Is non-profit a new app?

Social enterprises are getting re-defined in this age of apps and social media. Right from the delivery of social services, to the way contributions are raised and causes articulated is undergoing a transformation. In many ways, the time has come for a purely digital social organization. A facebook of social outcomes, in a sense.

It's about changing the goggles, to look at the world anew. A world where learning generates hope. A confidence to understand one's current situation and the courage to boldly imagine a future to realize one's innate potential.

The divides of the coming decades would be increasingly about access to the tool-kit of technology. In education, as developing countries push more and more children into schools, the goal-post is moving towards keeping them creatively engaged inside classrooms. The earlier a child gets access to technology tools, the greater is the possibility of harnessing her innate creativity towards a path of creation and economic main-streaming. Much before this inner potential has been stultified by years of low aspiration and low outcomes.

Education in these times is a double edged sword - with rising knowledge base and specializations and consequent cost levels, it could become a means to propogate the inequity in our societies. Alternatively, it could become a potent agent of equal opportunity around each human potential. We need to look inwards - is it will or resources or methodology which could let us down in this pursuit?

For children that we work with, the journey begins with a tentative peek into an app which gamifies literacy or numeracy. The child meanders through a dynamic curriculum which is constantly being user and volunteer modified. On the tablet, on the cloud - constantly grappling with the years of falling behind till they slowly catch up. And then in some cases, even race ahead. The program being consciously designed to keep them engaged in this journey.

Lot of insights from learner analytics. Some of the exciting research that have been done is in determining the causality of learning motivation. Amidst the despair and the daily struggle, what builds dreams and how is the natural curiosity sustained and channelized into learning. Is it the silent resolve of the mother amidst her own suffering, the constant motivation of a sibling or a child's own resolve to fight the essential in-justice of this world?

Best practices are shared on a real time basis as practitioners share intervention strategies around the stumbling blocks faced. An exciting new initiative in the works is a pairing of a child, with a donor family so that the two children can learn together and share virtually.

The challenges remain the same - funding, quality of delivery and its measurement, sustainability, community involvement, sharing best practices. The opportunity lies in the new ways in which these challenges can be addressed in order to create outcomes. An even greater opportunity is in leap-frogging potential of education technology when applied as a blend with motivated educators and volunteers. The power of passionate volunteers is magnified through quality content resources and online support sessions.

It's a brave new world we are shaping through the relentless march of technology. That every child gets a fair shot at participating in it and further shaping it, is the most fundamental right of this child.

(The author Rohit Pande is CEO & Co-founder, IWanttoLearnBetterFoundation)