Abre, the Cincinnati-based startup that developed an open-source tool for educators, has announced a new program called Abre Everywhere.
It's a tool that helps educators translate the wonderful things they do in their off hours into immersive curricula.
"There's a big push for experimental learning, learning by doing" said Damon Ragusa, CEO of Abre. "What we recognize is, there are teachers, educators outside the classroom doing extraordinary things. We want to support them and convert those experiences into courses."
"good educational experiences happen everywhere."
The goal of the project is as straightfoward as it sounds: Using Abre's tech to build and share teacher-inspired curriculum that the educators themselves wouldn't have time to do without help.
"When we convert this into the content, [it will be] videos, photos, lessons, and we'll make it available to anyone who wants to have it," Ragusa said. "[Students will] understand that education can happen everywhere."
Ragusa explained that the early stage project was currently working with two teachers to do just that in its pilot program.
There's Bryce Carlson, a local high school teacher who is conducting the first American solo row across the Atlantic Ocean, unsupported. Then there's government teacher Harvey Lewis, who's running through the Appalachian Trail and looking to beat the completion record of 45 days.
Ragusa said that the potential for coursework inspired by their journeys was endless, with everything from math problems to government studies, marine biology to history and beyond.
"Good educational experiences happen everywhere," he said.
And, once Abre Everywhere distills these adventures into courses, they'll use what they build to help spearhead the project moving forward. The pilot program will likely conclude by the end of the summer, with the hope that the next round of teachers to coming through by the end of the year. Then, in 2019, Abre would look to debut a scalable version.
"We we want to do it right," Ragusa said. "It's a great asset to educators."
While Ragusa said that Lewis and Carlson were wonderful examples of educators with experiences for building curriculum, he added that not every teacher had to climb Mt. Everest or reinvent the wheel to be a perfect fit for the program.
At the end of the day, Abre Everywhere wants to highlight "educators doing amazing things in their community," he said, like facilitating a local garden or traveling to an American historical landmark.
That's something that the second part of Abre Everywhere looks to do: getting teachers involved with ease. Eventually, Abre will debut a mechanism that will allow teachers to plug in to the program, or have others do so on their behalf.
"What we're going to want to ultimately do is sponsor teachers and work with them directly," Ragusa said. "We're a smaller company with only a small amount of capacity, so we'll want to improve our product with guided processes ... that we're confident produces quality content [and is] much more scalable."
Eventually, when open to more teachers, interested users can access the free Abre Everywhere app to engage with the program, whether or not they're a customer of the company's.
And it's not just about reminding users that education is everywhere; it's also for everyone.
"It doesn't matter if it's [used in] a classroom during the school year, a program for a summer school, or [by a] parent who just wants their kid to be engaged," Ragusa said. "It's for the homeschool kid as much as the private school kid. ... We love to see the democratization of access to good curriculum."
