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Sustainability-focused international PBL project:Rethinking digital education for individuals of low socioeconomic status
Providing access to education for individuals of lower socio-economic status is a significant way to reduce poverty, as it
empowers them to grow as professionals and as individuals. Although there is an increasing sense of urgency to promote
these changes, notably motivated by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the UN 2030 Agenda, there are still
few successful ways to solve this problem on a large-scale. As digital technology develops and affordability increases, new
ways to share quality educational content are created. In an exploratory case study, with a qualitative approach, this paper
presents the development of a digital application focused on providing quality educational content directed to vulnerable
groups that lack access to formal learning experiences, specifically focused on waste pickers in Brasilia, Brazil. The main
data collection methods used to make the decisions through the development process were observation, surveys, and
interviews. Within the framework of Problem Based Learning (PBL) an international cross-disciplinary collaboration among
different universities, the project, denominated āMobile Educationā, involved: (i) the design and implementation of a system
consisting of both a web and mobile application; (ii) the research of a viable business model to provide long-term
sustainability for the project; (iii) and the creation of a pilot course of financial education for the preliminary target group,
i.e., waste pickers from Brasilia, Brazil. Conclusively, the project aims to positively impact social transformation for individuals
who work at the Waste Sorting facilities and lack financial knowledge. The Mobile Education project resulted in a functional
version of the app (Web and Mobile) as well as the delimitation of a viable business model to keep it providing digital
equality in Brazilian education