Ananse The Teacher, an app teaching children science and technology with a Ghanaian fairy tale character

For a generation that has smart phones and smart innovations doing basically everything from simple calculations to solving problems, creative ways must be found to motivate a learning process.

Ananse The Teacher, the web and mobile application that aims to bridge the gap between culture and technology.

Launched two weeks ago in Ghana, Ananse The Teacher is on the Android Play Store and ready to get the AppStore for Apple devices.

Speaking to Business Insider at the 2017 Innovation Prize for Africa Awards, Jay Marie, CEO of Young At Heart, the developers behind the Ananse The Teacher App said:

“This (creativity behind the app) happened three years ago when I had the opportunity to visit rural communities as an ICT teacher. I realized that rural communities still have the power of storytelling. They were teaching their children with stories. They’d gather around the fire and tell stories.

“On the flip side, you come to the urban communities and most children have gadgets, smart technology.

“The Ananse App is a culture meets technology app which attempts to bridge the gap between culture and technology while we throw in a lot of education and ‘gamified’ learning experience.

“What the rural communities have is their stories and what the urban community have is their gadgets. We created a platform where both of them can be linked.

“The app makes use of Ananse stories to teach science, technology, mathematics, and engineering. In each story, there is a fun practical activity that the child can go through using everyday things.”

In a world of ‘smart phone craze’ as Marie puts it, this cannot be the end of the road for Ananse The Teacher App. Technology is improving and there needs to be an action plan to move forward with it.

Ananse The Teacher has already created an exploratory hub for children in their bid to quickly adapt to innovation and creating things. The exploratory hub also has rewards in the form of facts and information about tourist sites in Ghana and a future version of the application could have more animations.

Virtual reality is the next big the in tech having made relevant headway in viewing and gaming experiences. For Marie, the Ananse app has a plan to move to VR.

“Next step for Ananse App will be virtual reality tours. There’s a function in the app where you have access to tourism cards. It teaches your tourism destinations in Ghana. Some of the feedback we’ve is people saying they’d love a live experience and have the feel of virtual reality. So, definitely, that’s on the cards,” Jay Marie explains what a version 2.0 for the education app could have.

“For now the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activities are pretty basic. We’ll be moving to building robots and machines. Things they could use to solve problems. First, they’ll identify and discover. Then, they make.”

On the platform given by the Innovation Prize for Africa as it supports tech on the continent through competitiveness, Marie told Business Insider:

“It’s been an amazing experience. It’s provided for us an opportunity and a hub where you can get to learn from other change maker and people creating change in Africa. It’s inspiring.”