Learning Prizes & Rapid Innovation Awards

August 26, 2020

Dear Acton Owners and Guides,

To supercharge innovation and growth during this critical time, we are pleased to announce the Acton Learning Prizes & Rapid Innovation Awards!

1. Acton Learning Prizes celebrate learner-driven excellence and leadership in the Acton Network, inspired by the X-Prizes. Prizes up to $5,000.

2. Acton Rapid Innovation Awards support Acton owners/guides to develop rapid prototypes and innovations to make learner-driven communities simpler, better, and less expensive to form. Cash awards range from $500 to $5,000. 

We believe in the decentralized power of the Acton network, with individual owners and guides driving excellence and innovation from the bottom up. The goal of these prizes and awards is to celebrate excellence and incentivize Acton owners and guides to innovate and make learner-driven communities simpler, better, and less expensive to form.

Acton Learning Prizes

First, inspired by the X-Prizes, we are pleased to announce our initial Acton Learning Prizes!

Throughout the year, we will announce Acton Learning Prizes that recognize learner-driven excellence and leadership in specific areas, such as guide equipping, studio learning design, communication, parent equipping, and other areas. 

Announcing the first Acton Learning Prize

We are very pleased to announce the first Acton Learning Prize of $5,000 is awarded to... 

… Ascent: An Acton Academy for the launch of their Spark Studio Kit!

Congratulations Janita and Samantha for this exceptional contribution to the Acton Network. Your Spark Kit just changed the world.

Active Prizes — Announcing the Guide Onboarding Quest Prizes

The second group of Acton Learning Prizes will be awarded in a contest using the new Guide Onboarding Quest! 

The campus who earns the highest percentage completion per guide in the Guide Onboarding Quest by October 31, will win the following:

• $1,000 Third Place

• $1,500 Second Place 

• $2,500 First Place 

And a special Champion Prize for the first campus to earn IALDS Gold Status. 

• $5,000 Champion Prize 

To earn IALDS Gold Status, every guide in place longer than 6 months must complete the Guide Onboarding Quest plus 2 deliberate practices, with all veteran guides completing 6 deliberate practices. 

How to Compete and Win the Guide Onboarding Prizes

There are currently two ways to complete the Guide Onboarding Quest:

• Option 1 - Journey Tracker: If your school uses Journey Tracker, you can simply create a clone of the Guide Onboarding Template studio within your school, and have Guides complete the onboarding as learner-type users in that studio.

• Option 2 - Google Sheets: If your school does not use Journey Tracker, you can have each Guide make their own copy of the Guide Onboarding Gameboard Google Sheet to view challenges and track progress.

To participate in the contest for the prizes:

• Journey Tracker users: No need to do anything—just use the Guide Onboarding Template studio and your guides' data will be automatically loaded into the leaderboard!

• Google Sheets users: Please have each guide follow the instructions and fill in one row in this sign up Google Sheet. From there, simply continue working through your gameboard and your progress in the leaderboard will update automatically.

Guide Onboarding Quest Leaderboard

Here is a Guide Onboarding Quest Leaderboard to track progress across the Acton network! (A special thank you to Reed Youngblood for building this Leaderboard!)

We will periodically update the forums with the current leaderboard standings. Again, the contest closes on October 31. We will announce the prize winners shortly after the contest closes. 

Acton Rapid Innovation Awards

Second, inspired by economist Tyler Cowen’s Fast Grants for Emergent Ventures, Acton Rapid Innovation Awards support prototypes and innovations that make learner-driven communities simpler, better, and less expensive to form. Cash awards range from $500 to $5,000. Submissions open today.

Perhaps you have developed a prototype quest that you’ve been meaning to write up, edit, and publish. Perhaps you have a learning design innovation for MS accountability. Perhaps you have an idea for how to organize the first Acton City Cluster in your area. 

Acton Rapid Innovation Awards are for you! You can submit to receive a cash award to publish your quest, test your innovation, or launch your prototype.

How to Submit for an Acton Rapid Innovation Award

Below is how to apply for an Acton Rapid Innovation Award, the decision process, and your commitment to accountability if you accept the award. 

• Submit — Please tell us about yourself, the problem you’re trying to solve, your idea for a prototype, and the award amount for the first phase of the project. When ready, use the submission tools to complete your application.  

• Fast Decision — We commit to making decisions within 48 hours. We will send award funding within one week of your signing the award contract and commitment.  

• Accountability — You commit to be accountable to the Acton Network. You agree to share the results of your prototype via Acton Owners/Guides Forums within 3 months for feedback, succeed or fail.

Submission Areas or Design Your Own

Throughout the year, we will announce areas for Acton owners or guides to apply for awards. We also welcome rapid innovations of your own design. 

For fall 2020, we’re calling for award submissions for:

• Guide Onboarding Quest — tools or fixes for the new Guide Onboarding Quest. For instance, adding “how to” videos, providing critique templates, or creating ways to make it easier for learners to provide feedback.

• City Clusters — Design and implementation for the first Acton City Clusters, for cities with two or more Acton schools.

• Learning Design — New learning design innovations for Spark, ES, and MS.

• Socratic ROE tools — Design visual icons for Socratic Rules of Engagement for Spark pre-reading learners. 

• New Quest or Genre — For instance, develop an updated Build a Tribe Quest for virtual learning, or integrate Build a Tribe and Games Quest (from Wonder), or develop a new Writers Workshop or Communicators Genre.

• Other Ideas — We welcome rapid innovations of your own design! 

Submission Tools

To help you prepare your submission for an Acton Rapid Innovation Award, we give you three tools:

1. The Acton Rapid Innovation Award submission template and instructions;

2. A three-step process to develop a compelling prototype; and,

3. An excellent example submission. 

Apply Now

When you’re ready, please click the button below to submit your idea!

Congratulations, Good Luck, and Thank you!

Again, congratulations to Janita and Samantha at Ascent for the first $5,000 prize for their Spark Kit! 

Good luck in the Acton Learning Prize competition for the Guide Onboarding Quests. And we look forward to your submissions for the Acton Rapid Innovation Awards!

Best,

David Kirby
Acton Academy of Washington, DC

Jeff Sandefer
Acton Academy