Digital learning holds the promise of improving the education of children in remote and under-developed areas, yet these children are often the least able to access the resources required. Two BEng students, Sidhant Gupta and Tejasvi Mehra, who are both computer science majors in their final year, have come up with an innovative solution they call the Open Source Remote Education Initiative (OSREI). They tackled both the software and hardware issues by creating a platform for uploading teaching videos and other content, and delivering 15 tablets to remote villages in Vietnam, the Philippines and India to serve a total of more than 1,000 students. The tablets link to the platform, where the content has been developed with input from local partner NGOs to ensure it is appropriate to each region. Sidhant, Tejasvi and their team also provided training in the technology for teachers and students and produced videos for the platform, with support from HKU’s Technology-Enriched Learning Initiative (see page 14). They had funding support from the Centre of Development and Resources for Students and donors. “We strongly believe that digital literacy is an essential element in accessing opportunity in the modern world. Coming from India, we’ve seen first-hand the stark difference in educational environments between urban areas and remote ones. We feel technology holds the solution to this issue,” Sidhant said. Legal Jargon Explained Three law students have developed a browser plug-in, called Decoding Law, that can cut through legal jargon and explain legal terms in plainer language for the general public. The browser also includes a chatbot where questions can be submitted about which laws might apply to specific situations, such as playing mah-jong in a public place. Decoding Law was developed by third-year BBA(Law) and LLB students Alison Li Pui-wun, Edelweiss Kwok Yuet-yi and Sally Yiu Man-ki, in collaboration with two law students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and four Hong Kong-based IT experts. “We understand how difficult it can be to understand legislation and we hope our tool will be helpful especially to people who are involved in court cases and cannot afford to hire lawyers,” Ms Yiu said. The non-profit browser won the public sector award of the first Global Legal Hackathon competition in New York in April 2018, beating out teams that mostly comprised legal and computer professionals. The browser has not yet gone live but the team is open to collaboration with existing legal tools, such as the e-legislation initiative of Hong Kong’s Department of Justice. Students contribute to the University’s knowledge exchange goals by engaging with the community and launching their own enterprises to make a difference. Students Get Innovative Social Network for Creatives A start-up that was among the first to be admitted to HKU’s iDendron innovation hub and co-working space has evolved to the point that it is preparing to expand to Taiwan. Freehunter was set up by Harris Cheng, who graduated in 2017 with a BEcon&Fin, with colleague Jerome Tse as a kind of LinkedIn / Facebook hybrid for people in the maker and creative communities, such as dancers, artists and writers. It acts as a social network where people can list their skills and services as well as share more personal information pertinent to their fields. Harris provided the inspiration for the start-up, having previously tried his hand at freelance photography, videography, graphic design and launching two start-ups for food and apparel. Freehunter has signed up more than 1,000 freelancers and he said the plan was to earn income from the data analytics of this specialised group. A second round of recruitment will be held in 2019 that will include Taiwan. “We were attracted to iDendron because we needed an affordable place to work and there were also a lot of programmes and connections to be made. But what we discovered is that it is also a real community where people help each other out. There’s a culture of giving and we’re all at a similar stage of life and one of the best things has been making new friends,” he said. Sidhant Gupta (left) and Tejasvi Mehra, creators of OSREI, which makes digital learning resources accessible to remote villages in India, the Philippines and Vietnam. The HKU team behind the Decoding Law browser, (left to right) Alison Li, Edelweiss Kwok and Sally Yiu. Harris Cheng (left) and Jerome Tse, creators of Freehunter. Bringing e-Learning to Remote Regions ︱33 32︱ KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
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