2017 in Education Technology
Another year has come and gone. And after a year of doing many things in an EdTech startup (we’ll go into specifics in a bit), it’s important to take a step back and look at some of the defining moments of the year!
Growth was a central theme in our 2017. It was a year growing ourselves and supporting the growth of educators on the ground! Exploring and expanding the potential of early childhood education has held our focus thus far, and we’re hoping to see it progress even more in the years to come. Without further ado, here’s a quick recap on last year in LittleLives!
Connecting with Educators
Start Small Dream Big (SSDB)
A big part of 2017 had us busy with Start Small Dream Big, a nationwide community involvement program for preschools. We collaborated with the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) to work on providing an easy-to-access digital platform on which schools could share their projects. It was an educational journey for us, as we learnt a great deal about how we can best design a platform that will encourage teachers to write and share their ongoing experiences!
Along the way, we got to meet passionate educators who were beyond excited to talk about their children’s efforts and learning journeys! We discovered some truly amazing stories, some of which we’ve featured right here on this blog!
Early Childhood Conference
Every year, the Early Childhood Developmental Agency (ECDA) hosts the annual Early Childhood Conference! We were lucky enough to have been part of the conference! Needless to say, we had an amazing time.
We connected with many familiar faces, and gave our client schools some app updates they can look forward to. Of course, it’s always great fun to speak to new principals and teachers as well! We shared about how integrating technology into their schools can help bring parents and teachers closer together, and smooth out the entire operating system of the school. Receiving positive responses and feedback in return pushed us to bringing our system to greater heights!
Oh, how could we forget…we had a vespa at our booth too.
With the vespa, we hosted our biggest giveaway yet! We invited teachers and principals to come up with a crazy pose with the vespa, and upload it on Instagram with #LittleLives. The lucky winner would walk away with a vespa sidecar ride for the entire staff!
The response was overwhelming, the competition was tough. After the ECC, we held a vote to pick the winner.
As promised, we headed down to the winning school, My First Skool at Fernvale, to give the entire staff a treat!
As per LittleLives tradition, we held a live stream where Principal Cathy talked us through the inspiration behind the photo that won her staff an hour of fun!
Supporting Growth in Early Childhood
International Pre-school Conference (IPEC)
As co-organisers of the first ever International Pre-school Conference (IPEC), it was an incredibly exciting time for all of us here at LittleLives! With an ever-growing educational landscape, the aim of the conference was to empower pre-school educators, and give them a space to voice their ideas and concerns. After all, they play a key role in helping shape the leaders of tomorrow!
The theme of IPEC 2017 was ‘It Takes a Village to Raise a Child’. This simple yet powerful African proverb holds true to this day. Providing the best education for a child takes the combined effort of parents, teachers, government policies, and various other industry partners! In breakout sessions guided by experienced facilitators, the participants pondered on how we can bring our preschool “village” together for a better tomorrow!
During the discussion sessions, the participants were split into two sections discussing different topics — Embracing School & Home Partnership with The Use of Technology and Early Childhood Schools Five Years from Now. After sharing ideas, one group under each topic was selected to make a presentation on their findings!
One of the main focuses of IPEC was the importance of the parent-teacher relationship. While discussing Embracing School & Home Partnership with The Use of Technology, they explored how technology can help bridge the gap between home and school. It is important for parents to be kept in the loop with regards their kids’ learning at school. This way, parents can further reinforce lessons while at home, promoting learning and a higher retention rate.
Overall, it was a fantastic first experience co-organising an event focused on the development of early childhood education, and definitely not the last!
Kids In View: A Research Collaboration
This past year, we’ve also been collaborating with the National University of Singapore (NUS) on the first ever study conducted in Singapore on infectious diseases among young children. Kids in View (KIV), is a study that aims to better understand how childhood illnesses spread between children and adults by studying data gathered from preschoolers.
Since LittleLives already has technology that can be useful for collecting such data, we joined forces with NUS and Nurture Education Group preschools to provide researchers with the tools they need. We are hopeful that any trends and data gathered in this project may be useful in shaping future policies surrounding early childhood disease prevention!
Smooth seas don’t make good sailors! We’ve faced some challenges along the way, but that only helps to fuel our motivation. None of this would have been possible without the unwavering support from our entire team and of course, every single one of you reading this right now! We’re ready, we’re energised, and we’re ready to kick start 2018!
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