Brightbox mIcro
A portable education kit for any classroom.
What is a BrightBox Micro?
The BrightBox Micro is a suitcase-sized, solar-powered, digital kit designed to enhance classroom learning.
Micros boost capacity in existing, overpopulated classrooms, supplement student literacy progression levels with Simbi Learn Cloud curriculum and Simbi Offline software, and provide teaching and training support for local teachers.
The BrightBox Micro serves 1500 students per week. Find out how below.
relevant curriculum content with up to 1TB storage
classroom blocks powered
simultaneous learners served
Intranet coverage
How it works.
Suitcase-sized education
BrightBox Micros are designed to optimise existing overcrowded classroom spaces that have little-to-no access to electricity.
Easily transportable and completely dust- and water-proof, the Micro can support teachers and students around a whole school.
Once installed, the Micro provides learners and teachers with education technology that enhances their learning and teaching goals.
Access to resources
These education technology resources include a Raspberry Pi Microcomputer loaded with the Simbi Learn Cloud curriculum and Simbi Offline, a wifi router for Intranet creation, projectors, tablets, headphones, and headphone splitters.
With the Micro’s headphone splitters, headphones, and projectors, students and teachers can ease their reliance on the few paper textbooks they have. A BrightBox Micro gives learners the flexibility to use Simbi and Simbi Learn Cloud to learn independently, in pairs, or as a whole class.
DONATE A BRIGHTBOX MICRO
Notable Innovations.
Solar Power
BrightBoxes are powered directly by the sun, allowing us to sustainably power our education technology while providing communities with a power source.
Wifi-enabled Tablets and Laptops
Our digital labs include laptops tablet projectors and impactful educational software all of which enhance existing classroom spaces and supporters local teachers.
Simbi Learn Cloud
Simbi Learn Cloud contains over 64GB of educational material. This material is tailored to the relevant National Curriculum, ensuring that students are learning pertinent information.
Request FOR PARTNERSHIP
Does your school or community need BrightBox technology to suppoort your learning and teaching goals?
Click below to submit a Simbi Foundation partnership request!
Interested in Donating?
Are you interested in donating a BrightBox Micro for an educational institution?
Click below to get in touch and tell us more!
Learn more about BrightBox
Want to support our efforts to improve access to quality education?
What is a BrightBox?
A BrightBox is a shipping-container solar-powered classroom.
A BrightBox Micro is a suitcase-sized education kit.
Both are stocked with educational hardware (laptops, reading tablets, and projectors), and with digital educational curriculum designed to support and supplement the National Ugandan curriculum and the National Indian curriculum.
BrightBoxes are mostly sourced within the country of implementation in order to improve sustainability, are outfitted by local companies and vocational schools, and most importantly, are used, maintained, and owned by the local community.
How do we fund our projects?
We at Simbi Foundation use multiple methods for compiling funding for our projects. We host public fundraising events, we conduct other fundraising through Expeditions and the BMO Vancouver Marathon, we gratefully receive donations from our supporters, and we apply to granting opportunities to support our ongoing costs.
Want to find out more? Read our blog post about how an NGO makes money!
How do you choose the communities you partner with?
The process we use to partner with communities varies from community to community. In Refugee Settlements in Uganda, we select partner schools in consultation with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), who identify priority schools most in need of support. These identifications are based wholly on community needs.
For remote communities, we engage in a collaborative conversation with any high-population school that faces challenges related to lack of textbooks, other school resources, and internet and technology access. This time of discussion identifies the necessary administrative and operational systems of the school, the school’s ability to take on Simbi Foundation technology, and the optimal ways in which we can adapt our solutions to best meet the school’s needs and requests.
How much control do partner communities have over the projects implemented?
Our partner school communities have direct control over implemented Simbi Foundation projects. Every one of our programs begins with Simbi Foundation-directed needs assessments, focus groups, community discussions, and feedback and request collection. This data then directly informs our program design, and what we include in our solar-powered Learning Labs.
We also ensure that teachers and other school community leaders receive in-depth training sessions on how to use the Simbi Foundation technology, how to integrate it into their existing teaching goals and learning outcomes, and how to maintain and troubleshoot it. Why? Because it allows the community to have lasting control over the infrastructure without need for constant external direction.
Why Simbi 'Foundation'?
Simbi Foundation is not a private family foundation, but rather an impact-driven organization that enhances access to education for remote, refugee, and under-served learners. We are Simbi ‘Foundation’ because we provide the foundational infrastructure, technology, and training required to give any learner, anywhere, lasting access to high-quality, relevant educational material.