The Education Innovation Summit in Scottsdale wrapped up on Wednesday evening. It was a dizzying event: almost 1,400 people and literally more than 150 presentations. We're still trying to make sense of the whole thing--so expect some comments in the days to come.
It was a meeting geared toward investors and entrepreneurs. Perhaps to soften that emphasis, conference organizers, namely Michael Moe and Deborah Quazzo of GSV Partners, created an education award this year that they called the "Return on Education" awards. Life-long awards went to two pioneers:
Bill Milliken, Founder and Vice Chairman of Communities In Schools
Marguerite W. Kondracke, senior advisor to America's Promise Alliance
Both Bill and Marguerite have made a tremendous difference for children throughout the U.S. And both referenced the fact that teachers--and relationships--make a tremendous difference for students.
What can we say about the dinner speaker, Andy Kessler, a long-time analyst and writer? Either he tried for a tongue-in-cheek talk and failed--or he genuinely failed to understand education. He's vintage Silicon Valley so we're pretty sure that he can take feedback neat, no ice. So here it comes: Just don't trouble yourself about education, Andy. The industry--meaning both entrepreneurs and educators--can handle this one without you.
There were ten other awards and three startup companies recognized for doing great work. We're tickled pink to announce that our team was awarded the prize for fostering community!
The winners at the launch competition at the conference were:
* Clever
And here's the list of other award winners and nominees. Congrats to all!
Category: Partnerships
WINNER: 2U
Academic PartnershipsCoursera
edX
Middlebury Interactive Languages
Category: Kaizen EDU
WINNER: Chegg
CreativeLIVELearnist
MyEdu Corporation
Parchment
Category: Learning Infrastructure
WINNER: Edmodo
CleverKaltura
LearnSprout, Inc.
Toolwire, Inc.
Category: Learning Platforms
WINNER: Knewton
Khan Academy
Kno
LearnSmart (McGraw-Hill Education)
Quizlet
Udacity
Voxy
Category: Next Generation Content
WINNER: System 44 and Read 180 (Scholastic)
EverFi
Lumosity
Lynda.com
OpenStax College
Category: New Schools
WINNER: Florida Virtual SchoolCharter Schools USA, Inc.
Ounce of Prevention Fund/Educare Learning Network
Pluralsight
Southern New Hampshire University
The STEM Academy
Category: ROE Accelerator
WINNER: EdSurge
4.0 Schools
Common Sense Media
Imagine K12
Learning Technology Media Labs
Category: STEM
WINNER: Dreambox Learning
Codecademy
MIND Research Institute
Think Through Math
TenMarks Education
Category: Teacher Support
WINNER: Teachscape
ClassDojo
School Improvement Network
Truenorthlogic
Turnitin / iParadigms
OVERALL WINNER:
