Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Dell Family Foundation Backs Education Technology Spinoff

Can technology and software help improve education? A new effort, spun out by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, thinks so, saying it will launch an effort to help reform K-12 education using free, educational software and tools. The new, Ed-Fi Alliance said it will distrbute standards-based, free data software aimed at helping teachers and administrators access data in various sources, and integrating that into Web-based dashboard, reports, and applications.

The foundation did not say how much it is investing in the new nonprofit effort, however, it said the new Ed-Fi Alliance will be based in Austin, under the leadership of Lori Fey, the former US Director of Policy at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

The Ed-Fi Alliance says its software revolves round online dashboards, which enable educators, school boards, administrators, education agencies and others to quickly identify and address hidden trends that affect educational outcomes from the student to the state level.

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