by Karen Meaney
June 15, 2018
A window into the future of education can be seen in the accelerator programs supporting educational technology development and in the changes schools are making to get ready for new ways to teach and learn.
AT&T Aspire Accelerator in May selected its 2018 cohort of participants, who will receive financial support, mentorship and guidance from AT&T and other organizations.
“Never before has an AT&T Aspire Accelerator class championed such a diverse portfolio of leaders—a trait we believe strengthens the program, said Anne Wintroub, director of social innovation for the AT&T Foundation.
“We believe we found the most promising entrepreneurs from all over the country, with varied backgrounds, who offer solutions to problems they’ve personally seen or experienced in education,” Wintroub continued.
Through the programs and tools developed by this year’s class, students can learn coding while engaging in physical play with friends, increase reading engagement or find support via text message as they recover from trauma associated with systemic oppression.
Since launching the program in 2015, AT&T has worked with 19 educational technology organizations to reach more than 12.2 million students with learning solutions.
Nonprofit testing organization ETS is partnering with the education technology startup program LearnLaunch Accelerator to increase the resources that startups selected by that accelerator will receive to help them reach their growth goals.
"ETS's work has evolved over time as the needs of our many stakeholders have changed; this is the next phase in our evolution," ETS's Chief Strategy Officer Scott Weaver said. "The marriage of ETS's research-driven portfolio and LearnLaunch's agile startups can create a world of new possibilities for using technology to achieve better educational outcomes."
LearnLaunch Accelerator provides promising education technology startups with a personalized development plan guided by an industry venture partner and a network of industry-focused mentors. The ETS and LearnLaunch Accelerator collaboration will include funding, support and expertise.
Simba Information this year published two new reports focused on emerging learning resources and the interaction of learning and the physical environment: Schools of the Future, Part 1: Curriculum and Content and Schools of the Future, Part 2: The Physical Space.
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