Emily Church, Prize Manager, announces the $15 million Global Learning XPRIZE, a competition that challenges teams from around the world to develop open source scalable software solutions that will enable children in developing countries to teach themselves basic reading, writing and arithmetic within the 18 month competition field-testing period.
Farnaz Ronaghi, co-founder and Director of Engineering at NovoEd, designed and developed the Venture Lab platform at Stanford University while a PhD student. Venture Lab was a difficult design challenge for which she prototyped technical solutions for enabling beneficial peer collaboration among tens of thousands of students around the globe enrolled in an online Stanford entrepreneurship class.
Nathaniel Manning, Director of Business and Strategy at Ushahidi, describes how they build open source software for making sense of data. In addition to software, Ushahidi has also built the iHub, the nerve center of Kenya’s tech community, and the BRCK, a redesign of connectivity for the developing world.
Missy Sherburne, Chief Partnerships Officer of DonorsChoose.org, describes the amazing growth of an online charity that makes it easy for ordinary citizens to help fund school projects they are passionate about (e.g., classrooms in need of art supplies, field trips, or science kits). Since Missy joined DonorsChoose.org, the organization has delivered over $270 million worth of resources and experiences to more than 12 million students across the country.
23andMe Chief Medical Officer, Jill Hagenkord, describes how their company is disrupting the healthcare industry by allowing people to access their own DNA. Genetic information is the basis for personalized medicine and 23andMe believes everyone has the right to their personal genetic DNA.
Paul Kruchoski, Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of State, describes the effort to elevate education diplomacy across the Dept.'s vast, decentralized staff of 70,000. Using a human-centered design approach, the project uncovered needs and desires for sharing, internally across embassies, and externally with the world.
Angela Jackson, award winning social entrepreneur and founder of Global Language Project, describes the driving force behind her non-profit that provides language teaching for elementary school children in public schools. Angela has changed the trajectory of hundreds of young lives empowering them with valuable knowledge of a second language to prepare them for higher education scholarship opportunities and to compete in a global workforce.
Tess Posner, Managing Director of SamaUSA, describes how she built and launched a program that provides low-income Americans with digital skills and access to internet-based jobs to help them move out of poverty.
Stephen Ritz, Founder of Green Bronx Machine, and Peter Findler, history teacher at Washington's Latin Public High School, tell their story of a first meeting at Big Ideas Fest 2012 that led to Stephen's fourth- and fifth-graders traveling to Washington DC to teach indoor urban farming at Peter's Washington Latin Public High School. Since then, Stephen invited Peter to join him on an upcoming trip to the White House and Green Bronx Machine opportunities continue. As Stephen says, "it all starts with planting seeds."
Steve Good, Executive Director of the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department’s Five Keys Charter Schools, provides an inside glimpse of the the first charter school in the nation to operate inside a county jail. Five Keys now has several schools in San Francisco and Los Angeles County jails, and thirty community satellite campuses.
A professional hula hooper, Kari Revolva, wows Big Ideas Fest 2014 audience with her story of why she said "no" to Oprah. Her blog post explaining why she refused to perform at Oprah's "The Life You Want" tour went viral and was viewed over 300,000 times in 3 weeks. Revolva speaks on behalf of artists everywhere who are "asked to work for free by people who can afford to pay."
Former secondary school teacher and language instructor from the village of Diggle, England, Jackie Barrow tells of her adventure joining TED Prize winner, Sugata Mitra’s School in the Cloud project, as one of the original Cloud Grannies. As a Cloud Granny, she talks, reads, sings, tells stories, and develops connections, virtually, via Skype, with groups of children in India, to improve their English skills, provide a window to the world using technology, and importantly, to increase their awareness about their own success through continued learning.
San Francisco high school student, Logan Kahle, discusses his in-depth studies as part of the program he and his parents devised called “custom schooling.” This individualized, one-on-one instruction involves teachers at home, à la carte classes from local colleges and online courses, research opportunities with leading scientists, social contacts among his beloved birding community, and allows Kahle to shape his education to fit his own deep and diverse interests.
Founder of the Ever Forward Club and school principal by day, Ashanti Branch describes how he prototyped and grew a program into an organization. Drawing from his own needs as a youth, he developed a groundbreaking “emotional tool box” for African American and Latino young men to learn to trust and persevere, face their fears, and bring confidence and empathy into their lives in order to achieve their true potential.
Self-taught web coder, Ming Horn, describes her junior year in high school when she courageously took on designing, crowdfunding, and teaching KhodeUp (khodeup.org), a four-week computer programming class for 24 young men and women in an orphanage in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, thus taking the first steps toward a replicable model for students to learn coding, how to support themselves in a growing industry, and how to learn and innovate.
Big Idea: a downloadable widget tool that unites practitioners with personal, relevant info, using a "data diver" to troll for current research that can best inform educational practice.
Big Idea: a wristband that could be worn by students to collect information, including some biometric data such as stress level, and also questions from students (who would always be in charge of what info they wanted to share), helping to better inform the educational process.
Big Idea: a program where six students have six immersive experiences with members of the local community, thereby sparking passion and igniting learning.
Big Idea: a series of micro events where attendees at face-to-face gatherings unite the best of oral tradition and the best of the digital age, by explaining the spark that ignited their passion, documenting theses stories via video, and then using the Internet to stay connected with those they meet.
Big Idea: A simple box, filled with items of importance to students and of relevance to experts, creates a dynamic, flexible learning tool, facilitating stronger relationships between educators, learners and community members.
Big Idea: a program that would connect students with their surrounding community and provide in-person and web-based resources that empower learners to solve local problems with local solutions.
Big Idea: a web service that "leverages existing tools for creation, curation and sharing, and delivers the information most relevant" to teachers and learners, in line with Common Core standards—while also compensating contributors.
Big Idea: a passport connecting local businesses with students, to facilitate standards-aligned learning in a way that is less prescriptive than traditional education—and more fun.
This participatory event came together with the purpose to seed and transmit a message about Open Education, the global movement to bring equitable access to high-quality education for all.
MYNE is a website that allows users to input employment information, as well as extracurricular, religious, and recreational activities into a website that identifies relevant job skills to their diverse experiences.
Mission:Possible is a program in which students in the United States connect with students in other countries and send each other artifacts from their communities and environments
Khalid Smith, Education Leader at Startup Weekend, talks about the process of uniting educators with designers and entrepreneurs and -- occupied with the problems of EdTech -- using design challenges to
George Lakoff, Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at U.C. Berkeley, emphasizes that the bridge between existing knowledge and new ideas is imagination.
Karen Cator stresses the importance of creating the conditions for participatory learning, including the adoption of evolved digital-age teaching, in order to widen access, equity and opportunity.
Mary Anne Schmitt-Carey, President of Say Yes to Education, Inc., talks about creating structures that allow for educational innovations to be scaled at the community level.
Kiff Gallagher explains how his organization MusicianCorps works as an "operating system" for a field of fragmented artists, and seeks to invoke civil and social good by creating the conditions for learning to happen.
Stephen Ritz talks about seeding change by teaching his students how to grow, feed, build sustainably, and transform mindsets and landscapes in the inner city.
William Brown, Director of the Eli Whitney Museum, explains how teachers can use innovation, non-tradtional education models to bring out the best in students.
Kimberly Bryant, Founder of Black Girls Code, explains how her organization is changing the face of education by teaching computer programming to girls of color.
ISKME's Director of Training and Design, Samantha Wayne invites you to design solutions to challenges in education with our Action Collabs at Big Ideas Fest http://bigideasfest.org/
BIFnik Sharon Olken answers the question "How did you come to Big Ideas Fest 2012?" Sharon is very interested in moving education forward in innovative ways.
BIFnik Stephen Ritz answers the question "How did you come to Big Ideas Fest 2012?" Stephen is also a speaker at the Fest and says he can't wait to come back next year.
BIFnik Katina Papson-Rigby answers the question "How did you come to Big Ideas Fest 2012?" Katina is passionate about promoting 21st century skills in learners.
BIFnik Ainsley Lamberton answers the question "What brought you to Big Ideas Fest 2012?" Ainsley said the Fest has been a really enriching experience and has pushed her harder than any education conference she's been to before.
A BIFnik answers the question "What brought you to Big Ideas Fest 2012?" She was sent to Big Ideas Fest which has opened her mind and allowed her to let go of an agenda.
BIFnik Erin Knepler answers the question "What brought you to Big Ideas Fest 2012?" Erin was inspired by the Rapid Fire speakers, especially Nirvan Mullick's presentation at Big Ideas Fest 2012
Laura Hansen, a teacher at OpenHighschool, shares her Big Ideas Fest 2012 experience and offers a glimpse of the behind the scenes action in Action Collab 2.
Eight students from South San Francisco High School participating in the Roadtrip Nation Experience interviewed Leaders at the Big Ideas Fest in Half Moon Bay, CA.
On Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at Big Ideas Fest, there was an open fishbowl-style conversation on designing incentives and awards for education innovation.
YODA, Your Own Daily Activator, is an alert system that tracks the social and emotional needs of learners and, in response, activates personal support networks.
This compilation from Big Ideas fest 2011 show the collaborative design thinking process we went through to conceive our idea, prototype and present it.
The Electronic Learning Celestial City prototype is is a virtual and real-life ecosystem that leverages people and resources increase students' basic skills.
The All Learner Interactive Experience (ALIE) prototype is a platform that connects experiences in the arts to open educational resources and other people.
The Electronic Learning Celestial City prototype is is a virtual and real-life ecosystem that leverages people and resources increase students' basic skills.
The All Learner Interactive Experience (ALIE) prototype is a platform that connects experiences in the arts to open educational resources and other people.
Teachers, innovators, edupreneurs, policy makers, and students with big ideas for transforming K-20 education converged at our third annual Big Ideas Fest in Half Moon Bay, CA and we asked one participant to capture some of the action on her flip cam.
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