Four Kennesaw State Students Take on Tech Edu

“Why American Education Fails” - Foreign Affairs “Are America's students falling behind the world?” - LA Times “Freeing America’s education system from the 19th century” - The Tampa Tribune

Headlines like these have been in the news for years. If you look at these educational rankings compiled by OECD, the United States has a score lower than the OECD average in mathematics, reading, and science. How can the world’s largest economy fall so tragically behind when it comes to learning? With the technology and information available today, our education system is long overdue for an upgrade. The founders of iSchool Initiative have big ambitions and are looking to lead the charge.

Driven by their own frustrations in the classroom, four Kennesaw State University students (Travis Allen, CEO, Michael Edwards, VP of Sales, Nikola Kolev, VP of Operations, and Arvin Ross, Director of Student Development) decided to take action and started iSchool Initiative as a non-profit organization in 2009. In 2013, they decided to expand their business as a for-profit company and give new wind to their original vision. “Our vision is to revolutionize the American education system and promote a culture of lifelong learning. We accomplish this by empowering students to have a voice in education, training teachers on the effective use of technology, and supporting districts in mobile technology deployments,” says CEO, Travis Allen.

As someone who’s been through it, Allen is very critical of the contemporary education system. “We live in an education system that is completely antiquated. The world has flown past education, adopting innovative technology, and yet education has continued to look the same for the past 100 years. We are on the verge of seeing our educational institutions become irrelevant,” he says.

According to Travis, there have been some positive signs of change. "Last year alone, there were over 10 million mobile devices bought by school districts across America. The government has made a huge push for technology, requiring all schools to have internet and move to online testing,” he explains. But there’s no cause for celebration yet. “The problem is that schools are failing at integrating technology successfully. Teachers often do the same thing they have always done, now just with a really expensive tablet. Textbooks are still bland, PDF-copies of the paper versions, and often offer no more value than a traditional textbook," says Allen.

This is where iSchool Initiative comes in. At one end, they resell products through partnerships with big companies such as Cisco, OtterBox, and Airwatch. But perhaps most significantly, they sell their services, which include culture building, professional development, certification courses, consulting/project management, and building technology plans for districts. There’s no doubt that changing America’s education system is a task of gargantuan proportions. But the guys at iSchool Initiative are fired up to do just that. They are currently looking for around $1,000,000 in investment from an investor who has a passion for education.

Follow iSchool Initiative on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iSchoolInitiative
Twitter: https://twitter.com/iSchoolAdvocate
Instagram: http://instagram.com/ischooladvocate
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-ischool-initiative