Platform Makes Education More Accessible and Affordable

One of the things that has naturally resulted from the increasing accessibility of information and the removal of limitations on its access is the proliferation of open educational resources, or OERs. This includes any text, media, or other digital assets that are freely accessible and openly licensed for the purposes of teaching, learning, and research. OERs are the foundation of an education startup called panOpen, which seeks to, in its founders own words, promote their widespread adoption in education. While there is plenty of information available openly on sites like Wikipedia, it can be a lot to sift through and many people end up searching blindly or without direction. The other options include textbooks, which can be costly for students are many of which receive updated information that makes older versions nearly useless. PanOpen provides a platform for the reception of information gathered by professionals and focused on specific studies at a dramatically reduced cost. Read more »

Technology applied to education has shown many positive results, but there is still plenty of room for growth and improvement.  A startup called Classkick is one of many that are seeking to bring that growth and improvement in technological applications to education. Available on the web or as a mobile app, its creators claim that it can provide more individualized, real-time feedback precisely when students need it to keep everyone in a class learning together.  It also, of course, has advantages for teachers, who can use it to view exactly what students are doing and who needs help in real time so that they can provide the necessary aid and instruction.  It can serve to keep a classroom of students working together as well as allowing for faster and easier lesson planning and making the creation of more interesting and engaging assignments possible. Read more »

Teaching is not an easy job, and while a teacher is ultimately responsible for the educational growth and development of his or her own students, at least in a specific subject, everyone could use a little help and support.  This is where a startup called BetterLesson aims to help.  In its creators’ words, it empowers teachers to drive their own personal learning by utilizing personalized coaching to help them discover what works best in their particular curriculum and develop instructional strategies they can tailor to their particular students.  It does this by offering an online community of professional educators with years of experience based on the premise that many professionals receive coaching of some kind or another and this should not exclude the field of education. BetterLesson also offers a database of lessons and resources organized by education professionals. Read more »

Education is about more than lectures, cold facts, and standardized testing.  Ideally, a good education will form critical thinking skills, giving children something to draw from and develop for the rest of their lives rather than mere information to pass a test and forget.  Narrable is an education app designed with this in mind.  It helps students crate a brief audio slideshow with narration and/or music as well as visual effects starting with uploaded photos. Read more »

Most experts agree that all mathematical and scientific education will one day take place exclusively online.  Currently, despite the glut of tech devices we use both in our personal lives and in the classroom, students and teachers continue to use rudimentary supplies for school and beyond.  FastFig is a solution developed to provide the math, science, and engineering fields with the best platform possible for education and exploration.  In many cases, we give creators, scientists, and engineers or those studying these fields pencils, paper, and outdated calculators rather than the most advanced technology to realize and expand upon ideas and knowledge.  FastFig is a startup that seeks to offer fully functional system for math on the Internet.  As a free Computer Algebra System (also called CAS), it makes math, no matter how difficult or complication an equation, easy to learn, type, and edit. Read more »

Our education and careers can undergo many changes, and these changes require a great deal of consideration, particularly when they involve transitioning from high school to college or one career field to another.   Even the most intelligent and focused people often have little direction in choosing or changing a career, no idea how the college admissions process worked, or even how to begin taking these new steps.  There are many people offering advice and many websites offering guidance, but it is difficult to know who to trust and what to believe.  Fortunately, now there is Mytonomy, a counseling service for particular major life changes developed by professionals.  While privileged families have easy access to private counselors and tutors, Mytonomy works to level the playing field for those that do not.  It implements technology, dramatically improving a user’s ability to get advice or work with career professionals and teachers to know what steps to take. Read more »

Children and adults with disorders such as Autism have unique educational needs.  While some companies have created and applied a great deal of technological innovation in education, there is much less innovation applied to the education of students with special needs.  Special Learning is a startup that looks to rectify this by providing mobile apps and educational resources for the special needs community.  In its designers’ words, it is a resource and education portal for parents, providers and educators for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other developmental disabilities worldwide.  One of the most effective methods in treating behavioral disorders or reaching people with special needs is Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Therapy. Special Learning uses technology to utilize this method while providing information, tools and resources for anyone who works with people suffering from Autism or other developmental disabilities. Read more »

While mobile tech devices serve as a distraction to many students in class, teachers can also use them to make lessons more interactive, engaging, and interesting.  Many schools are now implementing the use of tablets to do away with the old methods of tedious note-taking and uninvolved lecture.  With GoSoapBox, a student can simultaneously interact with the rest of his or her class in real time by participating with any Internet-connected device.  It is a web-based app that serves to encourage participation in study and engaging classroom discussion. Students can use it to post questions about a lecture, “vote up” questions their classmates have already submitted, let their teacher know when they are confused, and contribute to polls and questions posted by the teacher. Read more »

In the past, school fundraisers have mostly involved having students sell low-profit items that most people purchased out of a sense of obligation while the school received less than half the money raised.  For a school district to raise money often involves proposing tax increases and waiting half a year for a budget to pass, which seldom does in some places.  EdBacker is a startup that takes advantage of the popularity of crowdfunding and applies it specifically toward PTA group and school fundraising.  In fact, its creator refers to it as “PTA made easy.”  More than just raising money, it is a tool that consolidates volunteer signups and any other business a PTA performs into one platform.  Not only that, it makes the fundraising aspect easier, more social, and more transparent. Read more »

The use of video as a teaching aid is an old idea, though one increasingly utilized as the quality and relevance of the videos used grows.  While it is useful in the classroom, it can also be useful in training teachers themselves as well as students, something of which a startup called Sibme is hoping to take advantage.  Sibme is a private video collaboration platform educators can use to improve teaching and learning, serving as a powerful tool for developing teachers in schools and other education-related organizations. It makes the often-laborious process of recording and uploading easier by allowing teachers to easily record themselves teaching with a smartphone and upload their videos to a secure platform where they can review and improve upon their teaching practices with trusted colleagues. Read more »