Today the World Economic Forum at Davos announced its list of Technology Pioneers for 2011. The award goes to high performing companies committed to making a lasting impact on the state of the world, and we at Knewton are honored to be the first education company ever selected.
We’re excited to be included with some incredible organizations. Google, PayPal, Mozilla, and Twitter are all past recipients, and the amount of innovation on this year’s list of Technology Pioneers is impressive. Every winner is devoted to a simple yet critical mission: using technology to change business and society for the better.
Medicine in Need uses the latest advances in research and treatment to provide essential health solutions where they’re needed most. Foursquare is already shifting how people interact all over the world, making the most anonymous, urban spaces instantly social. Second Market brings greater transparency and flexibility to the financial world. Scribd makes publishing a social experience, creating a public library at the world’s fingertips. And there are so many more…
Technology can be a powerful tool, but its greatest value comes when companies like these put it to use. In the right hands, tech can go from being nifty to world-changing.
At Knewton, we’re working hard to develop technology that revolutionizes the way people learn. It is an honor to be the first education company named a Technology Pioneer, but it’s also indicative of how much work is left to be done in this field. Technology has already revolutionized the way people connect, communicate, and do business. We think education is about to have its technology moment, and it will never be the same again.
Within a decade, students will access learning material on their eTextbook readers and attend some (or all) of their classes virtually with top teachers from around the world. Learning works best when it’s personalized, so we’re building a platform that makes education as unique as every student. It measures your proficiency on every concept in your course of study and dynamically generates a personal “nextbook” for you each day. Most importantly, it adapts to you based on your mastery of each concept — down to the percentile level — so your learning plan is customized for you.
Today this technology is available in Knewton’s own GMAT prep, LSAT prep, and SAT prep courses. Soon it will be available to everyone else, as we partner with the world’s leading educational publishers and institutions and open the platform to the public.
We’re extremely grateful to be recognized by the World Economic Forum at Davos. The award is an incredible affirmation that we’re on the right track, and it will provide a great shot of energy as we keep refining the technology in our courses. Looking forward, we are excited to use that technology to keep improving education for everyone, everywhere.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll profile some of the other Tech Pioneers of 2011, from social media giants (@foursquare), to rising leaders in augmented reality (@layarmobile), information security (@opendns), and handling the world’s data (@asterdata). Stay tuned.
For more on what drives all of us at Knewton, check out this video from Jose Ferreira, our founder and CEO:
