Porto, February 2023 – Since the beginning of 2022, tensions between Russia and Ukraine have grown exponentially, and it is since the end of February that the two countries have been at war. More than half of the population has had to say goodbye to their homeland and others who have remained in Ukraine are without electricity, water, access to public services and even without the minimum conditions for survival. The need to continue to ensure the education of children even in a war scenario in Ukraine, was the main goal of the partnership between Microsoft, USAID, IREX and jp.ik.

jp.ik is honored to deliver 1210 laptops, bundled with backpacks and headsets, 857 netbooks, 6 charging trolleys and one Popup School building with tables and chairs, for Ukraine.
The donation will be used by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for its Ukraine National Identity Through Youth (UNITY) Activity, implemented by IREX, who will, in consultation with key partners such as the youth-led civilian response platform Lviv Education Foundation (LEF), the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Education and Science, develop a set of criteria for recipients of tablets to maximize impact and coordinate with other large-scale projects that distribute IT equipment to schools to avoid overlap and diversify end-beneficiaries.

The Popup School will be installed in Zahaltsi village in Kyiv Oblast, where the local school was severely damaged during the fighting in spring and requires reconstruction, with the nearest school being 25 km away. Considering the government’s concern “children must have an education even under the war, they move just with an emergency case without any books or tablets or laptops”, the purpose of this donation is to enable continued access to education for students and teachers as the Russian invasion continues, disrupting normal life.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We believe that companies that can do more, should. That’s why it remain focused on four key areas in which technology can and must benefit the future of humanity and our planet: support inclusive economic growth, protect fundamental rights, create a sustainable future and earn trust. Microsoft trained 4.6M people in 2022 with in-demand digital skills and connected them to opportunities in the digital economy and hlped more than 50 million people in unserved rural communities globally gain access to affordable broadband since 2017.
Visit https://www.microsoft.com to learn more.

Founded in 1968, Intel’s technology has been at the heart of computing breakthroughs. An industry leader, creating world-changing technology that enables global progress and enriches lives. Intel stands at the brink of several technology inflections – artificial intelligence (AI), 5G network transformation, and the rise of the intelligent edge – that together will shape the future of technology. Silicon and software drive these inflections, and Intel is at the heart of it all. Visit https://www.intc.com/ to learn more.

USAID is the world’s premier international development agency and a catalytic actor driving development results. USAID’s work advances U.S. national security and economic prosperity, demonstrates American generosity, and promotes a path to recipient self-reliance and resilience. USAID provides timely and effective humanitarian response, bringing disaster relief and lifesaving assistance amidst complex crises. Our objective is to support partners to become self-reliant and capable of leading their own development journeys. We make progress toward this by reducing the reach of conflict, preventing the spread of pandemic disease, and counteracting the drivers of violence, instability, transnational crime, and other security threats. Visit https://www.usaid.gov to learn more.

IREX works with partners in more than 100 countries in four areas essential to progress: empowering youth, cultivating leaders, strengthening institutions, and extending access to quality education and information. The work includes reducing corruption, stopping disinformation, and building social trust. The decades of on-the-ground experience help us create greater impact, practical recommendations, and lasting partnerships. IREX formed a strategic partnership with Development Gateway, a mission-driven, nonprofit organization that leverages data to help people and communities improve their lives.
Visit https://www.irex.org to learn more.

Problem
A heterogeneous classroom
A 4th-grade class in Vilnius with significant differences in learning pace, levels and needs — and no prior experience with 1:1 EdTech integration.

Lithuania has made considerable progress in its digital transformation, yet the education sector continues to face structural challenges. National initiatives — the 2022 Digital Education Transformation “EdTech” Project and the Millennium School Progress Programme — aim to improve teachers’ digital skills and modernise school infrastructure. Recent reforms, including the digitisation of textbooks and exams, have encountered resistance from many educational agents, while the teaching profession faces an ageing workforce with significant reskilling needs.

Teachers, school leadership and EduVilnius identified the same core challenge: integrating technology meaningfully into a classroom where students differed widely in learning pace, level and need — and where neither teachers nor students had prior experience of a 1:1 EdTech model.

The intervention combined infrastructure, software, professional development and local partnership — each element designed to reinforce the others across four implementation phases.

The LED Project

To support these pedagogical dynamics, Learning Scenarios — among other materials — would also be made available, applicable to various disciplinary and interdisciplinary contexts. These resources were provided to schools so that teachers could use them as a basis to create or adapt their own scenarios and implement them with their students.

Drawing on 36 years of experience in technology implementation and large-scale projects worldwide,
jp.ik developed the ideal solution to meet this need. The LED project represents the national-scale, real-world
implementation of the ik Digital Incubator—our solution designed to help reduce the digital divide and provide fair and broad access to 21st-century digital skills.

From lack of infrastructure to meaningful integration of technology in Education

Throughout jp.ik’s journey in the education technology sector, the first major challenge was ensuring access to
technology for both students and teachers. Once this obstacle was overcome, other challenges quickly emerged, notably the lack of adequate infrastructure to support efficient digital teaching.

Based on this infrastructure need, we developed the Community Learning Center (CLC), an integrated solution with a simple and fast implementation process aimed at bridging infrastructure gaps and providing a more accessible, modern, and inclusive learning environment.

Building on the CLC, we refined the concept and, drawing inspiration from models such as the European SchoolNet Future Classroom Lab, developed the Education Innovation Hub. This concept was designed to fulfill our intention of creating an innovative environment, offering new learning experiences that develop future-ready skills in students.

Jorge Sá Couto, Chairman of jp.ik, states that “the tablet was developed with the senior public in mind, presenting a simple and robust appearance that invites fearless handling, even for the most inexperienced.
The software was designed to meet the needs, specifics and interests of seniors and uses an adjusted font that is easy to read. It also includes a set of applications organized by categories that allow quick and easy access to them. All scientifically based cognitive applications and games have been properly chosen and tested to ensure quality, applicability and easy usability”.

The ASA Program “We believe in Active Seniors” was designed to promote the  maintenance of the senior population’s abilities, skills and dexterity, motivating them to live an active, participative, solidary, critical and useful life for their social environment.

According to the 2011 Census, it is estimated that in Portugal there are 2.023 million people aged 65 or over, representing about 19% of the total population and that more than 1 million live alone or with other elderly people. Healthy aging emphasizes an approach that recognizes the rights to equal opportunity and treatment.

The impact of this initiative was transformative, delivering measurable outcomes: