EdTech start-up focuses on digital skill creation
WA EdTech start-up Cognetic Technologies has developed VORTALS, a creation platform that allows students to design, create and publish immersive edcuation projects while developing critical future skills.
The platform aims to do the ‘heavy lifting’, allowing users of any skill level to blend together 2D, 3D, VR and AR content with a simple point-and-click user interface and dynamic editing package.
Having successfully deployed VORTALS at several STEM schools across Australia, the Cognetic Technologies team was selected for the Future Minds Accelerator program backed by Rio Tinto, AWS and Blue Chilli. The program intent is to prepare young Australians with the skills required to thrive in jobs of the future. Cognetic Technologies Co-founder Russell Scott said acceptance into the program validated the comapany’s direction.
“It has really validated our focus on giving educators the tools to teach 21st-century skills and prepare our students for jobs of the future,” he said.
The company said the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of teaching digital skills to students from a young age, and giving them pathways for learning development that will lead to real career opportunities.
Stella Jinman, Principal of Cecil Andews College, the first school to pilot the VORTALS platform, sees the potential for real-world skills devlopment.
“VORTALS has been a highly effective STEM program that has been utilised across a range of learning areas and embraced by the students. The students have been very motivated and learned to quickly navigate with the tools, use critical thinking and creativity to experiment with innovative learning platforms in VR and AR. The students are currently incorporating the technology into a solar bench outdoor classroom with school and industry including Western Power,” she said.
The company is currently looking to accelerate deployments of the VORTALS platform across Australian schools and to give educators the confidence they need to teach digital skills in a structured way. It is making the platform available to schools on a free trial until the end of June 2020. For more information, visit vortals.app.
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