With current governmental plans regarding support for education in the US undergoing disruption and change, we might benefit from a look at innovation on a large scale through privately funded endeavors. XPRIZE is one of those private, and sometimes public/private, organizations that shoots for the moon. Literally.
This post is a follow-up post to one from Sept. 22nd here at PSA announcing the start of the Global Learning XPRIZE contest. The current webpage for that is: Global Learning X Prize.
The Global Learning XPRIZE challenges teams from around the world to develop open source and scalable software that will enable children in developing countries to teach themselves basic reading, writing and arithmetic within 18 months. Once the 18-month field-testing phase concludes, the prize purse will be objectively awarded to the team that generates the best international standardized test scores within the group of participating children.
Our goal is an empowered generation that will positively impact their communities, countries and the world.
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Teams will compete in a multi-stage competition that test for specific criteria:
1. Ability to measurably increase the learning of children, with limited access to schooling, within the 18-month field-testing period.
2. Creation of a design that is easy to use and engaging for children, so they can operate it alone and/or in self-organized groups.
3. Creation of open source software that makes marked improvements to existing technology.
Meet the teams registered/ working on this from around the world.