Clare Stead – Using tech to educate via the medium of play 

“Be Playful – it’s in playfulness that we find our more exciting moments” 

Key Takeaways

• What you learn during your first 1,000 days of life impacts your education outcomes, your academic outcomes, your wealth, health, social outcomes and everything in between. 
• How much more would we achieve in a day if we made our working environment playful and see failure as the beginning of success?  
• Link to interview with Rebecca Godfrey interview about using LEGO Serious Play as a method to promote creativity and make key decisions in teams. 
• If you can unlock your passion can you unlock everything. 
• The app was built to make an impact and to create change – It’s impossible to do that alone so it’s important to partner up and collaborate with others. 
• It’s not about pitching your technology to your market it’s about solving their problems.
• Focus on speaking the language of your target market so that you can reach more people and be effective with your messaging.
• Not everyone who needs your product/service knows that they need it or wants it – you have to educate them and raise awareness around the problem they have and how you can solve it and help them.
• The more questions you can ask – the better. 

Clare’s tips and learning for anyone thinking of building an app

• Put a little bit more time into the preparation 
• Focus on the outcome not the app
• Finding a good developer is a little bit like finding an architect, are they going to produce the building that you want at the end of it? You need to focus on the outcomes and make sure you find someone that understands this.
• Don’t delay in starting to build your audience – you don’t have to have a product in your hand before you start talking to people and building the interest.
• If you can build a team around you to help you because being able to talk to people is really important. 
• Find tech-accelerators where you can talk with others and learn more about growing your business.
• Don’t be afraid to pitch your idea and your business – it’s hard to start with but get’s easier the more you do it and becomes second nature. 
• Find a mentor 
• The most successful way to market your business and app is to develop relationships and find people that know how important the problem is that you’re trying to solve but don’t have the capability or knowledge to solve that problem yourselves.
• You don’t make sales behind your computer – you have to get out and talk to people – even virtually.
• Don’t waste time by having a product and having no audience – build your audience as soon as you start developing. 
• When you build an app you are building a business and the two need to be connected.
• Don’t wait for the world to find you. 
• Competition is healthy because you know you’re in the right space – if you have no competition you need to ask why no one else has done this before. 
• Add value to your partners and affiliates so it’s just about the money.

Mentioned Links and References:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarestead-oliiki/ 

Website: www.oliiki.com

iOS App: https://apps.apple.com/app/oliiki/id1451057588 

Android App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oliiki.oliiki&hl=en 

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About Clare Stead:

 A mother of three, Clare Stead is an e-learning specialist, researcher and qualified primary school teacher, who is passionate about children having the opportunity to enrich their lives through creative, engaging, active learning. Clare has over 20 years of both classroom and active research based educational experience in western and more deprived environments spanning numerous countries. Clare’s most recent venture is Oliiki, a company borne out of the belief that a child’s learning journey starts from birth.

The First 1000 Days app is the first of a series of Oliiki apps which focuses on research-based, fun and interactive activities for the first 1000 days of a child’s life (from conception to two years of age). Its purpose is to begin preparing a child to enter school able and ready to learn to their full potential. Prior to Oliiki, Clare was Chief Product Officer at Mwabu (formerly iSchool) in Zambia and the UK where she designed and developed a fully immersive experiential learning system for the Zambian primary school system, which is now rolling out across Africa. It teaches teachers to move from rote learning to enquiry based active teaching and learning and puts children at the centre of the learning. (http://www.youngedprofessionals.org/yep-dc-recess-blog/ischool-delivering-tablets-to- zambian-schools) Clare won numerous awards for her work at Mwabu, giving keynote speeches about its work and sharing best practice on platforms throughout Africa. (United Nations country conferences, as a speaker and a panellist at the United Nations Social Good Summit 2015, various Television and radio appearances, Independent School Association of Zambia Conference, etc). (http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/centres/archive/cce/initiatives/projects/oer4schools/ )

From 2002 – 2006 Clare was an educational consultant for the International Learning and Research Centre (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-rose-23716580) specialising in ICT across the curriculum; Multiple Intelligences and their use in the classroom; research and learning as well as school based enquiry. In 2004-2006 her focus was on leading both national and international teams of head teachers, teachers, and students to develop innovative ways of learning and sharing best practice across the top 5% of schools in England and Wales.

Prior to this Clare worked as a primary school teacher across all age ranges and a number of countries. She was a specialist teacher and subject coordinator for English, music and ICT.