George Lucas Educational Foundation

Last updated
The George Lucas Educational Foundation
Named after George Lucas
PredecessorThe Media Tree
Formation1991;34 years ago (1991) [a]
Founders
Founded at Marin County, California [1]
Type Nonprofit
EIN  680065687
Headquarters Skywalker Ranch
San Rafael, California
Coordinates 38°03′49″N122°39′09″W / 38.063534°N 122.652402°W / 38.063534; -122.652402 [2]
Region served
United States
Products
  • Edutopia.org
  • Edutopia magazine
Website glef.org
  1. ↑ This date has been widely reported, but is debatable. See § Organizational history for details.

The George Lucas Educational Foundation is a nonprofit publisher that documents and publicizes exemplary K-12 education practices and programs, especially through video. [3] [4] [5] It does this primarily through the Edutopia website.

Contents

Organizational history

An organization named "The Media Tree" was founded on 4 August 1983 in Mill Valley, California by John Korty and others. It engaged in public relations for media content creators to the public of Marin County. [6] On 4 September 1990, the organization was renamed to "The George Lucas Educational Foundation". [7] The George Lucas Educational Foundation is widely reported to have been founded in 1991 [8] [9] by George Lucas and Steve Arnold. [1] Lucas originally planned for the foundation to develop technology for schools, but soon determined that schools were not interested or able to use this technology. [3] The foundation was one of the first philanthropies to invest in digital learning technology. [3]

The foundation does not usually provide grants.[ citation needed ] In 2006, Lucas donated $175 million to his alma mater the University of Southern California through the foundation. [10]

In 2010, the foundation had a $6 million annual budget and eighteen full-time staff. [9] In 2012, the Foundation significantly increased its assets when it received the majority of the proceeds from the $4.05 billion sale of Lucasfilm Ltd. to the Walt Disney Co. [3] [10]

Publications

About 1994, the Foundation began publishing a newsletter entitled Edutopia. [11] [1] In September 2004, the foundation launched a free glossy magazine, also titled Edutopia [12] [8] [1] [4] with educators as the target audience. [1] [13] From its inception, the print magazine had 85,000 subscribers. [12] [13] [8] By 2006, it has 100,000 subscribers. [14] [15] The print magazine was discontinued in Spring 2010. but the website continued as an online magazine. [1] [3]

Edutopia.org

The Edutopia.org website was started in 2002. [16] In 2009, the foundation launched an advertising campaign, leading the website to receive 300,000 readers per month in 2010, a 70% increase from 2009. [9] Robert Pondiscio described Edutopia.org as an inspirational resource for teachers, exuding "unabashed idealism and cheerful optimism". [9] The website features a video series titled "Schools That Work" of in-depth profiles of specific schools. [9] Edutopia.org includes interactive features including comments, blogs, and internet forums. [17]

Advocacy

The Foundation has sometimes included in its mission spreading best practices. [4] However, in practice, Edutopia is a nonprofit media company focused on satisfying and increasing its audience, not an educational reform advocacy organization strategizing to change educational systems. [9] [5] The foundation has endorsed as its core principles: "comprehensive assessment, integrated studies, project-based learning, social and emotional learning, teacher development, and technology integration". [17] [9] [18] Robert Pondiscio has been critical of Edutopia's tagline "what works in public education" given the lack of empirical support for these recommendations and uncertainty about how they were developed. [9]

Research findings

Edutopia increases teachers engagement with educational best practices by packaging it in an appealing multisensory video format. [19] Edutopia disseminates scientific/factual knowledge, technical knowledge, and practical wisdom, with a greater emphasis on practical wisdom, which includes judgments, values, and beliefs. [20] Many of the tips and strategies on Edutopia have not been systematically researched. [19]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Project-based learning</span> Learner centric pedagogy

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Riddell, Roger (May 23, 2019). "Common Cents: George Lucas Foundation details strategy of exploring innovation without being prescriptive". K-12 Dive. Retrieved January 29, 2025.
  2. ↑ "The George Lucas Educational Foundation" . D&B Hoovers. 10 December 2024. p. 1. ProQuest   1860789698 . Retrieved 29 January 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Ash, Katie (November 13, 2012). "George Lucas' promise to invest in education prompts speculation". Education Week. Vol. 32, no. 12. p. 10. ProQuest   1197616487.
  4. 1 2 3 "Free for the asking". Tech Directions. Vol. 65, no. 7. February 2006. pp. 30–31. ProQuest   218558695.
  5. 1 2 Block, Alex Ben (October 31, 2012). "George Lucas' 2010 philanthropy pledge". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 29, 2025.
  6. ↑ Dorr, Christopher; Korty, John (4 August 1983). "Articles of incorporation of The Media Tree".
  7. ↑ Korty, John; Mendelson, Dorothy (4 September 1990). "Certificate of amendment of The Media Tree".
  8. 1 2 3 Neil, Alissa (September 22, 2004). "George Lucas Educational Foundation launches Edutopia, a new magazine for a new world of learning". PR Newswire (Press release). The George Lucas Educational Foundation. Gale   A122354177.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Pondiscio, Robert (2010). "Edutopian vision". Education Next. Vol. 10, no. 3. ISSN   1539-9664.
  10. 1 2 Block, Alex Ben (October 31, 2012). "George Lucas will use Disney $4 billion to fund education". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 29, 2025.
  11. ↑ "Edutopia : the newsletter of the George Lucas Educational Foundation (33233451)". WorldCat . Retrieved January 29, 2025.
  12. 1 2 Colford, Paul D. (September 16, 2004). "Lucas rings bell for education mag". New York Daily News. p. 62. ProQuest   305911061.
  13. 1 2 Freedman, Samuel G. (August 31, 2005). "Like Aristotle with a light saber, Lucas urges hands-on learning: Taking a light saber to tired old teaching". The New York Times. Gale   A135634517 . Retrieved January 29, 2025.
  14. ↑ Access Intelligence (14 August 2006). "In January, "Edutopia" and Mcgraw-Hill will showcase good-looking schools". Media Industry Newsletter. 59 (31). ISSN   0024-9793. Wikidata   Q131936156.
  15. ↑ "An "endemic" June cover line that almost every 10-year-old will hate". Media Industry Newsletter. 59 (22): 8. 29 May 2006. ISSN   0024-9793. Wikidata   Q131936191.
  16. ↑ "edutopia.org archives". Wayback Machine . Retrieved January 29, 2025.
  17. 1 2 Michael Bruce Sherry; Robert Tremmel (October 2012). "English education 2.0: An analysis of websites that contain videos of English teaching". English Education. 45 (1): 35–70. doi:10.58680/ee201221574. ISSN   0007-8204. JSTOR   23365000. Wikidata   Q131935163.
  18. ↑ "edutopia.org home page" . Retrieved May 30, 2015.
  19. 1 2 Malin, Joel R. (June 1, 2020). "Mediated, Evidence-Informed Practice as Impact". International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership. 16 (8): 3-4. doi: 10.22230/ijepl.2020v16n8a955 . ISSN   1555-5062.
  20. ↑ Malin, Joel R.; Brown, Chris; Trubceac, Angela St (2018). "Going for Broke: A Multiple-Case Study of Brokerage in Education". AERA Open. 4 (2). doi: 10.1177/2332858418769297 . ISSN   2332-8584.

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