A Global Collaboration on Nurturing Education Innovations

1. Global Startup Weekend - EDU
Nurturing US Education Innovations
By Learning From
Top Countries’
K-12 Academic Successes
Mark Lee
mlee@alum.mit.edu
Jun 2012

2. New Technology Enables New Ideas
What Other Ideas Are Possible?
US$45
WP, Web
browsing, video
http://www.slideshare.net/eden_online/nick-allen conferencing, two
USB ports,
256 MB RAM.

3. Initial Idea
An Education Startup Weekend in Orlando
To Nurture Education Innovations
http://edu.startupweekend.org/

4. Challenge
An Orlando Startup Weekend EDU event
Sources Ideas (Primarily) From the USA
How About
Learning From
These Countries?
Finland
Singapore
ORLANDO

5. Orlando as the Hub of K12 Online Education
Boston
Hub of
Tertiary Online Education
Orlando
Hub of
K12 Online Education
e.g. FLVS

6. Top Countries Ranked By K-12 Academic Success
Why Are These Countries
Doing So Well Academically?
Finland
Singapore
What Can We Learn From Them?

7. Apple Agrees that More Can Be Done!
Jan 19th 2012 Apple Education Event
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1201oihbafvpihboijhpihbasdouhbasv/event/index.html

8. A Global Idea: Host a Global Startup Weekend - EDU
To Collaborate Globally On Education Innovations
Helsinki
Orlando
Singapore

9. Global Startup Weekend – EDU Builds Upon
SW’s Vision of Transcending Boundaries
Startup Weekends Proposed Global
Transcend Startup Weekend – EDU
Functional Boundaries Transcend
National Boundaries
• Educators
• Developers • Singapore
• Designers
• Business strategists
& • Helsinki/Finland
• Orlando/US
• Product Managers
• Startup Enthusiasts
EDU
Innovations/Startups

10. Nurturing Education Innovations
from Diverse Global Successes
A Global Startup Weekend EDU
(sometime between Jun – Aug 2012)
To Nurture
Bottom-Up Education Innovations
That Transcend National Boundaries
Orlando Helsinki
Singapore

11. Each Site & Team Will Have Global Participation
Each Global Site Each Global Team
1+ 1+
On-Site Remote/Online
Educator Representative Educator Representative
from the other 2 Sites from the other 2 Sites

12. Gates Foundation Supports Startup Weekend – EDU
($250,000)
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
has pledged $250,000
to the Startup Weekend EDU series of events,
the dedicated education-focused vertical
within the non-profit.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/07/startup-weekend-edu-receives-250000-grant-from-the-bill-melinda-gates-foundation/
12

13. Solicit Funding For Global Collaborative SW EDU
Existing Proposed Global
Startup Weekends Startup Weekends – EDU
(Individual & Isolated) (Global Collaboration)
Startup Weekend Org Startup Weekend Org
Structure Structure Global
How-To’s How-To’s Collaboration?
Boston London Orlando Helsinki
Singapore Singapore
Individual & Isolated Peer-to-Peer
Events Global Collaboration

14. As of June 2012
USA Singapore
1 Nov 17th Kickoff Meeting
1
In Orlando, FL
Organizer
2
2 Started Conversation with
Singapore Government’s
Nat’l Institute of Education
http://orlandoedu.startupweekend.org/
Faculty
3 Presented Remotely
@ NIE’s 12/2 EDUCamp

15. Supplemental Slides
15

16. Global Startup Weekend – EDU
A Bottom-Up “Little Bets” Opportunity
to Nurture Education Innovations
A little bet is
a low-risk action taken to
discover,
develop, and
test an idea.

17. Can Orlando be a K12 Education Hub?
Boston
• Tertiary
Education Hub
NYC
• Fashion
• Media
SV
• Tech Startups Orlando
• K12
Education Hub
Houston
• Energy

18. “Surpassing Shanghai”
A Top-Down Agenda to Improve US Education
Surpassing Shanghai:
An Agenda for American Education
Built on the World's Leading Systems
This book answers a simple question: How would one
redesign the American education system if the aim
was to take advantage of everything that has been
learned by countries with the world’s best education
systems?
The message is clear: If we are serious, we have to
stop simply comparing California to Connecticut to
Kansas. It’s time to swim in deeper water with
Singapore, Ontario, Japan, and others who are eating
our lunch.
— John Merrow, education correspondent, PBS
NewsHour and president, Learning Matters
http://www.hepg.org/hep/book/142#

19. Google Supports Startup Weekend, Including EDU
Today, we’re announcing
a partnership with Startup Weekend—
a global organization committed to
promoting real entrepreneurship
in local communities. …
Participants gather on Friday, and (Announced Nov 10th, 2011)
by Sunday afternoon, they launch a product.
This partnership will help Startup Weekend expand to dozens of additional cities
around the world and launch new vertical competitions focused on specific
themes such as education, health or gaming.
… we’ll be working to bring in Google’s developer community in the form
of Google Technology User Groups as an additional resource to Startup Weekend
participants.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/supporting-entrepreneurs-around-world.html