“Alexa, how will these skills impact education?” Vote for your favourite skill in the EMEA Alexa EdTech Skills Challenge

Updated July 2020 with winner information.

Voting is now open for the 2020 Amazon Alexa Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) EdTech Skills Challenge. The competition, launched at the Bett Show in London, challenged EMEA-based EdTechs to use voice technology to transform education. The six finalists designed Alexa skills to positively impact challenges in education such as improving teaching practices, learning throughout life, continuing professional development, and simplifying administration and assessment processes.

Check out our finalists and their skills:

• Ambiently: Ambiently is the creator of Redemption Earth, an educational adventure game to save the planet from climate catastrophe. Redemption Earth combines a skill with real-world activities and experiments such as analysing household waste and growing food hydroponically. The skill’s goal is to spark curiosity about how the world works in young people who have difficulty in traditional education settings, through gamification of content.
• Classlife Education: Millions of people are involved in school operations every day, contributing to a massive amount of information. The mission of the Classlife skill is to bring those people together through access to real-time information to help them manage every day activities, which gives schools the ability to be more efficient and focused on student outcomes. The skill connects staff members, teachers, students, and families to a digital, voice-enabled personal assistant.
• LEVOOBA: The LEVOOBA skill, a product of k/d media, is designed to help students study current lesson topics in a fun way, with friends. No reading or writing is required. Students learn by engaging in voice battles—two students competing in real time on a certain topic. Teachers can use LEVOOBA to motivate students, review progress, and create a link to study time at home.
• Little Bridge: The words and phrases that children are most likely to learn and remember are ones they really want to use. To foster that desire, Little Bridge created the Study Buddy skill, an English language learning skill. Language in the Study Buddy skill is sourced from the child’s particular learning journey in Little Bridge. Once a word is mastered, it’s stored in their personal “Alexicon” (or word bank)—always available to help them communicate with friends from around the globe.
• My School Portal: The My School Portal skill helps parents stay informed about their child’s education. Using a few words, parents and caretakers can find out what their child learned that day, if any homework is due soon, or if there are messages from school. One simple skill makes the daily routine a little bit smoother.
• ZenTeach: ZenTeach helps teachers plan quality assessment. Quizzes are a powerful tool that help students learn and retain information, but creating them can be time consuming. With the ZenTeach skill, teachers can generate custom quizzes in minutes. The Alexa integration allows teachers to build quizzes using only their voice. In future versions, teachers will also be able to create lesson plans and homework using Amazon Alexa.

Whether you are an EMEA-based student, parent, educator, builder, or education technology employee, vote for the Alexa skill you find most impactful. Public voting is open until July 25, 2020. Find out more about the challenge, view skill demos, and cast your vote now.

Update July 2020: Out of six finalists, AWS recognized two winners: judges’ choice Little Bridge, and people’s choice Redemption Earth from Ambiently.

Learn more about Alexa for education and the Amazon Alexa EdTech Skills Challenge.