Help kids learn to make good decisions, manage finances, and stay healthy: Vote in first-ever Amazon Alexa EdTech Skills Challenge

For the first-ever Amazon Alexa EdTech Skills Challenge, Amazon Web Services (AWS) teamed up with SXSW EDU to challenge United States-based EdTechs to use Alexa to transform education. With six finalists remaining, the event is now virtual and the public can vote for their favorite. People who register to participate and vote will also be entered for a chance to win an Amazon Echo Show (2nd Gen).

Each of the six finalists developed a skill designed to positively impact students, faculty, or school administrators and aid in solving education challenges across one of four themes: home to school connection, teacher or administrator productivity, accessibility, and student learning.

Here is a sneak peak of the six finalists and their skills:

• Blast Learning: The Blast Learning skill uses research-backed questioning to help students relearn forgotten knowledge. Students or parents select a core knowledge base and the skill evaluates a student’s understanding of the material, identifies forgotten information, and then reteaches content in a quiz format.
• Healthy Teen Network: The Hush Hush skill offers a trusted, confidential mentor to support students who feel left out of traditional sexual education programming or want to take steps to improve their sexual health. Hush Hush provides students with four general topics to talk about: birth control, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), healthy relationships, and sexual orientation and gender identity.
• NuMoola: The NuMoola skill helps children and their families learn fundamental financial concepts through interactive lessons, games, and comprehension activities. This program meets the needs of diverse learners and is anchored in National Financial Literacy Standards to promote essential life skills.
• SayKid: Designed for use with SayKid’s learning platform, the Letter Game skill introduces letter sounds in individual or group settings and children play the role of teacher to help a robot learn letters of the alphabet. Children are given words and need to think of the beginning letter that corresponds to that word.
• StrongMind: The StrongMind skill bridges a critical information gap between guardians and their students. Combining automated messaging with proven approaches like nudge theory and gamification, this skill provides parents or guardians and their students with timely and personalized information to drive essential conversations around improving academic outcomes.
• VOGO Voice: The Kids Decisions skill provides a resource for teachers and parents to educate children on social situations with a variety of interactive ways to understand a given concept through Alexa voice and display devices. It provides a safe place to make decisions and learn about character, strengths, and virtues designed for each age group.

If you are a student, parent, educator, builder, education technology employee, or care about learning, we want you to participate and vote for the Alexa Skill you find most impactful. Public voting is only open until May 15, 2020. Find out more about the challenge, view all the skill demos, and cast your vote now for a chance to win an Amazon Echo Show (2nd Gen).

No purchase necessary. One entry per person. US only, 18+. Winners will be contacted via email.

Learn more and vote now in the Amazon Alexa EdTech Skills Challenge.