Industry News
ATT Selects Up and Coming Ed Tech Organizations for Aspire Accelerator Program
AT&T has selected the participants for its second annual Aspire Accelerator
class, which provides funding, training and mentorship for
organizations that develop technology designed to foster student
success, strengthen schools and communities, or prepare learners for
employment.
The program is open to nonprofit and for-profit organizations
of any size or age, as long as they are "working on a product or
service that uses technology to support students' educational and/or
career success" and have "a minimum viable product and some proof of
product-market fit," according to information on AT&T's site.
Organizations selected for the program receive an investment of
$100,000, plus $25,000 to cover program expenses, personalized
mentorship and access to experts in education and technology from
AT&T and other organizations.
Organizations selected to participate in the 2016 Aspire
Accelerator class include:
- Bitsbox in Boulder, CO, which offers a monthly subscription
service to computer programming projects that teach elementary school
children how to code apps;
- Cogent Education in Athens, GA, which has developed
interactive case study software designed to help students learn
difficult biological science concepts using an inquiry-based problem
solving approach;
- CommonLit in Washington, DC, which offers a free digital
platform with a collection of fiction and nonfiction for classrooms,
along with lesson plans and student progress tracking;
- Couragion in Boulder, CO, which offers an iPad app designed
to expose students to STEM careers using videos, games and
self-reflection quizzes;
- TalkingPoints in San Francisco, CA, which has developed a
multilingual texting platform to connect teachers, families and
students through mobile technology; and
- The Graide Network in Chicago, IL, which is an online
platform connecting teachers with on-demand teaching assistants to
grade and provide thorough feedback on student work.
Organizations that participated in last year's inaugural
Aspire Accelerator include eduCanon (now PlayPosit), GradGuru, LearnTrials, MindBlown Labs and Quill.
Further information about the AT&T Aspire Accelerator
program can be found on AT&T's site.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].