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04 JAN 16
Masako presented Lyriko at the Boston Japanese International Development Community!

In Boston, we have the Japanese International Development Community which is the community for people who are interested in international development. Masako spoke about her experiences working with Indonesian kids, and about Lyriko, especially how we want to help immigrants and people who don’t have learning opportunities in developing countries. Lyriko is freemium, so wherever people have access to devices and internet, they can play it. Attendees were curious about our way of working as well, especially how we communicate with team members who live all over the world! They asked really great questions and had a workshop to think about Indonesian educational issues. Like how teachers don’t come to school, or kids are cheating. For those problems, we got several unique ideas! It was really great to meet people interested in international development.

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04 JAN 16
Dan presented Lyriko at The Close It Summit

We attended The Close It Summit in DC, a conference addressing the skills gap between what employers need and what job seekers have. Dan spoke about Lyriko on the panel “Your Smart Phone Just Got Smarter: Education to Employment.” He talked about Lyriko as a way to help immigrants and other language learners increase their employable skills like teamwork and communication in an enjoyable way that fits their busy lives. We met more than 30 potential collaborators and it was a great opportunity to discuss closing the skills gap. You’ll have to trust us that there were more attendees than shown in this picture. It’s totally a real conference!

16 DEC 15
We presented Lyriko at Educational Gaming

Masako and Dan got a great opportunity to talk at the Educational Gaming conference put on by SERESC and Zulama. There were so many great questions raised by the teachers who attended, and it was more interactive than we expected. We talked about how to work with remote teams, working with people from other languages and cultures, and what abilities kids will need in the future. The teachers were already starting from the point that “learning should be fun,” so it was great to move past that point to how to make it really engaging. We could feel all the attendees are trying to change education, and that gave us a lot of energy. We’re so grateful for such a wonderful opportunity!

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21 NOV 15
We got so many testers in Boston FIG!

We attended Boston Fig for the 2nd year – last year we won 2 awards!  Many repeat attendees were there who remembered us and were glad to see our progress. We enjoyed introducing new gamers of all ages to Lyriko as well. Over 70 gamers signed up to be testers!

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21 NOV 15
We tested in Japan!

We gave a speech and tested over 100 kids and teachers learning English in several schools in Japan. They loved “Lyriko”! Japanese high school students are not used to such an enjoyable way of learning so we were glad to introduce them to something new. Thank you all who cooperated in our testing.

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12 APR 15
We won a prize at SEEC pitch competition!

While we were in North Carolina testing Lyriko with kids at Ranson Middle School for the Apps for Class Challenge, we took a detour to SEEC (Social Entrepreneurship and Education Consortium), and entered their pitch competition. We won second prize pitching Lyriko at that conference! It’s even more impressive because Masako, who pitched, was the only non-native English speaker competing, and she did great! We also heard lots of interesting talks on the skills a social entrepreneur needs like how to become sustainable and how to teach our experiences to students. Meeting so many entrepreneurs and students passionate about making an impact on social issues energized us so much! Thank you for provide such a great opportunity!

 

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12 APR 15
Lyriko a winner of Apps for Class Challenge

We’re so excited to announce that Lyriko is a winner of the Apps for Class Challenge! The contest is a partnership between the Verizon Foundation and Innovate+Educate. We submitted Lyriko in collaboration with our non-profit partner Fill My Cup!, which shares our mission to help people reach their full potential through language and literacy education. With the financial support of the contest sponsors, we’ve been able to begin testing Lyriko with about 1,000 kids learning either English or Spanish in three middle schools in North and South Carolina: Ranson Middle School, Saluda Trail Middle School, and Sullivan Middle School. We’ve spent eight days with those kids so far and gotten some amazing feedback. Our favorite moment was when one Spanish teacher said her student who is always the least engaged absolutely loves Lyriko! We also loved hearing the kids singing the songs they were learning after they finished playing and before they started the next day. This whole program is an amazing opportunity for us, and we’re so grateful to be involved!

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