Agavi: Offline Digital Learning for Ukraine

Greetings all,

I was hoping to begin bringing you updates from Ukraine this month.  Unfortunately, I've run into significant problems obtaining a work visa in a timely manner, which has scuttled the plans for fall work on-location.  This is a common problem for international workers, especially during an active pandemic that has slowed such paperwork to a crawl for many people, despite how early they may have started the process.

Nevertheless, I have begun some our planned work remotely.  Currently, eight students and faculty from Lviv Polytechnic and University of Lviv are enrolled in our Greenworks program, where they are engaging in and dissecting an active learning experience to understand how you can create effective, experiential learning experiences using role-playing games.  This is a joint project with partners in Brazil over the next couple of months to bring active learning experiences and insights to more educators.

Additionally, we began teacher testing of the Agavi system prototype, to significant positive feedback.  The Agavi team is continuing development and incorporating the comments and concerns of our Ukrainian teacher testers.  We're aiming to complete a usable classroom system to be ready early next year for use!

As you begin thinking about your end-of-year giving, please keep Science Voices and projects such as this one in mind.  We'll have more information about our Giving Tuesday campaign coming soon.

With much gratitude,

Lev