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http://www.gse.upenn.edu/pressroom/press-releases/2013/05/penn-gse-and-milken-family-foundation-name-winners-2013-education-business-pl

2013 Education Business Plan Competition: Share your idea. Change the world.

Philadelphia, PA, April 9, 2013 – Autism Expressed is one of ten finalists selected to compete in the Milken-Penn GSE 2013 Education Business Plan Competition (EBPC) sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE) and the Milken Family Foundation.  Founded by Michele McKeone, M.Ed., Autism Expressed is an interactive curriculum that teaches digital literacy to students with disabilities.  Serving nearly 20 organizations throughout the northeast region of the United States, the demand is growing. The company is preparing to get the online payment system running so they accept single-family subscriptions.

Education entrepreneurs from 10 early-stage start-ups will compete in the final phase of the competition on the Penn campus in Philadelphia on May 7-8.  The competition features six prizes totaling $120,000 in funding.

In its fourth year, the EBPC attracts innovative ideas from around the world–with three previous finalists landing spots on Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30” list of Gen-Y thought leaders who are reinventing education in 2013. The competition stimulates cutting-edge ideas–whether local or global, profit or non-profit, or preschool through adult learning–that serve the world’s educational needs. This year’s finalists were chosen by a panel of 140 experts who judged a total of 250 applications from 17 countries. The competition will be emceed by Betsy Corcoran from EdSurge, an online hub for educational technology reviews, and will feature edtech entrepreneur Geoff Ralston of ImagineK12 and keynote speaker Lord David Puttnam, Britain’s Chancellor of the Open University.

“The competition is changing how the world thinks about edtech, entrepreneurs, and education,” said Dr. Bobbi Kurshan, Executive Director of Academic Innovation at Penn GSE. “Our illustrious judges have an enormous range of expertise in education and entrepreneurship and have identified the best ideas out there for early start-ups in education.”

The full roster of 2013 Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition Finalists includes:

• Holly Carter, BYkids
• Jill Frankfort, Persistence Plus LLC
• Marjan Ghara, BiblioNasium
• Lida Hasbrouck, Ginkgotree
• Victor Karkar, scrible, Inc.
• Eve Lebwohl, Edfolio
• Michele McKeone, Autism Expressed
• Kimberley Munzo, ASPIREDU
• Kathleen Schindler, UpSkill Capital
• Preston Silverman, Raise Labs, Inc.

For more information go to:  http://nestcentral.org

Penn GSE’s NEST group (Networking Entrepreneurs for Social Change) was conceived to catalyze innovation in education. The EBPC competition was launched in 2010 as a partnership between NEST and the Milken Family Foundation, and marks the first-ever education business plan competition.

Competition finalists will present their projects—showcasing the best and most promising new ventures in the field—to a select panel of industry leaders on the Penn campus on May 7, 2013. Funding totaling $120,000 will be awarded through the following six prizes:

• The Milken Family Foundation First Prize ($25,000) and Second Prize ($15,000).
• The American Public University System Prize for Innovation in Online Education ($25,000).
• The Educational Services of America Prize for Innovation in the Fields of Special Education and At-Risk Students ($20,000).
• The Erudient Education Prize for Innovation in Borderless Education ($10,000).
• The Startl Prize for Open Educational Resources ($25,000).

As part of the competition, the NEST Conference will provide a one-of-a-kind opportunity for finalists to consult with experts and investors in the field. Sessions featuring some of the brightest minds in educational research will explore ways that new research can support finalists’ ideas. A discussion led by entrepreneurs will focus on how to transform academic research into educational products and services that have an impact. Numerous major edtech investors will attend the two-day event.

The Milken Family Foundation was established by Lowell and Michael Milken in 1982 with the mission to discover and advance inventive and effective ways of helping people help themselves and those around them lead productive and satisfying lives. The Foundation advances this mission principally through the various programs it initiates and carries out in the areas of education and medical research.

Penn GSE is one of the nation’s premier research education schools. A small percentage of education programs in the U.S. offer doctoral degrees, a tiny fraction are located at flagship research universities, and no other education school enjoys a university environment as supportive of practical knowledge-building as the University of Pennsylvania. The School is notably entrepreneurial, launching innovative degree programs for practicing professionals and unique partnerships with local educators, not to mention the first-ever business plan competition launched exclusively in education. For further information about Penn GSE, please visit www.gse.upenn.edu/.t

Read the full feature here.

By Capital Games | Posted on Monday, November 12th, 2012

To read the full article visit: Capital Games

Building a Career Path 

Moving toward developing accessible tools for disabled videogame programmers and developers is an admirable goal, but establishing a career path that connects people with disabilities to the corresponding resources and training is just as important.

Teaching methods and services for this purpose are still in flux. There is no clear-cut approach that works across the board, but digital accessibility is gaining momentum.

At the head of this movement is Michele McKeone, founder and CEO of Autism Expressed, the first and only online learning system that teaches autistic students multimedia skills. At the transition forum, she presented video projects her students made using ComicLife, GarageBand and video editing software. ComicLife helped teach students appropriate dialogue and provided examples of emotions and expressions. Another expressive platform McKeone’s students enjoy using is blogging.

McKeone, an energetic educator who faced a long, uphill battle in getting her multimedia programs going, also spoke about how her students were able to take their newfound skills and partner with autistic students from other classes to teach them how to make their own comics, videos and music.

All of these translate into skills her students can use in life in addition to the workplace.

Autism Expressed has developed an online learning system, where students can learn how to use email, browse the Web, create websites, navigate social networks and other skills. Built around short videos and follow-up quizzes, the system is based on students gathering badges that show they’ve completed a certain course.

Teachers can log in to check on students’ progress. If a student is struggling with a certain topic or section, their account will be flagged to show they could use additional help.

The service is being piloted at schools in New Jersey and Philadelphia, and McKeone is looking to partner with major technology companies (the name Google might’ve been mentioned in her presentation) to expand Autism Expressed’s reach.

By Erin Kane | Posted on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012

Autism and technology may appear to be an unlikely pair, but for one local teacher and her passion project, they are a powerful duo. For students with autism, digital literacy is a window to the outside world, offering a sturdy bridge to independence.

Autism Expressed, an online platform that teaches digital literacy skills to students with autism, is the brainchild of public school teacher Michele McKeone. Her day job running an Autistic Support classroom at South Philadelphia High School keeps her in tune with the students she seeks to support.

“It took my blood, sweat, and tears to pull this together,” said McKeone, who carried her idea from the classroom, landing community buy-in and funding.

McKeone’s startup is a carefully tested 2.0 version of her in-class curriculum, only more refined and user-friendly. Students log in to the self-paced website for lessons on email, social networking, and Internet browsing.

This fall, New Jersey-based Orchard Friends School for children with language and sensory difficulties will pilot Autism Expressed. It will supplement computer classes.

“I think students today have this vast knowledge of how to use technology, but they might not use it correctly,” said John Keeley, Head of School at Orchard Friends.

Growing an idea  
To realize her concept, McKeone turned to the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy at the University of the Arts, a local engine that links the art and business communities.

The Corzo Center’s Creative Incubator / Wells Fargo Fellowship helps students and alumni develop business plans and establish social enterprises through yearly grants. As an alumna of UArts, McKeone was eligible to pitch her idea.

“Autism Expressed is really an ideal; it’s almost our poster child. It demonstrates the value of the creative work Michele has learned and puts it in a new context,” said Neil Kleinman, the Managing Senior Fellow at the Corzo Center.

McKeone was awarded $10,000 last May. “It was everything,” she said, referring to the grant. “The money allowed me to translate what I was doing in the classroom to an online learning platform that could be used by virtually anyone.”

Afterward, she was linked to business and technical consultants to develop and test Autism Expressed, and she assembled a team of expert advisors to oversee its curriculum.

“We know that provided the tools and resources, students with autism can reach their full potential,” said Catherine Chase, a Psycho-educational Diagnostician at the Pediatric Wellness Center in Cherry Hill, N.J. and a member of the advisory board.

“The paradigm has completely shifted from pencil and paper. With technology, [students with autism] have a greater learning and earning power,” she added.

Autism and the digital world
Deshaun Cole, 16, is one of McKeone’s students who blossomed under her tutelage. The soon-to-be high school junior is drawn to computers; he has a website and video blogs, aspiring to a career in a web-related field some day.

Outside of school, Cole does something called self-stimulatory behavior, or repetitive body moments that are common for people with autism.

“He does jumping,” said his mother Frances Jones. “A lot of people look at him and some people think he’s mentally challenged. People don’t understand about autism. It’s still new for my family, people close to me.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 1 in 88 children are identified as having an autism spectrum disorder — a figure that grew by 23 percent over the last three years.

McKeone hopes that advocacy and awareness efforts will get a much-needed boost from the rapid increase in autism diagnoses. “I’m hoping there will be more tolerance and understanding and that people can see beyond these behaviors,” she said.

Like Cole, many students with autism are attracted to technology — and empowered by it. “They have an inclination to use it,” McKeone explained. “The idea is that you shape that attraction.”

Beyond McKeone’s classroom, that shaping is subscription-based Autism Expressed, a tool that incorporates staged curriculum to make digital literacy a safe, fun learning process.

To help students feel empowered by their new skills, each lesson successfully completed unlocks a virtual badge like this one to keep in a badge library. Teachers, therapists, and facilitators can use the badge stickers and charts to reinforce progress in the classroom. 

Ideal for the classroom or home environment, Autism Expressed is geared for youth ages 14-21. Parents and teachers can also log in to the platform to monitor and track student progress. Students receive a merit badge after the successful completion of each activity and later earn master badges — virtual and tangible versions — to show their mastery of a subject. This deliberate “gamification” is an easy way to reinforce behavior.

“We’ve learned digital skills through work or socialization,” said McKeone. “For students with autism, the process doesn’t work the same way. They really need this synthesized structure.”

In addition to digital literacy, Autism Expressed wants students with autism to gain marketable skills that will prepare them for college and career opportunities.

Orchard Friends is the first school to purchase an Autism Expressed license. It knows that technology is a ubiquitous life skill that students with spectrum disorders must ultimately navigate — or risk being left behind.

“Our students are very creative, but you can’t do ‘B’ unless you know ‘A,’” noted Keeley. “Either we hang on and become the dinosaur, or we embrace it.”

TechCrunch features Autism Expressed!  Founder, Michele McKeone describes how Autism Expressed is preparing students with Autism to use digital and social media safely and effectively. 

Autism Expressed Helps Autistic Children Learn About The Internet

JORDAN CROOK

The Internet is an incredibly powerful tool, but it’s also a very dangerous place. Because of this, children with autism and other disabilities often can’t leverage the power of the web, which is a place where you should be able to learn anything.

But Autism Expressed, a startup we discovered on our TC Philly Mini Meetup, is looking to educate autistic children about the Internet so they can have a safe surfing experience and enjoy social media like the rest of us.

The service takes students through various modules, starting with lessons on what the Internet is and how to perform a web search. From there, children learn about the difference between real content and spam, and learn to be weary of just about everything on the Internet. Eventually, once they’ve been educated on social media, students are able to create their own social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter.

The students learn everything in an embedded browser environment, meaning there is a hefty layer of protection between them and the real Internet. This way, students learn safely and Autism Expressed keeps itself liability-free.

The service has been picked up by various schools and clinics, and Autism Expressed is looking to roll out further.

The Philadelphia School District Notebook features Michele McKeone’s Autistic Support Classroom; the very place where Autism Expressed was born.

Navigating the Digital World

Michele McKeone: Autistic Support Educator, South Philadelphia High School

April 7, 2012

by Wendy Harris

South Philadelphia senior Marcus Johnson stands at the front of his classroom eager to give his presentation on mammals. But there are no poster board cutouts here, no sketches across a blackboard, no pages borrowed from an animal encyclopedia. Johnson, with his back to a class that has iMacs and iPads, works the keys on his laptop computer with the focus of an engineer in a computer lab. After a few clicks, he turns to face his peers, and the website he designed – which gives vivid images and rich content about the animals he loves so much – fills the interactive projector at the front of the room.

Video: Kimberly Paynter for WHYY/NewsWorks

Johnson’s face lights up as he begins his talk about tigers, whales, and other creatures, and the habitats in which they live. Johnson, who said he wants to go to college or do job training after high school, is especially excited about this presentation because it matches the senior project he will soon do at the Philadelphia Zoo.

“I have that passionate on mammals,” said Johnson. “And what I’m going to do there, I’m going to research on mammals, I will have some photos about it, and write about each type of mammal, what I know.”

Johnson is one of nine students in an autistic support class at Southern led by special education teacher Michele McKeone. McKeone, who has been teaching for four and a half years, has incorporated digital media into her class as a way to help students develop essential life skills that will help them transition to independence, while also learning math, English, science, and other basic subjects.

“District wide, the life skills curriculum is focused on early intervention,” said McKeone, who graduated from the University of the Arts with a digital media degree. “Once students go through the early intervention and come to me, [I have ask myself] what do they need to really pursue their independence and transition from high school to the next step, whether it be vocational training or a university setting.

McKeone said she does a lot of research on job-ready skills, ““That’s why I focus on technology,” she said. “For example, my students, even if they’re going to go through a vocational rehabilitation center, they need to know email, how to send a resume, how to upload that resume to an email, change that resume to different file formats, or create a brand or social networking profile for themselves. They have to understand all the social rules and hidden intricacies that are involved in navigating the digital world.”

McKeone’s best lessons is one in which she uses an application called Comic Life. With this lesson students identify a favorite project they completed during the year. For some students it’s their websites about sports teams or hip hop music. Johnson chose mammals – of course. Then, using Comic Life, students compose a comic strip that allows them to have a conversation with a classmate about their project. Students can add videos, photos, or music to the comics, and then demonstrate them on an iPad.

Support for McKeone’s ideas has come from the District and beyond. The District’s Office of Specialized Instructional Services provided her with five iPads and three new iMacs. And the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy recently awarded her a $10,000 grant to translate what she has been doing in her class to an online learning platform called Autism Expressed. McKeone, 30, is currently working with two curriculum advisors to ready the platform for teacher use.

McKeone has been given a lot of autonomy, which she credits to her good ideas and “positive outcomes.” But she said more partnerships with the District’s vocational training program and university pre-college programs are needed “to help our students as they prepare to get to their next step.” She said right now many vocational programs are pigeonholing autistic students into low-level service jobs like janitorial, when these students are capable of so much more.

“I want to level the playing field for students with learning and behavior variations,” she said. “But the one lesson that I really want my students to walk out of my classroom with is an overall sense of empowerment; the idea that they are responsible to advocate for themselves in any situation.”