| Named after | George Lucas |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | The Media Tree |
| Formation | 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 [2] |
Region served | United States |
| Products |
|
Chairman | George Lucas |
Vice Chairman | Steve Arnold |
Executive Director | Cindy Johanson |
| Website | glef |
| |
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.
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 to The Walt Disney Company [3] [10]
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]
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]
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]
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]
