This week, AfricaHacks in partnership with BizSkills are proud to present TeacherToolz. An online and offline platform that provides an education solution to people all over Nigeria.
The COVID-19 situation has tested many teachers and students all over the world. For many, the shift from offline to online education was an abrupt, unprecedented, and unplanned change. A change that many had to quickly adapt to. Whether its students now having to shift to a remote way of learning, or teachers who had to transition the learning process to the online medium. This was all done in a way that should have facilitated online learning. However, for many students, this simply wasn’t a solution. In fact, this abrupt shift caused many to struggle.
Teachers and students alike needed to quickly find solutions. In many respects, a platform that facilitates the shift from in-class to remote education would go a long way to help them.
Right now, there are three main problems:
- A lack of adequate resources
- Contradicting information within online resources
- The fact that planning and preparing a whole new course load is time-consuming
Thus, as discussed above, this can be a huge challenge that makes it difficult for others to adapt. Thus, even with the luxury of time, without interactive platforms to facilitate online learning, it could take a while for people to fully adjust.
“It’s made me a bit more anxious, we have the cheapest WiFi, it drops all the time. When I was doing A-levels I went to the library instead, but you can’t do that now. And there’s a lot of us in one house, my family’s quite big, so it’s not somewhere I can get motivated for work.”
Loretta Charles-Cregan, https://theguardian.com
But what if there was a solution?
- A teaching aid for teachers that will enable them to deliver their lessons with minimal preparation.
- A product that integrates any curriculum.
- A digital teach-kit that contains high-level quality educational content.
- A source of content that can include videos, pictures, and short lesson notes.
And it’s with pleasure that we introduce Idowu Olaide Ridwan, founder, and Chief Technology Officer of TeacherToolz. He is a Computer Science graduate with vast experience in Web Application Development and many flavors for Database Architecture. Following his experience, he began this endeavor with a desire to help teachers and learners like himself.
Inspired by the teachers who helped him grow and push himself beyond his limits, he wanted to enable positive learning experiences.
For no matter who, or where.
“Teachers are amazing to our community. And if a personalized way of teaching can bring someone who feels at the bottom straight to the top, then why not take it to the next level? It’s something I believed since when I was young. Teachers should be empowered to make teaching to be fun.”
Idowu Olaide Ridwan, founder and CTO of TeacherToolz
TeacherToolz stemmed from the 2019 edition of Africa’s biggest Hackathon, NaijaHacks. Adeyinka John put out a post on Twitter in a bid to look for team members with complementary skills. That’s how the team was formed. He met Ndane Ndazhaga, now Chief Executive Officer, as well as Gloria Omonye, who has been the content developer for the company since. They formed a team including Adeyinka John, who has been working on their front end development as a co-founder himself.
Ndane, a graduate of Chemistry education, had experienced first hand the lapses in the educational sector. Now, she is currently a data engineer and a lady who is taking giant strides in tech. Seeing this as an opportunity to improve the educational sector, she pours her heart and soul to bring TeacherToolz to the next level.
Gloria is a physics graduate and an experienced teacher with a passion for imparting knowledge to the younger generation. After witnessing the potential of online tools, she is using the growing leaps in technology to her advantage to cultivate minds. It’s with a desire to help them learn and grow that she joined this venture, and thanks to her efforts, it has gotten to where it is today.
John is currently finishing his secondary studies, but despite his young age, he has driven the company forwards and upwards. Its thanks to his coding and developing knowledge as a front end developer that TeacherTools has managed to develop constantly. Furthermore, it’s with his passion for technology and teaching that he takes the steps needed to take TeacherToolz’s scope from an idea to reality.
Together, they Co-Founded TeacherToolz. A teaching platform that provides help, support, and interactive lessons for Nigerians.
So what is TeacherToolz?
Simply put, TeacherToolz has a simple mission: to empower teachers to prepare quality class preparatory work; and to make actual teaching dynamic and easy for teachers in a remote environment. It does so through its unique features that provide accessible learning support for Nigerians. Including:
- Providing simplified lesson content, animated videos, games, and access to online resources. The content is varied, professionally curated, and most important of all, accessible. And of course, it’s all made to help teach through multiple learning styles, including auditory, visual, or hands-on styles.
- Offline features this is to support teachers who have little or no access to the internet. This is made to ensure that even those who don’t have optimal access to web services can take full advantage of educational materials. This is paramount as not everyone can currently access the internet, and many students rely on libraries and campus facilities in order to access online materials. Giving offline access to educational tools eases the life of many students who would otherwise struggle immensely.
- Self Registration permissions for teachers. The feature enables direct feedback from any teacher in order to allow room for improved services. It also directly connects the teachers to the people at TeacherToolz, allowing them to collaborate and work together much more quickly, more efficiently, and optimize lessons for every student’s needs. Because for TeacherToolz, transparency and communication is the number one priority.
- Social learning to promote a community of teachers and learners sharing ideas. Under the TeacherToolz platform, teachers and students can communicate as a group and individually in order to facilitate a learning environment. These group connections provide valued interactions between students and teachers. But more importantly, they allow classes, lectures and even feedback to be shared remotely.
- Automated Class Rating by the students. This system allows students to rate their lessons, providing insightful feedback that helps not only the teachers but the students as well. Thus, valuing transparent, honest communication between students and teachers promotes a genuine learning environment. It ensures that students and learners know that their feedback and voice matter.
- A note suggestion system to allow teachers to employ their teaching ideas and teaching methods. Therefore, this enables the teacher to provide a learning experience with all the tools, flexibility, and support that is needed.
All of these guarantee TeacherToolz as a reliable and innovative service.
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