Facebook and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have partnered to encourage hackers to channel their skills for a good cause.
According to AllThingsD, a series of hackathons, called HackEd, will see over 150 technologists and educational technology experts coming together to develop education-focused applications intended to solve some of the problems faced by global education systems.
Over 20 teams will be participating in this year's event, including several Facebook engineers, a Facebook representative told VentureBeat. "Today's Web sites and online service providers give children and teens access to an unprecedented variety of resources to foster and support teaching and learning," the Facebook rep said, adding that, in the social media age, there is potential to achieve real progress right now.
Teams are encouraged to focus on building social learning Facebook apps for college-going individuals, many of whom come from low-income families and may be the first in their families to attend college, says Emily Dalton Smith, programme officer for next-generation learning at the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
According to Dalton Smith, the foundation intended to target teens using social media by offering a productive and educational outlet alongside cat memes and YouTube videos.
"At the Gates Foundation, one of our priorities is unlocking the power of innovation and technology to impact learning," another representative for the foundation said. "We are excited to support the creation of more digital tools that use technology to target young people where they spend their time, and help many more students prepare for, get into and succeed in postsecondary education."
The first of this year's hackathons is being held today at Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters, while the second event will take pace at the company's London offices on 24 April. At today's event in California, a panel of judges will award $5 000 in prizes to the best apps across several categories.
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