About the Qwisp Designer
‘Growing up in an unequal and unfair society, feeling constant shame, sadness and anger, stirs your indignation like little else can do. In my naivete I thought that I could go out and set the world straight by teaching what I believed were honest ways and honest information. But some systems are overwhelmingly formidable.
Result? Burn out and more anger. I left education to go and get my own mind back, but education never left me. There had to be a way past this failing system!
Ten years after my resignation, when my anger had subsided, the puzzlement started to piece together the myriad of thoughts that teaching had stirred around an alternative and more positive approach to education. I had taught across the racial lines of the Apartheid divides, from primary school to teacher training, from the bushveld to urban and state of the art schools.
Now something was combining all these elements with my determination to unravel the mystery behind failing education systems.
The system that has emerged from these experiences was an intuitive response from the gut and, as it evolved, I realised I was combining my teaching experience with, and drawing inspiration from, theorists such as Maslow, Bruner, Piaget, and Vygotsky.
It was further inspired and affirmed by my interest in Fibonacci, patterns in nature, passion for music and architecture, love of the arts in general, and the web of connection that nature has woven, ticking away in mysterious, functional, clockwork precision.
Colette van Niftrik has a BA Degree in Psychology and English from UCT with a Post Graduate Diploma in Senior Primary Education. She experienced teaching amongst a wide variety of cultures in South Africa where there are eleven indigenous languages. She is a second-generation Dutch immigrant and feels deeply enriched by the experience of growing up in the cultural cross-over.
Qwisp®'s first public introduction was at TECH 2017, Transforming Education Conference for Humanity, organised by UNESCO and The Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace in Visakhapatnam, India.
“‘Fifteen years ago, Colette van Niftrik was inspired by the mechanics of Wikipedia and Google to explore a notion, sparked by Maslow’s theory of need hierarchies, as a possible route for a different approach to learning. No matter where her life took her after she left teaching, her mind was constantly buzzing around education. She had recognised a potential for combining the mechanics of Wikipedia and Google with her own questioning mechanism that could have young learners whizzing all over the internet with joy and direction because they could follow their passion and create their own knowledge base according to their interests and strengths. Her method has come to fruition in the form of a design for a digital internet learning map that could create a comprehensive primary school curriculum with a strong ethical backbone.’”
Where to from here?
The vision
Qwisp® has the potential to become a global educational app. It is also well-suited to a series of workbooks for learners who do not yet have access to the internet.
As the Qwisp approach is universal, the vision is for it to be used globally so that a vast number of children could be learning in collaboration – rich and poor; urban and rural - a global learning community with online facilities for teachers to support each other with materials and advice.
The prototype for such a web platform has been created.
The next step
To go into the pilot phase we need to set up an infrastructure and assemble a team to apply existing curriculi to the QwispMap® and design and build an interface. This will involve educators as well as IT specialists to maximise the reach of Qwisp® through the internet and mobile applications.
To bring this to fruition we are actively seeking collaborators, funders and supporters who share our vision.