Socrait won the Future of Education Technology Conference’s Pitchfest 2.0 for its AI voice assistant, which automates the collection of certain student data.
More than 40 edtech startups competed in Pitchfest 2.0. Entries were judged by a panel of K12 superintendents, principals and other senior administrators.
Socrait’s AI assistant app doesn’t record audio but instead listens to what a teacher says in class and converts it into actionable data about student behavior, attendance and other metrics. It can also send notifications to parents.
Socrait’s creators aimed to alleviate teachers’ administrative burdens and reduce the amount of work they have to do after school. “We’re asking teachers to do more after school in the form of admin work, and a lot of that work requires teachers to pull from memory what happened during the school day,” said Jim Clor, Socrait’s vice president of sales and marketing.
Socrait picks out key moments, such as a teacher praising a student or asking a student to settle down or put their phone away, and converts the data into dashboards. “We want teachers to feel like they can concentrate on what they love to do, which is teach,” Clor added.
Pitchfest contestants must serve the K12 market and be delivered primarily through a mobile application, web-based platform or electronic hardware. The startups could have raised no more than $8 million in funding and have a website that highlights their product.
The six finalists pitched their products in person before a six-judge panel on Monday at FETC in Orlando. The other five finalists (as described by the companies themselves) were:
Savannah Math Labs: The company offers an approach to teaching statistics that engages and motivates students through labs, which are mini-projects that allow students to explore and manipulate data sets and data simulations. Labs are designed to build skills that are useful in the “real world,” to prepare students for internships, jobs or research projects on campus.
Question Well: An AI-driven design studio that guides teachers in creating high-quality and coherent curriculum. It is designed to help teachers put pedagogical theory into practice. Lessons created in Question Well can be exported to many learning management systems.
Reframe XR: This mixed reality platform blends the physical and digital worlds so students can explore, discuss, and connect ideas in their classrooms. Teachers can efficiently lead immersive, collaborative lessons using spatial content.
Yourway Learning: These AI solutions let teachers differentiate instruction, inspire curiosity and engage learners while lightening routine, administrative tasks. Yourway Learning allows administrators to support teachers with instructional coherence and alignment with district priorities.
Zedbud: This platform unifies school communication, student collaboration, and family engagement in one secure, FERPA-compliant system. Zedbud is designed to keep communication contextual, searchable, teacher-managed and visible to administrators, who maintain control, even when staff turnover happens.
