Arizona State University, NASA, ACT, Smart Sparrow will host the 2018 Learning Innovation Summit In Silicon Valley

Mountain View, CA — The Center for Education Through Exploration at Arizona State University, NASA, ACTNext, and Smart Sparrow today announced the agenda for the first-ever U.S. Learning Innovation Summit. The event takes place Friday, June 15, 2018 in Mountain View, California on the NASA Campus. The Summit will explore advancements in learning design and science education, and highlight innovations have shown to improve the learning experience for every student.

The one-day event is designed for leaders, administrators, researchers, and faculty in K12 and higher education to come together and share ideas and strategies to improve every student’s opportunity for success, with an emphasis in the sciences.

“We’re going to focus specifically on learning, not the institution of education, at the Summit,” said Smart Sparrow Founder and CEO, Dror Ben-Naim. “There’s a lot of buzz and noise in edtech that is actually auxiliary to the process of learning. We’re talking about innovation that’s focused on actual student learning — think brains rewiring — and how to enable student success to get them across common learning barriers.”

Notable speakers include: Bror Saxberg of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative; Rahim Rajan of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Alina von Davier of ACTNext; Bridget Burns of the University Innovation Alliance; Philip Rous of University of Maryland Baltimore County; Ariel Anbar of the Center for Education Through Exploration at Arizona State University; Kathy Perkins of the PhET Interactive Simulations at University of Colorado Boulder; and more. An hour of the Summit will also see interactive demos of innovation learning experiences, including the Inspark Teaching Network’s BioBeyond course, Osso VR’s Virtual Surgery, Infiniscope’s Virtual Field Trips, PhET interactive science simulations, and more.

Participants will have unique opportunities to engage and share with leading practitioners, researchers, and institutional leaders on how to teach and learn science through technology and improve student success. The day prioritizes interactivity, asking attendees to participate and share as much as possible, and will offer actionable, scalable solutions to the challenges faced by science learners in both K-12 and Higher Education.

“At the 2017 Learning Innovation Summit in Australia, I was struck by how much of an appetite there is for innovation in online education. It’s great to continue the conversation in the U.S. on NASA campus, a leading facility for research and technology advancement.” said Ariel Anbar, Professor and Director of the Center for Education Through Exploration at Arizona State University. “As educators, we have a responsibility to continually think about and share better ways to teach and learn science — and technology is bringing innovative, effective new methods to the classroom.”

The Summit capacity is limited to 250 attendees, and registration will be on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information on how to register and who should attend, please visit the website: www.smartsparrow.com/events/2018-learning-innovation-summit.

About Arizona State University

Arizona State University has developed a new model for the American Research University, creating an institution that is committed to access, excellence and impact. ASU measures itself by those it includes, not by those it excludes. As the prototype for a New American University, ASU pursues research that contributes to the public good, and ASU assumes major responsibility for the economic, social and cultural vitality of the communities that surround it.

About Smart Sparrow

Smart Sparrow is an adaptive elearning platform for authoring next-generation courseware. It enables any educator to create amazingly engaging, personalized learning experiences and then continuously improve them through built-in learner analytics — so students are better supported and more motivated to succeed. Smart Sparrow believes in providing the tools that support great teaching, and putting faculty first to unlock the full potential of adaptive learning. www.smartsparrow.com