a higher level of dedication
Students are not confident or interested in learning
The Taiwan education survey found that learning was inefficient and that the confidence and interest in learning was a common problem in cranes in Asian countries. In rural areas, because the parents are away from work/intergenerational education and the student absenteeism rate is high, the attraction of the school may be less than that of doing odd jobs. This is more of a challenge to the traditional way of class.
On the other hand, the pressure on the mountainous areas is relatively small, and learning is relatively simple and happy. However, it lacks enthusiasm and confidence.
Urban-Rural Disparity
Modernized education in Taiwan, but more than half of rural students are in backward groups. In order to develop further into the future, capable parents must reluctantly send their children to the metropolitan area. About half of the students left after graduating from elementary school. The maintenance of the school is a worry.
The Solution, An Overview
Learning for the Nations connects urban areas to rural areas
By using an on-and-offline educational platform (Equalearning), to bring the following process to students in rural Taiwan:
Urban volunteers create content on a mobile learning platform.
Rural teachers use Equalearning to teach using mobile devices in rural areas (even without internet).
Equalearning tracks student feedback/response/progress and gives data back to the urban volunteers for continuous improvement.
Pilot Program
Wu-Feng + Equalearning Pilot Deployment Wu-Feng Middle School is located in Dagu Village, a rural township with remote schools. Bordered by the Shei-Pa Mountains, this village is rich in resources and culture. The landscape provides a peaceful backdrop to learn and teach. Today, it provides a sanctuary for peoples’ spiritual rest. However, the privacy of such a place becomes a hindrance for those attempting to reach schools in this area.
Background
Thus Far...
In 2014, educational statistics showed that the percentage of junior college teachers in rural areas was 19.8%, which is higher than the national average. Teachers in remote areas are mostly juniors and young teachers. The current situation in the Wu-Feng National School System is just a microcosm of the existing rural education.
LFTN chose to start with Wu-Feng due to two things. First, the attitude of the school. Wu-Feng Middle School has shown themselves to genuinely want to help their community. From the principal to the teachers, everyone is committed to working towards the future. Secondly, although Wu-Feng Middle School cannot compete with city schools, they still rank significantly higher than other rural schools. The introduction to high-tech platforms will even further their growth.
As the president of Wu-Feng said, "The teaching assistance needed by the school is long-term, not short-lived." LFTN believes in action. Learning can help resolve persisting issues of the state. Problems like illiteracy, poverty, crime, can all be placated with better education. LFTN aims to care for children from all walks of life, improving learning outcomes and interests.
Pilot Partner
Wu-Feng Middle School History
“Our ancestors have left us the ethics of hard work, heart, and kindness. They taught us the importance of world integration and positive energy. This strengthens the students' ability to become competitive, successful adults.” – Wu-Feng Principal Huazhong Liu.
Although Wu-Feng is in a remote country, it is a small, beautiful, and peaceful school.
In 2017, Wu-Feng Junior High School won the annual award given by the Ministry of Education. Even with the steady flow of people leaving the township, the school did not lose any students.
Being keeping open channels of communication with parents, Wu-Feng actively strengthens and nurtures students’ basic learning abilities. The world is competitive, and those in Wu-Feng deserve every opportunity to not only succeed in the outside world, but flourish.
Due to the serious shortage of teachers and teaching resources, Wu-Feng is looking forward to Learning for the Nations. We are able integrate resources from all walks of life and provide continuous teaching assistance.
Challenge and Answers
Wu-Feng Challenges
Challenge: Shortage of Teachers
The greatest problem at hand is the lack of teachers. Due to the rural nature of the environment, most teachers don’t stay for long periods of time. Those who do stay, do not have a strong teaching community and aren’t able to be exposed to new ideas.Answer
The lack of teachers is not a problem for only Wu-Feng Middle School; education all over the world suffers from a lack of staff. The LFTN Foundation will remedy this by supplying volunteers, grad students, etc. With the partnerships of charities, universities, and other educational institutions, LFTN will provide qualified, connected teachers.Challenge: Shortage of Resources
In addition to the limited textbooks, only active teachers are allowed to create usable teaching content. When taking entrance exams for higher education, students from Wu-Feng aren’t as competitive as others due to their limited resources.Answer
Working closely with the Chen-Lin Science Institute, the largest science institute in Taipei, Taiwan, LFTN will jointly develop a series of assisting resources for expediting education in rural areas.Challenge: No English Teaching, Unused Laboratory Space
Our goal for the unused classroom is to transform it into an English classroom. However, because of limited government funding, necessities such as transportation, facilities, etc., won’t be available for some time.Answer
Equalearning will provide simple and fun English learning courses, connecting with overseas organizations and societies. The empty space will be used to conduct physics and experiment videos; students will be able to view the lesson on mobile devices even if they can’t be there in person.Challenge: Old Hardware Devices, Insufficient Network Speed
Because of outdated technology, there is limited wireless internet access. Teaching on the network is even more difficult.Answer
After field tests, we came to the conclusion that the school network cannot support the use of general online teaching. To improve the quality of internet would be very expensive. However, Equalearning agrees to help, utilizing their patented uninterrupted learning system.About Us
Evoke
Remind everyone that rural education is important.
Increase kid’s motivation to learn.
Integrate
Integrate existing resources in rural communities (internet network).
Use advanced tech (online/offline) to help rural areas.
Circulate
Give students the tools to be successful.
What We Do
Our guiding principle: it is better to have the skill to fish, than to be given a fish.
Mobile Learning Solution: Mobile learning is the future of education. It allows you to learn everywhere/anywhere. Mobile learning is a solution to a lack of educational resources.
Everyone has mobile devices. You can share with other students. One mobile device can hold thousands of books and can be updated at any time. (Carrying traditional books uses more man labor. It is a physical object and it’s more difficult to share.)
College students create content and serve as after school teachers. They can stream lessons about the city to the people in rural parts of the country. They don’t have to leave their house.(Kids from rural areas want to have more interaction with kids from the city and need more exposure, news, a wider world view. They desire to learn more about the outside world: Chain of Learning.)
nteractive lesson: digital classroom students can see/hear/respond to things that they don’t have access to.(Rural students don’t have labs but they can use their mobile devices to view lab experiments in another place.)
Road Map
- Content provider
- Chen-Lin Science Institute
- Project
- Online summer camp using EQL platform July 2018
- Long-term Benefit
- Seed teacher training
- Test subject school
- Wu-Feng Junior High School in Hsinchu County
- Partner
- Glory Foundation provides volunteer through foundation
- Media exposure
- blog, social media channel
- Organizer
- Learning for the Nations
- Technology
- Equalearning Cloud Platform
- Goal
- Connect with the Ministry of Education’s mobile learning programs
- Project
- Use the US-Chinese community for language/culture exchange
- Location
- Other schools with needs similar to Wu-Feng
- Partnership
- Work with local Taiwan charities and schools to integrate the program
- Story
- Spread the word to charities internationally
- Organizer
- Learning for the Nations
- Technology
- Equalearning Cloud Platform
- Goal
- Insights via Big Data + AI
- Project
- Connect schools to each other with content distribution
- Partnership
- Government collaboration and Open community of philanthropic content creators
- Story
- Mode of learning tailored to the individual
- Content Collection
- an evolving database of lessons, teaching methods, etc.
- Organizer
- Learning for the Nations
Phase I: 2018 Pilot Program
Phase II 2018-2019 Duplicate
Phase III 2019-20 Connect
Our Directors
Director General
“10 years ago, a US charity donated 550 wheelchairs to Baotou,Inner Mongolia. However, we found that what we think they need is not what they really want.”
– Peter Quei-Wen Yen
Ranked fourth in the educational family, high school in Taichung, the university read Zhongyuan University Department of computer science, retired after working in Taipei for three years, to the United States to study MIS management information. After more than 20 years of management work, he moved to a non-profit organization for 7 years. He became responsible for the mobilization department and the workplace department.
From 2002-2009, he went to Inner Mongolia to work with CDPF, linking Western charities to local businesses.From 2012-2014, he went to Myanmar four times to help the local children's center and connect local businesses with foreign non-profit organizations. In November 2010, he went to Nigeria to take care of the local Chinese and to better understand the life of the Chinese in West Africa.
In recent years, he has participated in the “action learning” platform promotion work, while also paying attention to the situation of rural education. He deeply felt the insufficiency of existing rural educational resources. However, aid resources are not adaptable. LFTN is focused on using the latest cloud platform to link and integrate resources from those at home to those abroad.
CONTACT US
Are you looking for ways to help? Do you know of other schools or institutions that can use our help? Please reach out.
Anaheim, California, US
+1-714-813-1889