Category: EdTechs

For the first-ever Amazon Alexa EdTech Skills Challenge, Amazon Web Services (AWS) teamed up with SXSW EDU to challenge U.S.-based EdTechs on how they would use Alexa to transform education. Out of six finalists, AWS recognized two winners: judges’ choice SayKid, the recipient of $50,000 in AWS Promotional Credit, and people’s choice VOGO Voice, the recipient of $25,000 in AWS Promotional Credit. The other four finalists will receive $10,000 in AWS Promotional Credit.

The second part of the Mission Critical Cloud Fix This podcast mini-series by Teresa Carlson, vice president of the worldwide public sector at Amazon Web Services (AWS), is now live. We explored remote education with the Los Angeles County Unified School District (LAUSD), Athabasca University, and Pearson.

For the first-ever Amazon Alexa EdTech Skills Challenge, AWS teamed up with SXSW EDU to challenge United States-based EdTechs to use Alexa to transform education. With six finalists remaining, the event is now virtual and the public can vote for their favorite. People who register to participate and vote will also be entered for a chance to win an Amazon Echo Show (2nd Gen).

Education ministries, colleges, and schools around the world are rapidly adopting remote learning and working to maintain business continuity and provide students with continued access to education. From quickly scaling learning management systems and launching virtual classrooms to upskilling educators and setting up remote help-desks, AWS and its education technology partners are providing mission-critical infrastructure that is enabling our customers to continue delivering against their missions, safely and efficiently. From Italy to Bahrain to the United States, check out these stories.

Over the past few weeks, I have been inspired by the vast community of EdTech companies who have stepped up to transform learning for millions of students around the world. During this unprecedented time of temporary and sustained school closings, virtual classrooms have become a necessity to ensure that teachers and students stay connected, and students continue their education. Whether schools need tools to keep administration offices, educators, and students connected, or need to deploy learning management systems, our EdTech Partners have a number of solutions.

AWS EdStart Members are on a mission to bridge the personalized learning gap between students and educational institutions through artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platforms built on Amazon Web Services (AWS). These organizations are enabling students to follow their own learning pathways across writing, math, and reading, at their own pace, anytime, and anywhere. Learn about these three AWS EdStart Members and how they adapt to student learning and virtually assist self-study.

At the Education World Forum (EWF) in London, global leader for workforce and education at Amazon Web Services (AWS) Andrew Ko discussed the workforce shortage in cloud skills – and the importance of piloting initiatives that “cloudify” curriculum to skill-up, upskill, and reskill students, educators, the current workforce, and IT leaders.

United Arab Emirates-based global EdTech Alef Education is on a mission to digitally transform the education sector to support its most valuable resource: teachers. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics estimates that the world needs almost 69 million new teachers by 2030 to meet the deadline of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal for quality education. But according to latest projections, the world will fail its education commitments without addressing the teacher shortage.

Because many careers now include robotics, it’s important for schools to incorporate robotics and related education into their curriculums to train and empower the future workforce. Read on to learn about three AWS EdStart startups that are using AWS to teach robotics and supporting technologies in the classroom.

In July, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a new contest in collaboration with SXSW EDU designed to find the best application of voice technology in education. Our challenge to the EdTech world? Tell us how you would use Alexa to transform education. From tutoring help and language learning programs to teaching guides and career planning tools – we’ve been amazed by the creativity and potential impact of the ideas EdTechs sent us.