SBIR Phase I: The Games and Learning Digital Distribution Platform: Increasing Access with Web-Based Content

这个SBIR第一期项目将创建第一个值得信赖的来源，家长和教师可以轻松地为他们的孩子查找、购买和采用高质量的数字内容。游戏、电子书和其他数字学习工具显示出改善生活的巨大潜力。低收入家庭的孩子(占美国儿童总数的43%)比高收入家庭的孩子花在屏幕上的时间更多，他们的老师报告说，使用教育技术提高了学生成绩的可能性是高收入家庭的两倍。尽管与数字学习工具相关的供需不断增加，但大量内容被隐藏在当前的分发平台中，教育工作者找不到与其需求对应的选择。因此，生活在低收入家庭的3000万美国儿童无法获得相关内容，55%的父母和80%的教师无法找到他们正在寻找的内容，内容制作人面临着可持续发展的重大挑战。通过为服务低收入社区的教育工作者优化的平台，通过提供广泛的高质量、跨平台的数字学习内容，该项目将在获取、影响和收入方面取得重大进展。利用第一阶段原型的反馈，该项目将扩大到目前在课堂上使用数字学习产品的300万美国教师和在家中使用数字学习产品的3000万美国家庭。与数字学习提供商分享收入将在价值200亿美元的全球电子学习市场内建立一个专门的、可持续的渠道。该项目是一个系统的数字学习分发解决方案，满足了教师和家长的需求，但从根本上打乱了他们目前对有效内容的期望。作为第一个将基于网络、以证据为基础的数字学习工具与大规模教育工作者联系起来的项目，存在巨大的风险。创建基于网络的学习工具的一站式商店的技术要求每天都在演变，从如何支持更高质量的HTML5内容的开发，到如何最好地销售和交付跨平台/跨设备交付的访问码，再到如何确保教育工作者在带宽有限的情况下易于下载和采用。HTML5的开发提供了一个新兴的机会，可以更有效地瞄准全球受众，而无需维护同一应用程序的多个版本，并改善家庭和学校之间的教育联系。然而，许多数字学习开发商缺乏将高质量内容转换为HTML5的资源，而没有可持续的分发平台的支持。该项目将创建一个为提供跨平台内容而优化的基于网络的电子商务应用程序、一个可搜索的符合教育标准的高质量数字学习产品清单以及一个旨在提高长期满意度、可持续性和有效性的数据/反馈循环。第一阶段的研发工作将使用调查、虚拟焦点小组和教育工作者期刊/访谈来测试新平台供给侧和需求侧的技术和商业可行性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This SBIR Phase I project will create the first trusted source where parents and teachers can easily find, buy and adopt high-quality digital content for their children. Games, e-books and other digital learning tools show significant potential for improving lives. Children in low-income families (43% of all U.S. children) spend more screen time than their higher income counterparts, and their teachers are twice as likely to report improved student achievement from using educational technology. Despite increasing supply and demand related to digital learning tools, great content is buried within current distribution platforms and educators do not find choices mapped to their needs. As a result, 30 million U.S. children living in low-income families lack access to relevant content, 55% of parents and 80% of teachers cannot find what they are looking for and content producers face significant challenges to sustainability. By offering a broad selection of high-quality, cross-platform digital learning content via a platform optimized for adoption by educators who serve low-income communities, this project will achieve significant advances in access, impact and revenue. Using feedback from a Phase I prototype, this project will scale to reach the 3 million U.S. teachers who currently use digital learning products in the classroom and the 30 million U.S. families who use digital learning products at home. A revenue share with digital learning providers will establish a dedicated, sustainable channel within the $20 billion global e-learning market. This project is a systemic solution to digital learning distribution that meets teachers and parents where they are, but fundamentally disrupts their current expectations for effective content. As the first project to connect web-based, evidence-based digital learning tools with educators at scale, there are significant risks. The technical requirements for creating a one-stop shop for web-based learning tools are evolving daily from how to support the development of more high-quality HTML5 content, to how to best sell and deliver access codes for cross-platform/cross-device delivery, to how to ensure ease of download and adoption by educators despite limited bandwidth. Development in HTML5 offers an emerging opportunity to more efficiently target a global audience without maintaining multiple versions of the same application and improve educational connections between home and school. However, many digital learning developers lack the resources to convert high-quality content to HTML5 without the support of a sustainable distribution platform. This project will create a web-based e-commerce application optimized for delivery of cross-platform content, a searchable inventory of high-quality digital learning products mapped to educational standards and a data/feedback loop designed to improve long-term satisfaction, sustainability and efficacy. Phase I R&D efforts will use surveys, virtual focus groups and educator journals/interviews to test the technical and commercial feasibility of both the supply side and demand side of a new platform.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.