Education Nonprofit CFY Wins Grant To Enhance PowerMyLearning.com
CFY was selected from nearly 100 applicants to win a $350,000 Digital Learning Challenge grant from the Susan Crown Exchange (SCE) to allow CFY to enhance PowerMyLearning.com.
The Web site is a free digital learning platform that allows students, teachers, and parents to locate and use online learning activities that are aligned with the Common Core State Standards and have been evaluated and recommended by educators.
Enhancements to PowerMyLearning.com will include:
- A "Join a friend" feature for students to obtain additional playpoints by getting friends to join, thus creating a viral marketing effort to promote usage;
- A buddy notification feature where students can determine which of their friends are online at the same time, which will encourage students to return often and get their friends to join; and
- A points and badge award competition where students can share their badges and playpoints level with their friends to foster healthy competition.
SCE's first Digital Learning Challenge was designed to find solutions that delivered the best digital learning media to more kids by curating the most effective digital learning activities that are publicly available on the Web for free and making them easily accessible and usable in one trusted place. CFY also stood out as an objective curator of content, according to a company release.
"PowerMyLearning is bringing quality digital learning activities to students across the country," said Susan Crown, CEO of SCE. "We chose PowerMyLearning because it is one of the most engaging, educationally effective digital learning platforms available. We are excited about the opportunity for more students, teachers, and parents to harness the capabilities of PowerMyLearning to drive student achievement."
CFY was founded in 1999 as Computers for Youth, and has developed the K-12 platform PowerMyLearning.com and its on-the-ground direct service initiative, the CFY Digital Learning Program. CFY has served more than 50,000 families from 100 schools nationwide and has extended the effects of its work further by developing and operating the PowerMyLearning Network of more than 30 organizations in more than 20 states and the District of Columbia.
In 2009, after three decades in traditional philanthropy, Susan Crown formed SCE with the stated goal of becoming a hub for ideas, people, services, and innovation in the service of public good. Susan Crown serves on the boards of major corporations including Illinois Tool Works and Northern Trust Corporation, and as a Vice-Chair of Rush University Medical Center, Trustee of the Natural Resource Defense Council, Director of CARE USA, and Trustee of The Chicago Public Education Fund. For 12 years, she was a fellow of the Yale Corporation and is currently a co-chair of the Yale Tomorrow Campaign.
For more information, visit powermylearning.com. Go to scefdn.org for more information about the Susan Crown Exchange.
About the Author
Kevin Hudson is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Oregon. He can be reached at [email protected].