xEdu alumni responding to Coronavirus - how to organize distance learning?

Since the start, xEdu has been advocating the importance of creation, support and integration of digital learning solutions in our education systems. We’ve been talking about the importance of digitalization in preparing our kids for life in the future, providing possibilities for re-skilling and life-long learning as well as impacting those who don’t have access to quality education. We never thought, however, that a situation this serious would occur with millions of children around the world not being able to go to school. It has affected learning and interaction on all levels and digital solutions seem to be the only way to continue our learning journey during this Spring.

The severity of the current situation, caused by the spread of Coronavirus, is calling for urgent measures, and we are fortunate to see how the edtech companies - big and small - are eager to give the teachers and learners their full support for free. In this blog, we will show how our alumni responded to the crisis and will share a list of resources that will hopefully help teachers, learners, facilitators and employees to reduce the effects of the world-wide lockdown.

Finnish edtech companies offering free access to distance learning apps

The ongoing Coronavirus outbreak is closing schools worldwide and confines teachers and students at their homes for weeks. This challenging situation prompted a group of Finnish edtech companies to reach out a helping hand and provide free access to some of their pedagogical solutions well suited for distance learning.

The Finnish Koulu.me website launched today brings together an array of locally developed educational tools, based on high-quality Finnish pedagogical content.

Over the weekend, this open innovation project snowballed from a few edtech companies to more than ten entrepreneurs who also wanted to offer access to their applications free of charge for the duration of the Coronavirus outbreak.

We are very proud to see many of our alumni companies joining the platform. We would like to remind also about our Marketplace that includes links to many of our alumni educational products.

It is a huge challenge to switch to distance learning if it hasn’t been a habit before. Many of the edtech startups are not only giving free access, but also sharing their expertise and tips about organizing digital learning. Gamification platform seppo.io writes about alternatives to onsite training and shares tips on remote teaching with seppo. 3DBear will run free webinars on teaching SEL and astronomy.

Other countries are gathering lists of free edtech solutions as well and our international alumni are active in providing a helping hand. Estonia offers its digital education solutions for free to support other countries and our Estonian alumni ALPA Kids and ELIIS are on the list.

Swedish Edtech Industry opens the portal for free digital learning materials and our alumni Gro Play is offering Grow Planet for free to Swedish speaking schools, teachers and students (K-6) until end of July 2020. Sustainable education startup Snowflake Education is offering high schools and universities to use the Snowflake Toolkit for free during the remainder of the spring semester.

The Dutch edtech companies are gathering their digital solutions as well. Revisely, xEdu alumni that helps teachers to give feedback on texts to students, is part of that initiative and offers free licenses for their feedback tool up to and including the summer of 2020.

Our Malaysian startup BeED is providing complimentary subscription to schools for 6 months.

UAE alumni Sindyan Educational Media is also offering their STEM Buddies app for free.

Edtech startups develop new online services

Superlect, a platform for organizing onsite workshops and training, just added a possibility to run online workshops too. In order to support small businesses and trainers in these challenging times they have also reduced their commission rate to 5 % only. It is also now possible to organize free online trainings to support life-long learning all around the world.

Our US-based alumni Da Vinci Club launches at-home Learning labs as a response to Coronavirus.

World Of Insights - the stars of onsite workshop facilitation - are now also offering a free online coaching workshop.

Another alumni from Malta is now creating daily videos to help teachers and parents that are at home with kids and featuring different websites and edtech software that they can use.

KOULU group also offers teacher training online. They offer self-study modules with different topics both in early childhood education and in primary and secondary education.

Kide Science is launching a new online product for families at home and offer engaging STEAM activity guidance to do at home with 3-8-year-old.

Stay safe and healthy! ❤️