Online platform grants children liberty to contribute content
School children using a laptop computer. An e-learning platform has been developed to interest children in writing and reading. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Thus far, this unique approach to content creation for e-learning has worked a mini- revolution in improving attitudes towards reading and writing for those school-going children with access to a computer and Internet connection.
Ugandan techpreneur David Mushabe figured that stocking libraries was not the way to get schoolchildren reading more storybooks. He created a digital tool — MixaKids — to provide a publishing platform.
Access to the platform is through a website hosted at www.mixakids.com, and the idea behind this was to arouse children’s interest in reading by encouraging them to tell their own original stories first.
The decision to take the online route was entirely pragmatic: It is less expensive to publish on a digital platform, while access is also made easier as a single book can be shared by thousands of pupils in dozens of countries, Mr Mushabe reckoned.
Thus far, this unique approach to content creation for e-learning has worked a mini- revolution in improving attitudes towards reading and writing for those school-going children with access to a computer and Internet connection.
Just over a year since MixaKids came into existence, more than 100 short stories — nearly all written by schoolchildren expressly for consumption by their peers — have been turned into e-books and made available on the online platform for just under $1 a book (there are options to rent or buy with payments made via mobile money, debit or credit card). In total, about 800 books are ready for publication.
Mr Mushabe is a seasoned content aggregator, and his platform provides a revenue-sharing arrangement with children whose stories get published. As he recalls, at the launch of the platform in various schools, the prospect of getting paid for their creative efforts had children scurrying to libraries to research story ideas as parents sat up to take notice.
It is, however, the numbers of the works awaiting publication that are truly mind-boggling: Up to 40,000 submissions by child authors have been edited to date. Many of these will end up in any one of the mixakids.com book sections, which include fiction, inspirational, fairy tale, adventure, religion, action, fantasy, family and comedy.
As many as 35 new titles will be read every weekend (the peak time) mostly by schoolchildren in Nairobi and Kampala, the two cities where the platform is most vibrant at the moment. There are plans, however, to make a bigger impression on the Tanzanian and Rwandan markets in the next year, before rolling out to Southern Africa and parts of West Africa.
The MixaKids project also hopes to broaden its language offerings to include French, Arabic and Kiswahili translations of published e-books in the near future, making it even more relevant to a wider section of users.
According to Mr Mushabe, MixaKids is a venture that should provide part of the answer to the quandary of inadequate content many African countries grapple with after commissioning ambitious ICT-in-education projects, as Rwanda and Kenya have done recently. “It is not the laptop that will make the child learn ICT,” said Mr Mushabe.
“We can buy a million laptops but if there is no content you will not change much,” he added.
The online publishing platform for child authors was launched in Uganda in August 2014 and shortly after in Kenya. It seeks, among other objectives, to enhance literacy by encouraging children to write their own stories and have them published for peers to read.
