It all started when 15 students from across the Asia Pacific are selected to attend the 1st Asia Pacific Microsoft Innovative Students’ Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in conjunction with the Teachers’ Conference. Soo Jin Yun, a Malaysian, and Johanna Leibandoy, from Philippines, are partners in this project idea. The project idea is then awarded a 1500-USD micro-grant by Microsoft Corporation. Soo Jin Yun is currently on scholarship for the Sprout e-course to be assisted by TakingITGlobal to make this project a success.

Our mission is to advocate education for all, adopt an equitable use of technology, and work towards poverty eradication. Our vision is that all children and youths will gain education opportunities and be involved in youth participation as well as to benefit from the use of technology, and to have an awareness on fair trade and enterprise.

We call this the 21st century—an era of globalisation and advancement in technology. To quote Jimmy Carter, “Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing... you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn't affect two-thirds of the people of the world…”

The integration of technology in education is a noble intention, but in reality this will most likely only benefit students who are studying in big cities and prestigious schools. What about those children who do not even have sufficient education opportunities? Be it the urban poor or children from rural areas, many still encounter the lack of access to education due to factors such as daunting journey/inconvenience of transport to school, unable to enroll in schools, lack of teachers etc. Some children do attend school but are highly dependent on the availability of teachers who would want to volunteer at certain times, and this often results in not having regular, frequent and sufficient number of lessons. In addition, they are rarely involved in healthy competitions and exposure to more learning experiences to be able to improve themselves. It is imperative to provide them a situation conducive for effective learning.

On the other hand, we have students who have easy access to technology like computers and the internet. Yet, many of them only use them for addictive games, social networking sites and such. They either lack the initiative or the information to explore the possibility of the role of technology in providing a systematic database of educational resources as well as in youth participation. Some are eager to involve themselves in youth participation but lack opportunities or are unable to commit due to various reasons.

On top of that, we have educators around the world who have devised innovative methods in teaching. While some of them have received recognition of some form, others may have been doing this for a long time and yet they did not receive support from their school/local authorities. Educators today are gradually pioneering the reform of teaching methods to engage students in learning. However, most of these efforts and initiatives are done individually or within a small group of educators. What is needed now is a platform for the exchange of ideas between different communities of educators, the compilation of these ideas, and to share their innovations to benefit more learners instead of just a limited number of their own students. These educators and teachers need a platform that supports their efforts and initiatives too.

Education, technology, youth participation and support for the generation of innovative teachers are the key issues integrated into my project idea. We believe that education is a means to eradicate poverty too. With technology, we shall build a bridge to reach out to children who lack learning opportunities, while connecting and encouraging the involvement of all educators and learners.

After attending the Asia Pacific Microsoft Teachers’ Conference and Innovative Students’ Forum, we realized that there are many teachers who are seeking innovative methods in teaching, but sometimes not all of them are given the opportunity to showcase their effort and share their ideas to be applied in other schools, communities or even other countries. We want to provide teachers with the opportunity to share and showcase their ideas, as well as students to access these educational resources. Students do not have to search randomly online because we arrange them in a systematic database.

While countries in the Asia Pacific are working towards the MDG of Education for All, and the use of technology in education is given more attention, there are still marginalised communities or children who lack education exposure.

Schools may be built but the lack of human resource for teachers in those areas and/or inconveniences in access (transport etc) to the schools are factors that these children are still being left behind.

In Phillipines, some children only get to attend school for 3 days a week because the place they are living in is too inconvenient for teachers to come in every day.

Besides that, in certain parts of East Malaysia, there have been cases on girls being raped by loggers on the way to school and some students dropped out of school because it takes a long boat ride to reach the school. Other times, some children who did attend school and who are able to communicate in English, ended up making handicraft in their own villages nevertheless.

Intervention is needed for an alternative platform to provide opportunities for these children. In terms of education, we can utilise technology so that helpful teachers/students are able to reach out to these children. This is also a systematic and organised database of resources for all educators and learners. Besides that, it is a platform for them to learn small entrepreneurial skills by doing online selling of handicraft, and avoid going through a middle man.

Our project is a cross-national project by two people of different nationalities. We start our pilot project in Philippines but look forward to expanding it to other communities in Asia Pacific. Our project idea is also acknowledged by the highly recognized Microsoft Corporation.

Children who lack access to education are usually helped by teachers who volunteer to teach, donations etc. But most of the time, teaching is not done on a regular basis or not as frequent as the normal schooling programme as there may be inconvenience for teachers or volunteers to get transport to the area, the money needed to travel, and most of all the time commitment.

Our project fully utilizes technology to bridge the gap. To solve the inconveniences stated above, we are using technology to bridge the gap. Educators and learners can connect with those children through the internet conveniently.

Our project is built upon the basis of involvement from various stakeholders, professionals, children, youth, corporate support, and anyone in this world who cares. (Details mentioned at section 12.5 of this proposal)

Our project also makes using the internet more meaningful to our stakeholders.

Our project is possible to be done on a long-term basis, and is able to expand as we gradually bring this benefit to more and more communities who need it. It is not only sustainable, it can gradually expand to a regional or international level, and thus widen the range of people who can benefit from our project.