The ongoing coronavirus outbreak is closing schools worldwide and confines teachers and students at their homes for weeks. This challenging situation prompted a group of Finnish edtech companies to reach out a helping hand and provide free access to some of their pedagogical solutions well suited for distance learning.
The Finnish Koulu.me website launched today brings together an array of locally developed educational tools, based on high-quality Finnish pedagogical content. The showcased applications are well suited for distance learning in situations where teachers need to complement the traditional learning methods with tools for learning at home.
Over the weekend, this open innovation project snowballed from a few edtech companies to more than ten entrepreneurs who also wanted to offer access to their applications free of charge for the duration of the coronavirus outbreak.
The applications currently offered free of charge are developed by 10Monkeys, 3DBear, Code School Finland, Eduten, EdVisto, Elias Robot, Four Ferries, Freeed, Language Clubhouse, Mehackit, Mightifier, Moka Mera, Pulpo, Reactored, Sanako, Schoolday, Seppo, Thinglink, Tinyapp, Typing Master Finland ja Vuolearning.
The number of free applications is likely to grow in the coming weeks but already now, the resources provide engaging content from Pre-K to K-12 and beyond (pre-school, primary/ elementary school, middle/upper school and secondary education and training) for problem solving, mathematics, science, language learning, programming, design and much more.
This initiative was ignited by a Finnish innovation consulting company Spinverse, whose managing director Laura Koponen started contacting Finnish edtech developers to tackle the issue of finding alternative ways of learning if the schools close their doors. “As a mother of two elementary school boys, I wanted to do something tangible to help teachers in their challenging task to continue teaching in the coming weeks. Providing schools with free access to engaging and motivating educational content for the duration of the outbreak was the idea I started working on with the edtech entrepreneurs,” Laura Koponen says.
“Exceptional times call for exceptional measures,” Jouni Kangasniemi, Program Director of Education Finland says. “I am happy to see that Finnish edtech solutions and content are now available for continuing and meaningful learning throughout Finland and abroad.”
The applications and resources accessible via the Koulu.me portal provide an excellent snapshot of what the Finnish educational technologies have to offer. The applications are based on the successful Finnish education system, and many of the apps are already widely used in schools both in and outside Finland.
More information on the project: Laura Koponen