Nonprofit LearnLaunch set its key Boston education conference, “Across Boundaries: Innovation & The Future of Education” to coincide with the National Digital Day of Learning earlier this month.
The event featured two days of discussions, lectures and panels on educational topics.
While the education conference was designed for all New England educators and innovators, LearnLaunch was originally started to help promote education tech ventures.
University programs have several advantages when it comes to experimenting with these rising ventures. Many have a faculty and student body that tends to be well versed in technology and willing to adopt new practices, and many prove independent in decision-making and budgeting choices. College projects also tend to attract a lot of participation: Coursera, for example, began in 2012 and already has more than 30 universities on board, many of them acting as investors for the project.
It comes as little surprise, then, that the primary discussions for “Across Boundaries” also focused on higher education. The keynote events for the kickoff day included panels on “The Future of Education Content in Higher Ed” and “What to Be Aware of When Selling to Higher Ed.”
LearnLaunch wants to encourage small-time innovation as much as possible. A major focus of the conference is enabling the projects and businesses across America (but especially in New England) to create independent education solutions. For an industry still in its first growth stages, this approach has many positive points. The more innovation and experimentation that occurs in hybrid learning models, adaptive learning techniques, and online learning portals, the more easily companies can find products that work for students, teachers, schools, and governments alike.
The conference also served a more utilitarian, immediate purpose. By gathering together innovators and teachers in an event that can be easily publicized, LearnLaunch showed universities what online learning is capable of and what ROI it can offer in the right hands. This gives higher education systems an extra reason to consider some of the more innovative solutions discussed at the Boston conference, such as game-based student achievement systems or “flipped classrooms.” By holding panels on the ways entrepreneurs can sell their products and invite teachers to participate in beta-testing, the conference also provided real-time opportunities to make partnerships. Around 30 of the attending start-ups gave presentations for potential investors as part of the event.
This inaugural conference is aimed at the 150 education tech ventures in the New England area. The 400 tickets for the event sold out, and if the conference is a success then future conferences could aim at a larger region.
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