Critical's Crowdfunding Efforts Plan to Bring Problem Solving Back to Education

July 31, 2014 - PRLog -- Virginia, United States - Critical (http://staycritical.com) launches a crowdfunding initiative (https://www.indiegogo.com/at/staycritical) that aims to raise money to develop the first scalable and reliable system to assess critical thinking, problem solving and presentation skills. Critical will create a hub of innovative learning content, collaboration, feedback and house a collection of the best work and solutions from disciplines and industries across the globe.

Planned with students, educators, professionals, and creatives in mind - individuals, as well as businesses and organizations will benefit from the features provided by Critical:

• Connect to a network of communities dedicated to personal fields of interest or study and participate in challenging project-based learning exercises and content that reinforces critical thinking and problem solving skills

• Leverage specialized algorithms that will help educators and business leaders obtain insights into the learning and skill development of an individual or group

• Join discussions that encourage sharing ideas and working together with peers and leaders to discover new perspectives and opinions

• Publish content for the community to evaluate and critique based on the work's quality, content mastery and presentation skills

"As a teacher I saw the appalling culture of creativity, critical thinking and problem solving and the distressingly low levels of passion and ambition for tackling complex problems while inside a 'high performing school.' I reflected on the impact of this alarming reality and the conversations around standardized reforms - on the world at large. What I saw as a teacher makes me sure we need an alternative to the testing dependent culture. The cumulative effect of this has dangerous implications for society's future. Deficiencies in education affect us all. Each one of us has a responsibility to value education and to participate actively. That's why we've chosen to crowdfund this project on Indiegogo. We're all critical - this project seeks to realize that," says Justin Lyon, Founder of Critical.

The campaign, which starts on July 30, is hoping to raise $100,000 by September 1 in order to fund the vision they have for the project.

About Justin Lyon and Critical:

Justin Lyon is a former high school math teacher and graduate student in Instructional Design and Technology at Virginia Tech. Critical looks towards being the largest online network of students, educators and professionals centered on project based learning content and projects submitted for feedback loop review then published.