If you’ve got a brilliant idea for an edtech tool that could transform teaching or learning, submit your pitch to the 2023 EdTech Pitch Contest. Winners will receive expert guidance and financial support to help turn their concept into a reality.
You may or may not think of yourself as an entrepreneur. But consider this: who’s better equipped than those already within our education system to invent creative solutions to the problems they experience on a daily basis?
This contest is open to any adult (18+) resident of Michigan with clear ties to our state’s education ecosystem. Don’t miss this opportunity to make a difference in education!
The EdTech Pitch Contest encourages innovative thinking from those in Michigan’s education ecosystem. Successful pitches will identify ideas that have the most potential to advance learning or teaching through the application of existing or new technology. Submissions open March 20, 2023 and close May 14, 2023. Judges will review final pitches, and finalists will be notified by May 26, 2023. The final EdTech Pitch Contest event will occur on June 29, 2023.
Submitting an entry to the EdTech Pitch Contest grants you free admission into our EdTech Bootcamp during the summer of 2023.
By attending this 4-day virtual bootcamp, you’ll earn 20 SCECH credits while you meet fellow Michigan entrepreneurs and learn from experts about how to refine your concept and build a business model around it.
If you’re not planning to submit a pitch but are still interested in exploring what it takes to launch a successful edtech business, you may participate in the bootcamp for a fee. Sign up for reminders to be notified when registration opens!
The pitch contest will be open to any adult (18+) resident of Michigan with clear ties to our state’s education ecosystem. These may include but are not limited to:
Teams are eligible so long as one member is a resident of Michigan with a clear tie to Michigan’s education ecosystem. No one may submit as part of multiple teams, and no one may submit more than one idea.
Ideas and concepts pitched must be pre-startup, start-up, or early stage of development. Entities must be unformed or less than two years old. Entities must have less than $20,000 in prior outside investment.
Employees of organizing partners may submit a pitch and participate in the bootcamp but will not be eligible for prizes.
Read the full press release here.
The EdTech Pitch Contest & Innovation Bootcamp wouldn’t be possible without the support of our amazing partners and sponsors! This year’s contest is organized by Michigan Virtual, Spartan Innovations, Michigan Small Business Development Center, MEA and MSU’s Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Generous sponsorship has also been provided by Michigan Creative, Foster Swift, Meemic, and LearningMate.
Would you like to receive reminders about upcoming deadlines for this year’s contest? Or maybe you’re intrigued but unsure where to start? We’ve got you covered. Fill out the form below to sign up for reminder emails and helpful tips and tricks from our innovation team.
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We’re sorry to inform you that we have reached capacity for several of our Semester 1 and Trimester 1 courses. You’ll notice when attempting to enroll students in our Student Learning Portal that some courses are unavailable. While we are no longer accepting new enrollments for these courses at this time, many courses continue to remain open for enrollment.
With many students across the state 100% remote, demand for our online courses is greater than ever before. Because every course we offer is taught by a Michigan-certified teacher, this high volume of enrollments has created capacity issues for our teachers who provide each and every student with individual feedback.
While the Michigan Virtual team anticipated and planned for significant increases in student enrollments this Fall, the increased demand we’ve experienced has been unprecedented. As a result, we are taking steps to hire even more part-and full-time teachers to support larger numbers of student enrollments for Semester 2 as well as for Trimester 2 and 3.
For schools that still need online learning options this year, please fill out the form at the bottom of our virtual pathways page to meet with someone to discuss other solutions. While some of our teacher-led courses are full, we may still have the capacity to help you in upcoming terms or can discuss timing to implement a whole-school or collaborative program in which local teachers from your school/district use our online course content to teach students. We also have free course content and resources available for you to use.
We know this is an incredibly stressful time for all, and we’re sorry if the courses you’re looking for are unavailable. We never want to turn away a student who wants to learn from us. Our top concern, however, is student success, and we have a policy to not take on additional enrollments if we cannot guarantee that all students will have a quality online learning experience.
We appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate the unusually high volume of enrollments we are receiving.
