What is the edly CookieJar?
The edly CookieJar is a physical device that allows access to a vast, and ever-growing, list of digital educational resources and technology, at fibre speed even if you have very slow, or intermittently offline, internet connectivity. Think of it as taking pieces of “the cloud” (the pieces with educational value) putting it in a “jar” and placing that “jar” in your classroom or school.
At edly we call these “pieces of the cloud” edlyCookies, thus the name edly CookieJar and honestly, who doesn't like cookies?!
What cookies do we have in the
edly CookieJar?
Firstly, edly is not an educational content creator, nor really a traditional education technology (EdTech) company. edly provides infrastructure to educational content creators and Edtech providers to deliver their content and solutions into schools and classrooms, with the same ease as the internet but without the requirement of fast and always on internet connectivity at the school or in the classroom.
Secondly, we are guided by the teachers we serve regarding which EdTech providers we ask to make their content available on the edly CookieJars. The list for edlyCookies is growing, every new school and every new teacher we meet suggests new resources and EdTech companies to talk to.
With that out of way, here is a taste of our current cookies:
Does the edly CookieJar work offline?
Yes. Although it is preferable that a CookieJar has some form of internet connectivity (2G/EDGE is fine) to allow for easy updating and to enable some advanced features, CookieJars are capable of working completely offline and being manually updated via sneaker-net.
Is there really a need for the CookieJar?
80% of schools in South Africa do not have access to the internet for teaching and learning. This number does not improve if you consider the whole of Africa or the third world. Even when you look at internet connectivity in the classrooms globally the numbers are not great.
The vast majority of new EdTech and content is only available if you have fast internet connectivity, and speed and data requirements are continuously increasing.
In cities, the cost requirements for high-speed, high-data connections are prohibitive for many schools even if these types of connections are available, and they are not as available as you may think. In rural areas these types of connections are simply not available at all. This creates massive inequality in access to educational technology for students and teachers.
To answer the question, yes there really is a need for the edly CookieJar as it give access to digital educational resources and technology to any school or classroom, no matter where they are even if they are completely offline.