Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be co-hosting two tech events this month to help develop more tech tools for education and learning.
The two tech giants will be co-hosting a two-days hackathon ‘HackEd 2.0’ where More than 20 teams of tech education enthusiasts, education experts, and top-notch developers will be participating in brainstorming, coding, and app building sessions at Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s Menlo Park headquarters and at Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s London offices on April 9 and April 24, respectively.
“Historically, the notion of the ‘achievement gap’ has been thought of as primarily academic,” a Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) rep said in an email.
“The debate has focused on the long-term structural challenges — improving teacher quality, creating school choice, and other issues. These are all important issues but in the age of social media, we have an opportunity to achieve real progress right now. Today’s websites and online service providers give children and teens access to an unprecedented variety of resource to foster and support teaching and learning. They also connect the community — parents, educators, teens.”
DDuring the hackathons, teams will focus on building Facebook apps for college-going, social learning, and out-of-school study. A panel of experts, including Facebook and Gates representatives, and some Venture Capitalists, will then judge those apps. Winners of the hackathons will receive cash prizes of up to $7,620 in the respective categories. While, cash prizes of up to $5000 will be awarded to the best apps in all three categories at the California event.
“At the Gates Foundation, one of our priorities is unlocking the power of innovation and technology to impact learning,” said a rep in a statement on the hackathons.
“We do this by investing in new kinds of course-ware tools, and systems for improving the progress and success of students, and by encouraging new, agile developers to enter the sector. We are excited to support the creation of more digital tools that use technology to target young people where they spend their time, and help many more students prepare for, get into, and succeed in post-secondary education.”
