Technology 4 min read

MIT Game Lab Might Fund Your Gamifying AR, VR, or AI EdTech Startup

Play Labs | Gamelab.mit.edu

Play Labs | Gamelab.mit.edu

MIT is opening up a new startup accelerator for those who want to bring VR, AR, and AI into the classroom. If your startup wants to apply, you’ll have to have MIT affiliation. However, the program could still provide a helpful model for your own EdTech startup. 

Learning all in Good fun

Gamifying education is impacting engagement rates in classrooms everywhere. Each student is different, and finding ways to engage each one of them has led us to appeal to more than just a sense of discipline.

#MIT #gamelab is funding #AR, #VR, and #AI #education #startups with #PlaylabsClick To Tweet

If you have someone’s full attention and willingness to listen, you have engaged their interest. When you turn education into a game, you appeal to a wide variety of personalities. I know this from studying my classrooms.

In my small, suburban high school, classes used tablets and online classrooms to connect students to their materials. When review time came around, the sleepiest students woke up. The smarter-than-thou misanthrope drops the act. Why? Because we got to use our tablets and mobile phones to connect to a game called Kahoot.

Gamifying: Industry 4.0 Links Tech Developers With Education Providers

With the advent of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things, technology developers are setting their sights on education, which has given rise to EdTech.

Like most new technologies, EdTech benefits greatly from startups. Startups are founded to accomplish specific objectives. Their unique focus enables them to follow through with their creativity.

Yet, to conjure up these new technologies, startups need backing.

New technologies such as AR, VR, and AI promise to expand educational possibilities. If we want to see the next generation benefit, we need to invest in the future.

Thankfully, the world of education has noticed the effect that gamifying has on learning rates, so there is a demand for these kinds of technologies.

To meet the needs of the classroom of the future, a collaboration between Bayview Labs, Seraph Group, and MIT Game Lab has given rise to Play Labs, a startup accelerator devoted to using AR, VR, and AI to innovate the field of education.

How MIT is Bringing More Games to Education

MIT Game Lab is a big proponent of gamifying education, and that aim is passed along to Play Labs. MIT students and alumni will have the opportunity to participate in the future of AR, VR, and AI education.

Teachers have an axiom, “Those who do the work, do the learning.” If, say, a student is allowed to dismantle an engine in VR, they automatically have more experience than any amount of blueprint study could allow them.

Alternatively, you could have an AI able to immerse students in foreign language and culture. By summoning up a world of data and history on command, AI expands on a teacher’s more unique experiences.

Educators could be better prepared. Perhaps AI could be programmed to simulate challenging students before they ever actually encounter one.

The sky is the limit for what Play Labs could accomplish, but we won’t know for sure what direction they take until they finish accepting applications for entry. Applications will be open until February 21 for any startup that has one member with an MIT connection. Anywhere from five to ten companies will be selected to receive $20,000 in funding at the onset of the program, and the potential to raise $80,000 more if they can raise an initial seed round at their Demo Day.

A new Horizon for new Talent

MIT has been involved in many of the technological revolutions that have brought us into the modern day. So long as someone in your startup is affiliated with them in some way, you could make a difference in classrooms around the world.

If you are interested in applying, click here to submit an application.

If you don’t meet the entry criteria, but someone you know does, please share this article and the application link with them.

$100,000 could likely solve a lot of their problems, and their talent could likely solve a lot more problems in the education field and the future of young minds around the world.

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William McKinney

William is an English teacher, a card carrying nerd, And he may run for president in 2020. #truefact #voteforedgy

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