Pope Francis officially launched Scholas.Social at a dedicated event in Vatican City. Scholas.Social is a new global, multi-religious and multi-cultural network that aims to connect schools through collaboration, encounter and shared interest.
The platform enables students and teachers across the globe to share projects and learn from each other. They can ask for help which can be given in different ways, from sharing the project over monetary or resource donations to volunteering in the project. This way, Scholas.Social takes a page from the crowdfunding playbook but adds non-monetary ways to support, as well.
Scholas was conceived last year when Pope Francis gave out the task to create an online platform that would transform the way students learn and is modelled after two projects he ran as the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. The project was handled by software development company Globant which was responsible for the front-end development, Line64 which was responsible for the back-end and Google which integrated its educational tools Google Apps for Education into the network.
Besides uploading and sharing or supporting school projects, users of the platform can earn badges for their help and participation. The general mission behind the Scholas project is to foster a culture of encounter by introducing a different concept of education.
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TECHNOLOGY FOR EDUCATION: Scholas presented at the Vatican Scholas.Social, its digital platform to connect schools world wide | Press Release