Re: Australia's first educational hackathon

[Steven Farlie]

Thanks Rowan,

Hey everyone, this looks pretty interesting. What do y'all think?

On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 10:16 AM, Rowan Kunz <ro...@myedapp.com> wrote:

Hey Steven,

Rowan here from myEd (we're a Sydney based start up working in the educational technology sector helping schools make the transition to digital). We've recently teamed up with the Centre for New Public Education to host Australia’s first education hackathon, Eduhack, on June 20-22 in Melbourne.

EduHack is a 56 hour event across the weekend of 20th June that will bring together students and individuals from the education, business, and technology communities to share ideas, form teams and design and develop innovative solutions that tackle real education challenges.

We’re extremely excited as this will be the first time in Australia that the hackathon model is applied to education to catalyze innovation.

Why am I sharing this with you?

1. We need your help to break down the barriers between digital innovation and the education sector
   
2. Individuals with design skills like yourself and the Open Tech School Meet Up group are critical to the development of amazing startups at EduHack that tackle real educational challenges
   
3. We’d love for you and the members of the Open Tech School Meet Up group to play a role in sparking innovation and change in education in Australia by using your business & technical skills to create meaningful social impact.

How can you get involved?

1. Go to our website www.eduhack.com.au to register for EduHack.
2. We need you to spread the word about this fantastic opportunity to like-minded individuals within the Open Tech School Meet Up group (and beyond!) who you believe would be interested in taking part in this ground-breaking weekend.

Are you able to pass this information on to the Open Tech School Meet Up group?

For more information about the event and it’s structure, please visit our website at www.eduhack.com.au

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about the event.

Best regards (and looking forward to seeing you at eduHack!

Rowan Kunz

0422 160 488

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Rowan Kunz, Co-Founder & Chief Learning Architect

myEd - Learning in the palm of your hand. 

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[Lilly Ryan]

Hey Steven,

This looks like an excellent thing to get involved in. Should we simply spread the word, or get an OTS team together?

Cheers,

Lilly

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[Steven Farlie]

Well it turns out I will be neither employed nor in Tasmania during eduHack, so I'm actually available to contribute to it.

Seeing as we are all quite technical I would be interested to go along and help with other people's ideas. Doesn't seem like something for OTS students (though I recall a couple who are very interested in the whole hackfest startup thing).

It's $50 and three days of time though, so I can understand if people aren't that keen.

[Matthew Iversen]

It seems extremely scant on details for wanting $50 and three free days of your time. I'm definitely not up for eating pizza & pop three days in a row. "prizes that will turbo-charge their vision for change into a reality."

I'd love to feel enthusiastic about this, but not as it it's presented at the moment. I've seen plenty of please-present-your-ideas-for-us-to-steal presented of hackathons around, and this doesn't do much to differentiate itself unfortunately, given it's hosted by a private startup making its own products for the educational industry.

[Rowan Kunz]

Hey Matthew,

Thanks for the comments.

In response:

• $50 covers 6 meals (This works out at $8.30 per meal) and there's no pizza - all meals are great, wholesome quality food. We've worked hard to make it affordable in price, but with great quality. Most Start Up Weekend events are double the price at $99 + none that I'm aware of ever have a full menu for the event publicly available :P
• Friday night, Saturday all day, and half day Sunday falls short of 3 full days. We're open to feedback- you say it's scant on details - what info are you looking for? We'll work on getting this live on the website.
• Given this is the first time in Australia the hackathon model is being applied to education we've been sourcing prizes which will be announced closer to event (over this coming week)

In relation to your more serious comments around this being an avenue for 'idea-stealing'...

• Yes, one of the organisers is an educational technology company. From our work with schools & the tech sector we constantly were exposed to a) amazing teachers who had great ideas to improve education, but the not the resources or networks to make these a reality b) lots of people from business/tech communities who were passionate about education and making a difference but didn't have an avenue to get involved.
• As a result we thought creating a hackathon for education would be a great way bring everyone together to create a community in Melbourne focused on creating increasing innovation in the education sector in Australia.
• No one else was doing it in Melbourne (or apparently planning to) and we felt it was needed - so we stepped up, and partnered with Centre for New Public Education (a NFP) to create the event, tapping into our networks in technology sector, and Centre for New Public Education's networks with educators.
• For both organisations this is a purely volunteer gig - we've committed countless hours to bring the event to life. If this was about 'stealing ideas' - there are much, much easier, less time consuming ways..

Hope this clarifies some things for everyone,

See you at EduHack!

Rowan

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