LOCKED AND LOADED: EduCanon is on a roll. Recently named best startup in the Education category for the 1776 Global Challenge Cup, the Maryland-based developer of a video-embed tool captured nearly half of the votes** from the 70 or so educators, entrepreneurs, investors, and journalists on hand for the final round of the ISTE 2014 Edtech Startup Pitch Fest. Co-founder Swaroop Raju revealed that eduCanon boasts some 20K teachers on the platform with 20% actively building new lessons each month.
Other finalists included:
- Branching Minds which translates cognitive science into practices that can help educators pinpoint learning challenges, and then recommends tools and apps that may address those challenges;
- Modular Robotics, a company offering robotics kits (Cubelets and MOSS) and free curriculum to help educators engage students in STEM topics;
- News-O-Matic which provides developmentally appropriate daily news for kids ages 7-11 and a virtual "newsroom" where students around the world can share opinions; and
- The Wonderment by Kidnected World, a free app that allows kids to participate in an awareness challenge, watch the “wonder meter” rise as kids around the world join in, and finally see their interests turn to action through donors and corporate brands.
** The instructions for voting via response card clickers weren't exactly clear for the audience members to the left and right of the author. Perhaps the organizers should take a page from great educators and model the expected voting behavior next year!
