Baobabooks Education Sàrl is a Geneva, Switzerland-registered social impact company. Created in partnership with an experienced team of educators and talented digital imagineers, the Baobabooks platform is a rich and guided environment where children and teens can write, illustrate and publish their own books. The platform supports picture book, short story, chapter book, poem and essay formats. Students can use their own art to illustrate their books or choose from 2.4 million indexed images in the platform.
he Baobabooks platform is created using teacher friendly technology that simplifies teacher workload while enabling and empowering their creativity. Available in six languages and with more planned in the near future, Baobabooks supports project-based learning and accommodates both classroom-based and remote teaching and learning of life-critical literacy skills. The platform supports collaborations across countries, oceans and cultures to allow students to learn form each other and collaborate to create a book.
Giving students agency through our platform and providing the ability for them to express themselves is deeply empowering. It provides an important re-enforcement of their value as individuals and gives them the space they need to gain self-confidence and flourish. Providing artists a place where they can showcase their work and gain recognition and appreciation is transformational.
Writing and reading are important life skills. Students who know how to read and write have better chances of getting into college, finding a job, and having opportunities to further their education. Writing fosters our ability to explain and refine our ideas to others and ourselves. The more students read and write, the more they are able to broaden their vocabulary and articulate concepts accurately and more effectively to others. Because literacy skills develop with age, it is important for children and teens to engage with / be exposed to experiences that develop these skills from an early age.
Similarly, art is an important form of expression that allows more rounded development to occur. Art subjects encourage self-expression and creativity and can build confidence as well as a sense of individual identity. Involvement in the arts is associated with gains in math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skill. Being creative or Artistic expression can also improve motivation while enhancing concentration and self-confidence.
The Baobabooks platform supports and encourages writers and artists and provides them an inclusive space to work individually or in-collaboration to create and publish a book. It’s this collaborative connection that Baobabooks fosters to enhance understanding and appreciation of the diversity in the world. If children can work across continents, oceans and cultures to learn from each other and create a book that is valued and appreciated, what else can they accomplish? This sense of empowerment stimulates positive thoughts for what might be possible in the future.
