LANSING, Mich. — Spelling Safari Edtech Innovators Chosen as 2nd Annual Winners Michigan EdTech Innovation Pitch Contest, sharing $22,000 in business start-up grants and legal and creative start-up assistance with four other finalists. The concepts developed from the final pitches will be used to improve Michigan’s classrooms through innovation, technology, and first-hand educator experience.
“All our groups did a great job and this was not easy. Five minutes is not a long time to present and this was a tough choice for our judges,” explained Matthew Okoneski, contest judge for Red Cedar Ventures. “Startups are tough, and I want to congratulate our participants on their decision to focus on this space to solve some of the biggest problems in our communities.”
The first place award went to Jonathan Marceau, a teacher at Monfort Elementary in the Utica Community School District, who will receive $10,000 in business start-up grants, plus branding and logo design support, and consulting legal for Spelling Safari. Spelling Safari is a reinvention of the spelling curriculum and software solution that provides elementary students with fun and adaptable learning.
“Research shows that mastery-based learning is linked to positive student attitudes and higher rates of student achievement for all students,” Marceau said. “The data from the system in my classroom shows that students at all levels more than tripled the number of words they were exposed to and more than doubled the number of new words learned.”
The second place winner was Jessie Feliz from Detroit, who created Spanish SWAG, an on-demand language learning program designed to make language acquisition fun, interactive and accessible for everyone. She will receive $6,000 in business start-up grant funds, plus logo design support and legal consultation.
“With Spanish SWAG, we’re not just teaching Spanish, we’re igniting a passion for the language, fostering cultural connections, and empowering students to become global citizens who can confidently communicate, connect, and thrive in an ever-expanding world. ”. said happy.
The third-place winning team was Advait Paliwal and David Yu, students at Michigan State University, who presented YouLearn, an adaptive learning model that allows educators to upload curriculum for students to work with AI tutors. YouLearn will receive $4,000 in business start-up grants, plus logo design support and legal advice.
“Students have told us how YouLearn has helped them better understand video lectures, and teachers are interested in the transparency and insight they can gain into student learning processes.” said paliwal.
He eKinomy and BiPSE finalist teams each will also receive seed grants of $1,000 for their final round releases.
Michigan EdTech Innovation Proposal Contest is the result of an alliance between virtual michigan. michigan state Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, spartan innovationsa subsidiary of the MSU Research Foundation, and Michigan SBDC to bring educators’ ideas to life on ways to solve common classroom problems. Sponsorship is generously provided by Michigan Creative, Foster Swift, Consumers Energy, Meemic, Michigan Education Association, Case Credit Union, and LearningMate.
“For the second consecutive year, the finalists of this contest continue to surprise me. Michigan students and schools are incredibly fortunate to have forward-thinking and innovative leaders like these winners in our classrooms,” said Jamey Fitzpatrick, Michigan Virtual President and CEO and pitch contest judge. “The winning pitches have a lot of potential to advance education and I am very hopeful for our future with their ideas at the forefront.”
The 2023 contest was open from March 20 to May 14 and finalists were notified at the end of May. All contest participants and all other Michigan edtech innovators are eligible to attend a free Innovation Bootcamp the week of July 17. The Bootcamp is designed to help participants further explore and develop a business model around their idea, while introducing them to resources and supports available to entrepreneurs and innovators in Michigan, as well as opportunities to take business lessons. and innovation to schools and classrooms
For more information about the contest, visit michiganvirtual.org/edtech-pitch-contest.
About Michigan Virtual
Michigan Virtual is a nonprofit educational organization that leads and collaborates to create learning environments for tomorrow. Driven by student success, we have a strong history of supporting education in Michigan that spans more than two decades. While we are known to many for our quality, research-based online learning options for students and professional development for educators, we also do a great deal of behind-the-scenes work to conduct original research, test learning innovations, and provide learning partnerships. consultancy to promote practices
Education is changing faster than ever. Learn about new models and resources to advance learning at michiganvirtual.org. For recent news and press releases, visit michiganvirtual.org/news.
eSchool Media staff covers educational technology in all its aspects, from legislation and litigation to best practices, lessons learned and new products. First published in March 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information needed to help K-20 decision makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and universities and achieve their educational goals.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘785773506293716’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
