Over 700 educators, entrepreneurs, and others with invested stakes made it out to Boston to attend the 2015 LearnLaunch annual conference Across Boundaries: Delivering on Edtech’s Promise in order to explore technology utilization in the classroom and its future. 

The conference stretched through more than 25 keynotes, panels, workshops, and more, including the standout edtech pitch competition. Co-sponsored by the LearnLaunch Institute, a non-profit focused on enhancing education through edtech adoption, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the Harvard Business School, the weekend event featured both high-level developers and investors, and top-tier academics. All parties united to share their contributions to the transforming and increasingly technologically driven K-12 education landscape while learning to better maneuver within it. 

“The nature of teaching – and what it means to be an effective teacher – is rapidly shifting and evolving as we strive to prepare our students for the knowledge economy. Those gathered here for this conference, whether a teacher, an entrepreneur, or an investor, all share the belief that edtech is playing and will continue to play a key role in supporting this critical transformation,” said James E. Ryan, Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, during the conference’s opening statements. 

The conference’s pitch competition went to Allovue by attendee vote. Founded by Baltimore City middle school teacher and CEO Jess Gartner, Allovue makes software, such as Balance, that makes budget decisions less complicated for administrators.

“We are incredibly honored to have won the competition - it's wonderful to see people getting excited about education finance. At Allovue, our mission is to help administrators connect spending to student achievement,” said Gartner. 

Putting an emphasis on financial analysis practices, the 2015 LearnLaunch Pitch Competition winner integrates data in order to help meet students learning needs through effective spending, which empowers teachers to more effectively educate. 

“We believe that student success should be a central part of funding, budgeting, and purchasing decisions, and we hope to make that easier with Balance - our financial analysis platform. Since Balance connects directly to district ERP systems, administrators can eliminate time-intensive data collection and curation processes, and focus on analyzing the impact of spending on school and district goals,” said Gartner. 

Whether it’s a view of game-based learning in its finest form, the adoption of edtech cross the country, student-led discussions on their tech utilization and success stories, or the college standards of the future, the Across Boundaries: Delivering on Edtech's Promise conference offered focus on technology’s evolving role in the lives of educators and their students. 

For more info visit www.learnlaunch.org. 

Article by Jason Papallo, EducationWorld Social Media Editor
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