--- title: Three Bits of Love projects in the spotlight at 10 years of Smart Education at Schools url: "https://www.bitsoflove.be/updates/three-bits-of-love-projects-in-the-spotlight-at-10-years-of-smart-education-at-schools" date_modified: "2026-09-24T20:13:18+02:00" --- [Back to all news](https://www.bitsoflove.be/updates) Written by Jessica Kellner Posted on 24/09/2026 # Three Bits of Love projects in the spotlight at 10 years of Smart Education at Schools Technology can do a lot in education. But only when it starts with the people who actually have to use it. On 9 October, imec celebrates ten years of **Smart Education at Schools**: an innovation programme built around a simple but important principle. Instead of starting with technology, it starts with **real challenges experienced by teachers and schools**. Teachers bring the ideas. Schools, researchers and technology partners bring different perspectives and expertise to the table. Together, they turn those ideas into tangible EdTech solutions that can be tested in real classrooms and, eventually, scaled to other schools. That approach resonates strongly with how we work at Bits of Love. We believe technology should never be the goal in itself. Especially in education, a digital product has to work for very different users, fit into an existing teaching practice and solve a problem that actually matters. That requires more than software development. It requires listening, observing, testing, questioning assumptions and translating educational and scientific expertise into a product people can genuinely use. Over the years, we have had the opportunity to do exactly that within several Smart Education at Schools projects. At this year’s ten-year celebration, **three projects we helped bring to life ​‘Fonemi’, ​‘Spellingsmonitor’ and ​‘MeKraft’ are being put in the spotlight.** ## Fonemi — helping children build the foundations for reading How do you give every preschooler enough individual practice with sounds and language when a teacher has an entire classroom to support? That question led to **Fonemi**, an adaptive web application developed together with VIVES and four primary schools. Children in their final year of preschool practise phonemic awareness independently and at their own level through playful exercises. At the same time, teachers can follow each child’s progress and identify where additional support may be needed. For us, Fonemi is a great example of what educational technology can be when **pedagogical expertise, playful UX and solid technology reinforce each other**. Designing software for very young children also forces you to rethink many assumptions about digital interfaces. Instructions, navigation, feedback and interaction all need to work for users who cannot necessarily read yet. The result is therefore not simply an educational application, but a product designed very deliberately around the abilities of its users. Fonemi has since grown beyond the original project and is now also available in the Netherlands. ## Spellingsmonitor: using technology to give teachers time back Some of the most interesting applications of AI are not the ones that replace human expertise, but those that remove repetitive work and allow that expertise to be used where it matters most. **Spellingsmonitor** is a good example. Spelling tests in primary schools are still often completed on paper. Correcting them and analysing mistakes takes teachers a considerable amount of time. Spellingsmonitor allows handwritten tests to be scanned and uses handwriting recognition to analyse spelling errors automatically. Students receive faster feedback, while teachers gain insight into the spelling strategies individual pupils have or haven’t mastered. That means less time spent correcting and more time available for targeted teaching and support. It is exactly the kind of technology we believe in: **advanced underneath, straightforward for the person using it**. The complexity belongs in the product, not with the teacher. ## MeKraft — helping students learn how to learn The transition to secondary school brings a different kind of challenge. Students are suddenly expected to plan, monitor their progress, stay motivated and reflect on how they learn. Those skills may be essential, but they are not always easy to teach — or easy for young people to translate into everyday behaviour. **MeKraft** supports students in the first years of secondary education in developing these self-regulated learning skills. The responsive web application combines scientific insights with interactive challenges, gamification and a chatbot, helping students turn abstract learning strategies into concrete actions. The project is being developed together with GO! scholengroep Impact, Atheneum Eureka, Stamina, Element and Bits of Love, and has been tested with students in Flemish schools. Again, the interesting part for us isn’t simply the technology. It is the translation: **how do you turn academic knowledge about learning into an experience a twelve-year-old actually understands and wants to use?** That is where product strategy, UX, behavioural thinking and engineering have to come together. ## Different challenges. The same principle. A preschooler practising sounds. A teacher correcting spelling tests. A secondary-school student trying to understand how to study. Three very different users and three very different technological solutions. What connects them is the way they were created: starting from a genuine need in education, combining expertise from different disciplines and testing technology in the environment where it ultimately has to prove its value. That is also why Smart Education at Schools matters to us. At Bits of Love, we like ambitious technology. We experiment with AI, data, personalisation and new interfaces. But we are equally convinced that innovation only becomes meaningful when it improves someone’s actual experience. **Technology should not make education more digital for the sake of it. It should help teachers teach, help students learn and create room for people to do what humans are particularly good at.** Seeing three projects we helped shape represented as Smart Education at Schools celebrates its tenth anniversary is therefore something we’re especially proud of. ## Also interesting [- News ## From 7 to 20 Talentcenters: digital impact that scales](https://www.bitsoflove.be/updates/from-7-to-20-talentcenters-digital-impact-that-scales) [## Featured in Business Vlaanderen: digital impact goes beyond technology](https://www.bitsoflove.be/updates/featured-in-business-vlaanderen-digital-impact-goes-beyond-technology) [- News ## Bits of Love partners with Kom op tegen Kanker](https://www.bitsoflove.be/updates/bits-of-love-partners-with-kom-op-tegen-kanker) [- News ## From 7 to 20 Talentcenters: digital impact that scales](https://www.bitsoflove.be/updates/from-7-to-20-talentcenters-digital-impact-that-scales) [## Featured in Business Vlaanderen: digital impact goes beyond technology](https://www.bitsoflove.be/updates/featured-in-business-vlaanderen-digital-impact-goes-beyond-technology) [- News ## Bits of Love partners with Kom op tegen Kanker](https://www.bitsoflove.be/updates/bits-of-love-partners-with-kom-op-tegen-kanker)