Entrepreneurs and Teachers Put to the Creation Challenge | Startup Weekend Bay Area
With the SOLD OUT Startup Weekend Los Angeles quickly approaching (February 24th-26th, 2012) it’s time to start getting in the creation mindset. This year Startup Weekend is branching out towards driving solutions to be created for the education industry with Startup Weekend EDU. While this is different than the traditional Startup Weekend events, it comes at no surprise as the education industry continues to push forward on advancing learning with technology.
“The lines between informal and formal education are blurring,” observes Betsy (Elizabeth) Corcoran, CEO and Co-Founder of EdSurge, a leading industry publication that reports on education technology trends. “We can use technology to unlock incredible educational opportunities in both arenas–and will do so most effectively when educators and technologists work together.”
Startup Weekend EDU will focus on building applications and developing education-based use cases around them. A little different than the normal Startup Weekend, but great need. The drive for the event sparked from tech giants such as Amazon and Apple releasing initiatives aimed at the education industry. As the solutions rooted in technology continue to dominate education-related discourse, Startup Weekend Bay Area (powered by the Kauffman Foundation) will offer a platform for educators and technology industry innovators to converge during the upcoming Startup Weekend EDU event.
In the past, building technology for learning meant navigating the challenging procurement bureaucracies of schools. But according to Ms. Corcoran, the market for great edtech products is changing:
“Teachers are exercising more choice over the tools and products they want to use; parents are using edtech products at home, and the ‘maker’ or do-it-yourself movement is making ‘learning’ more cool for anyone at anytime. Those dynamics offer new opportunities for entrepreneurs as well as ‘teacher-preneurs,’ educators who have a passion for building scalable solutions.”
Added Osman Rashid, CEO/Co-Founder of Kno, Inc: “The rate of innovation in education technology today is unprecedented thanks to programs like Startup Weekend. We are excited to part of this competition and to support others who are passionate about improving the state of education through technology.”
To provide guidance and feedback to event participants on their various ideas, Startup Weekend has enlisted local entrepreneurs and experts with experience in the edtech space. These mentors include: Cory Reid, Mastery Connect; Liam Donn, ClassDojo; David Straus, Kno, Inc; Justin Su, Goalbook; Wayee Chu, NewSchools Venture Fund; Michael Staton, Inigral; Ari Bader-Natal, Grockit; Lorraine Akemann, Moms with Apps; Jessie Arora, Imagine K-12; Scott Rutherford, UserVoice; and Babur Habib, Kno, Inc.
Event attendees can get a jump on the event by educating themselves with the “CheatCode” compiled by EdSurge, a partner of Startup Weekend Bay Area’s EDU event. The 54-hour event will be hosted by education software company Kno, Inc. located at 5155 Old Ironside Drive, Santa Clara, California 95054, from February 24, 2012 to February 26, 2012.
