The Next Classroom: In A Room Or On The Web?

Education isn’t just pens and paper anymore.  It’s becoming a place of interconnectivity and innovation.  Now with the UN declaring that the Internet is a human right this further brings the whole world to the classroom.

Education is still one of the biggest things that American taxpayers give to and with the new 2012 budget over 4 billion dollars will be invested into bringing technology to the class room.  Its no wonder many start-ups are looking towards the education market as prospectors looked towards San Francisco in 1849.

San Francisco has also always been the center of large venture capital investment and high tech innovation.  Now the Coastal city in Northern California may also be the place where future education problems are solved.  Places like The Kapor Center which work on helping technological innovation for the classroom.  The center houses many different entities all of which work towards having a positive social impact and increasing access to educational opportunities.  Kapor Capital working out of the Kapor Center helps to fund educational based start-ups.

Most of these start-ups (especially in the San Francisco area) are technology based.  All of the small start-ups are looking for their small slice of the giant pie given to education in the US. Khan Academy is one such start up that was created out of need that turned into a business.  The business its self helps children learn by using video’s posted on Youtube.  Bill Gates has taken notice of the Khan Academy and invested 1.5 million into the Academy.

Youtube has given people from the world over access to inspiring lectures and motivational speeches (also Justin Beibers career).  The next form of access, which is changing the face of connection between people, is smartphones and tablets.  With more people expected to access the internet via a mobile device its no wonder the next leap forward in education will come from Silicon Valley.

For more information on this subject see this article from The Next Web and visit The Kapor Center’s websites.