Announced in a July 25 news release, the competition will distribute over $8 million among 50 winning companies from 18 countries to develop and expand their technologies that support learning or contribute to learning science research. The contest awards $50,000 for early-stage ideas or products, $150,000 for products with some users and $300,000 for established platforms with 10,000 or more users.
“Few of these winners are associated with the big names that dominate the conversation around ed tech,” Eric Bloom, a spokesman for the Tools Competition, wrote in an email to Government Technology. “Rather, these are innovators working at universities, nonprofits, NGOs and startups around the world.”
This year, the contest partnered with OpenAI to offer an additional $100,000 prize for teams using AI to accelerate educational progress, particularly in underserved communities. KOBI, an app for children with dyslexia to develop reading skills, won this prize in addition to a $150,000 Growth Award. OpenAI will also provide technical guidance and application programming interface credits to help developers program their tools to interact with other technologies.
WINNERS
In the early-stage category, called the Catalyst Awards, one winning program uses a simulation-based environment for adults to learn HVAC trade skills.
“Our goal is to enhance the way that skilled trades are taught through customized assessments, learning plans and learning environments,” the project description says. “Our long-term mission is to create pathways to well-paid, dignified jobs in the climate trades for underserved communities across the United States.”
Another Catalyst Award winner will create a data set of images of handwritten student math work with which to train large language models so they can interact with handwritten work. Some teachers have already started using AI to grade students’ work.
A program called Bookbot earned a $150,000 Growth Award. Bookbot aims to help children learn to read by listening to them read aloud and providing feedback, offering rewards for progress and providing access to online books and audiobooks.
Also in the Growth category, Yiya AirScience uses technologies that are readily available in rural Uganda — like radio, keypad phones and text message services — to bring STEM education to under-resourced youth. According to the company’s website, 100 million young people in Africa are not in school due to distance, cost and the use of child labor in subsistence farming, with young girls facing even more barriers.
In the highest funding category, CatnClever won $300,000 for its math and literacy app for children ages 3 to 7, and MindMovers earned the same for its games and activities designed to build executive-function skills.
“Winning tools stand out in their potential to both transform educational outcomes and build the field of learning engineering,” Kumar Garg, president at Renaissance Philanthropy and a founding sponsor of the Tools Competition, said in a public statement. “They are demonstrating the power of advanced technology to accelerate learning and are working with researchers to scale their impact for the benefit of the field at large.”
