Global Education Challenge

Part of the HMH Innovation Fund, the Global Education Challenge was created to bring together a community of innovators and gather ideas with the potential to dramatically improve K–12 education worldwide.

Our ultimate goal was to source truly original ideas that could become tangible tools to address three critical education areas: student learning, family engagement, and teacher effectiveness. We hosted the GEC on a collaborative online platform where the public evaluated each idea and engaged in valuable dialogue to help our panel of expert judges identify the ones with the most potential.

Meet the Winners

We’re pleased to announce that the judges have selected three groundbreaking ideas from the GEC’s community of innovators — each of which will take home a piece of $250,000 in cash and prizes. Read on to learn how these individuals are helping to improve student outcomes across the globe — both inside and outside the classroom.

Pocket Tales 1st Prize: Pocket Tales: An Online Social Reading Game 
Yaw Aning, Indianapolis, Ind.

Pocket Tales, an online social reading game, seeks to inspire a lifelong love of reading in kids through adding a motivational game layer to books. Pocket Tales, submitted by Yaw Aning of Indianapolis, Ind., uses a variety of well-researched methods to encourage kids to read, including game mechanics, goal setting, social interaction, and feedback.

Learn more at GlobalEducationChallenge.com

Education Hot Spots

2nd Prize: Education Hotspots for Areas with no Internet Infrastructure
Neil Dsouza, Mongolia

Education Hotspots proposes programs to provide mobile hotspots and free educational courseware to underdeveloped regions with no internet infrastructure. The idea was developed by Neil Dsouza, who is currently living in Mongolia and working to establish education hotspots in remote towns. With new educational content constantly becoming available digitally, a solution for internet infrastructure is vital to global education.

Learn more at GlobalEducationChallenge.com

Reading Glue

3rd Prize: eGuided Reading (Reading Glue)
James Stubblefield, DeKalb, Ill.

The third finalist, Reading Glue, is a digital reading program that provides parents the tools they need to teach effective reading strategies at home. The program, created by James Stubblefield of DeKalb, Ill., includes ways parents can implement guided and leveled reading practice, and digital solutions that allow them to keep reading practice on track while on the go.

Learn more at GlobalEducationChallenge.com