URBAN PLANET MOBILE NAMED FINALIST FOR
PRESTIGIOUS GATES FOUNDATION EDUCATION GRANT
Durham, NC – Urban Planet Mobile, the world’s leading mobile education provider, has been selected as a finalist for the Gates Foundation’s prestigious Next Generation Learning Challenge Education Grant.
Urban Planet Mobile was chosen for its unique M-Powered Literacy (MPL) program, which capitalizes on the versatile but educationally under-utilized mobile phone to build higher order literacy skills in underperforming students transitioning to high school. MPL unites complementary “m-learning” solutions with improving reading & writing proficiency, and building academic vocabulary.
Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) is a collaborative, multi-year initiative created to address the barriers to educational innovation and tap the potential of technology to dramatically improve college readiness and completion in the United States. NGLC is guided by the belief that providing investment capital to expand the use of proven and emerging learning technologies, collecting and sharing evidence of what works, and fostering a community of innovators and adopters will result in a robust pool of solutions and greater institutional adoption which, in turn, will dramatically improve the quality of learning experiences in the United States.
“This type of recognition from the Gates Foundation continues to prove how innovative, effective and valuable Urban Planet Mobile’s scholastic products are to helping solve the various problems affecting our educational systems,” said Mobile Education’s creator, CEO and founder of Urban Planet Mobile Brian OliverSmith.
With Next Generation support, Urban Planet Mobile will develop its MPL literature-based modules aligned to Common Core Standards that take advantage of the smartphone’s “offline” capabilities (reading platform, media player, document storage, file transfer, digital production, and interactivity). A vocabulary component deploys ring tone & SMS technologies to extend learning beyond the school day, affordably reaching students with any model of mobile phone. The key to program sustainability is the repurposing of recycled smartphones.
Other finalists for the Next Generation Learning Challenges Grant include Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Learning Partnership, Education Connection, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, Imagine Education, GameDesk, North Carolina State University, SMALLab Learning, and Teacher’s College Columbia University.
Urban Planet Mobile is the leading provider of education and information products created specifically for delivery via mobile phone. With products ranging from English language learning programs to SAT preparation, Urban Planet Mobile is the only company to develop literacy lessons for delivery to any mobile phone. Additional information about the company can be obtained at www.urbanplanetmobile.com or by calling (919) 323-8763.