Crowdfunding is becoming an increasingly popular way to fund commercial projects (and/or potato salad, apparently). Everyone from small-business owners looking for start-up money to famous movie makers looking to fund film projects without Hollywood’s help are turning to crowdfunding.
What about educators? What kinds of ways could crowdfunding be used for educational purposes? Could your local elementary school start a “Buy Us Textbooks” campaign? Could your local university replace donation drives with online, public crowdfunding (or other projects)? As it turns out, there are some educational-type crowdsourcing projects in the works right now…
Warning: We aren’t actually endorsing these projects, nor suggesting that you contribute. Just consider this a “Oh, that’s neat someone is trying to do that” post.
- They are funding the creation of learning objects. Have Fun Teaching, an established teaching resource designer, is using KickStarter to fund the creation of 220 learning videos and songs. The resources, aimed at elementary school teachers, will seemingly be made to pledgers first, and will afterwards be sold to the general public on the company’s website.
- They are funding education for under-privileged youth. The School Fund organization currently uses crowdfunding to sponsor children in poverty-stricken areas of the world and give them the chance at post-secondary education.
- They are helping parents save for their children’s university tuition. InstaGrad has emerged as a digital-age strategy for planning for children’s education. The site makes it easy to contribute to a loved one’s education fund, whether as a gift or simply just because.
- They are helping satirical, scholarly movies get made. As we’ve mentioned before, crowdfunding is helping The PhD Comics Movie 2 get made. And yes that’s only vaguely educational, but don’t tell us you don’t enjoy those comics.
What would you use crowdfunding for?
(Also, Happy Friday!)
