EDvite Free App Connecting Students to Real-life Learning
Our mission begins with this simple question:
When you think about our current education system, do you ever feel like we need less testing and a lot more inspiring. If so, you’re not alone! There are thousands of organizations, businesses, institutions, and individuals who want to inspire students with great learning opportunities but don’t have a way of communicating directly with teachers and learners. There are just as many teachers and parents who want to provide inspiring, real-world learning experiences for students, but don’t have the time to reach out to different organizations. EDvite makes it easy for these groups to connect!
We have been developing an online beta site since early 2014 that utilizes google maps and other tools to make it easy–and fun–to locate educational resources in your community.
Ranging from museum exhibits to community gardens, and from mentor programs to coding academies, our educator-editors have organized resources in a manner that is intuitive and efficient for users to find what they want. Our system allows teachers and parents to sort by location (city, region and state), topic, grade level and even delivery style (in-class or on-site). We encourage you to watch the video for more details – https://vimeo.com/115013650
We have already been working on the app for nearly a year–and it is awesome! Your support will ensure that we continue to evolve using the very the latest standards and design. We need to finalize the first version and develop the mobile app to accompany the site as soon as possible. As a backer you will have a chance to shape this by gaining sneak peeks and by voting on features and design.
EDvite is all about identifying—and creating—great learning experiences in communities across the country. We have a team of exceptional leaders that have volunteered to organize and curate resources into easy-to-find categories. Now we need your support to expand these efforts and uncover—or create—all new experiences. We will use your funds to pay a stipend to teachers and parents as associate editors of specific categories, cities, and regions. Based on our initial work, we have calculated that for every $2500 we raise we can populate the site with almost 1000 EDvites (educational opportunities)! Imagine what we could accomplish if we exceed our goal!
Your support will ensure that we get the word out! We need your help to reach not only learners and educators, but also businesses, parent groups and organizations across the country. We believe that by sharing what other communities are doing in an open space we can dramatically expand opportunities for all learners. Shouldn’t every city have a Lego League? And shouldn’t every kid have a chance to Design and Build their Own Bike? These are all amazing experiences that can inspire not only learners, but also community leaders and organizations to create similar experiences in their city.
Your support will ensure we have the funds necessary to manage increased server traffic through the highly flexible and scaleable Amazon Web Services (AWS). When you support us you are also supporting the thousands of organizations (many nonprofits) to whom we direct the users. To make these connections happen we need our servers to be speedy and reliable!
The greatest risk is that someone will see our idea and try to copy it in a manner that is not consistent with our educational objectives. We are prepared to overcome this by being the first to market and by rapidly becoming the go-to place for providers and teachers. By building a brand that is genuinely engaged with communities, and by listening to our customers early, we will be able to roll out innovations before our competitors and maintain our position as the brand people love and trust.
Yes! EDvite is absolutely free for teachers, learners, parents….anyone looking for learning experiences/ opportunities. It is also free for organizations and experts posting EDvites. There will be a modest fee for posting multiple EDvites. Even then we are certain this will be a very affordable alternative to current methods for reaching students and teachers.