Edtech magicians on stage in London

We just finalized our fifth edition of the GESA Awards and edtech magicians are more alive than ever. Startups from all over the world joined in London to address the future of education with a mix of creativity, vision and candors. They tell a fascinating and some times frightening story about the impact of innovation in education from the very beginning of our life cycle.

gesa 2018

A baby is born. More than one million new neural connections will be formed every second. The newborn is a genius! Enough to raise attention of smart entrepreneurs that create the perfect baby app to make sure that each of these precious seconds are used for learning. https://babysparks.com/

Your baby is growing smart and joyful. Already time at preschool to be acquainted with maths and language, get a sense of proportion and syntax, thanks to algorithms based on a mix of neuroscience and artificial intelligence that will enrich and personalize the learning path. https://www.hanamarulab.com/en

You may ask : why does a 3-year old kid need adaptive learning when socialization is essential at that age? Magicians will tell you that your child as every child is unique!

Time to go to the big school and learn for good! Core contents, core knowledge, core standards! From day one, it is all about skills and competences. Because our challenge as educator is clear and ambitious: to prepare a 6-year kid for a job that has not been invented! Impossible? Not for our magicians. They come to the classroom on their magical carpet with a box full of apps and robots to make our daily life fun, interactive and successful.

Learning maths remains one of our core objective because what was learned in early age was good but not enough. A new app combined fun exercises and artificial intelligence to get out of the black hole. https://www.maphi.app/ A smartphone will make us a mathematician, and a physicist, and a biologist, and an artist, and an historian, and a reader. A reader? Or at least an “easy reader” that can now read a book in a matter of minutes thanks to Natural Language Programming. https://www.onovation.co.il/startup/mist/. No more excuses for no readers: our magicians can convert every book in a smart book. How could we ever think of learning without a smartphone or a tablet?

Companies are complaining about how well prepared our kids for professional life? (as if they had no role in it!) Our child must be prepared for a future job that doesn’t exist yet. No programming, no future. Magicians brought robots in our classrooms ready to be programmed by 6-year old kids. Nicely designed or made of recycled waste, they remind us of a future job that not yet exists. http://khalmaxsoftwaresystems.com/krc.html

Education authorities watching us from their PISA tower are relieved: solutions do exist for every education problem and even to educate children as citizens! Media literacy in a click https://gutennews.com.br/ or citizenship education with a 360º perspective www.lyfta.com are only a few examples of what digital innovation is also about: respect for diversity and grassroot cultures.

But parents are worried. They always are and always will be! They dream of being in touch with teachers, at any time and from any where. Magicians make it possible.  https://www.classtag.com

And what about teachers? Are they dreaming with parents? At least, they dream with better training and this can also be as magical as a smartphone. http://www.millionsparks.org/

Education everywhere will be transformed thanks to the power of chips, processors, networks, artificial intelligence and… people. Even in Africa! Or maybe before all in Africa. https://solutions.snapplify.com/

And education goes on as a continuous journey! Skills, skills, skills are needed once we left school as if our (long) stay in school had been useless. Learning is deconstructed to be constructed again. Online courses – https://bedu.org/ – enable skills acquisition that will immediately be connected to the job market – https://www.skillist.co. Simulation tools will help future doctors to cope with future illnesses – https://insimu.com/ – because our reality is also virtual!

And in this magical world where we have a hard time separating virtual and real worlds, the winner is immersive learning. And for those who don’t believe in true magics in education, have a look at https://www.uptale.io. One last thought, isn’t “immersive” the final goal of learning, i.e. feeling completely involved?

All winners of the 2019 GESA edition are to be found on the GESA website.

Thanks to Avi, Cecilia, all MindCET team and all GESA partners to make magic come true once again!

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