Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will be giving $10,000 grants to Newark teachers who come up with innovative programs as a part of the $100 million fund he set up with the City of Newark last year.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker announced the grants on his Facebook page this morning, signaling what the city hopes is beginning of a long-running process to build a Web tech presence, and improve teaching into the city’s school system.
The grants will come from a $600,000 two year program created from the $100 million matching gift campaign Zuckerberg announced last year on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Newark is one of many urban centers plagued by high dropout rates, but peppered with promising charter school networks and education upstarts that are trying to fix the problem.
This new grant program may be good news for
vendors of education technology
. The booming industry is filled with young entrepreneurs who are trying manically to introduce social Web-based learning into programs across the country.
Companies that make mobile apps, social networks dedicated just to teachers and students, as well as live video teaching platforms are just a few of the thousands of startup ideas being incubated by venture capitalists or fueled by angel investors.
Facebook image comes from Douglas Crets’ news feed
