Augmented Reality has seen tremendous growth in how it is being used across industries. From manufacturing companies using the technology to find inventory in warehouses, to social media filters, it has found its way in the multiple facets of our lives. In an effort to find application in learning and education, TechRow Fund will lead a series of augmented reality programming in Harlem schools. Using our immersion and makers models, we will design programs that explore how the technology can complement learning and teach students how to be Augmented Reality creators.

VR is our flagship program and we have made tremendous strides in how it is being used in schools across New York City. We will continue to grow and expand the application to catalyze learning in STEAM subjects. Using our immersion and makers models, students will not only develop their cognitive abilities to be intelligent consumers, but also creators of the technology.

When students build games, they become the writers, artists, designers and developers of their own interactive stories. The interdisciplinary elements of video ame design builds on the very skills that are necessary to advance our students’ proficiency in literacy skills and beyond. Building a bridge to a part of their lives that is familiar while focusing on skills that enables students to be intelligent creators and consumers is what makes this pursuit impactful. TechRow Fund’s expansion into this initiative made sense in our efforts catalyze next generation education.

A robotics education has tremendous benefits for students. It has a unique ability to develop analytical and team-building skills, in addition to supporting a strong engineering foundation. It was a natural progression for our programming to expand in this area. Robotics education is a pre- cursor to artificial intelligence and a preparation catalyst for high growth job opportunities in the economy. Many of the communities we serve will be deeply impacted by job displacement as a result of these technologies.

In alignment with our mission to lead initiatives that shift the paradigm in under-represented communities from consumers to creators, we launched a program that combined the arts and technology through music. We used songwriting as a device to develop and improve literacy skills, while combining the technical components that go into producing music. Students used cloud-based software and learned the business side of streaming to create their own music.

TechRow Fund collaborates with schools and non-profits to build the capacity of education and program providers to leverage new technology in the classroom. One of our core pillars is to enable the teacher to empower the student. We lead professional development workshops and trainings that focus on building educator capacity to transform classrooms for more robust curricula and after-school programs.