Edshelf is saved! Crowdfunding through Kickstarter saves the day #saveedshelf

Edshelf is socially curated directory of education technology. It's a discovery engine of websites, mobile apps, desktop programs, and electronic products for teaching and learning. 

https://edshelf.com/

I have personally found Edshelf incredibly useful and created themed collections of tools and apps for the free open learning event Bring Your Own Devices for Learning (BYOD4L). The BYOD4L event ran over 5 days and was open to educators and students to learn together how we can use our own mobile devices for learning and teaching. Each day had a themed topic. These were: connecting, communicating, curating, collaborating and creating

For each of the topics I created a collection of app and tools that would be useful to 'connect' with, 'communicate' with, 'curate', 'collaborate' or 'create' with. Links to the collections were posted on the relevant pages of our BYOD4L Wordpress site. An example is below. You can find my other collections here: https://edshelf.com//profile/suebecks

However...

Edshelf is free for educators but as with all tools is not free to maintain. Mike Lee the co-founder said "When I started edshelf, I didn’t want to take money from educators. I believed - and still believe - that it is possible to have an ethical and self-sustaining business by charging edtech companies instead"

When Mike announced that he was going to have to close Edshelf down what happened next came as a big surprise. The community of educators rallied round with messages via Twitter about how useful Edshelf is and #saveedshelf became a mantra. Suggestions from educators that crowdfunding might be an option kept coming. It was at this point that Mike decided to take a chance and see if a Kickstarter project could save the day.

The call

I and many others rose to the call and made a small pledge of $10 dollars. Others pledged more. The great news is that Mike has met his target! There is still time today to support this campaign. Be part of a community that has helped to make a difference - Visit the Kickstarter page now! Share your support via Twitter using the hashtag #saveedshelf.

Great acts are made up of small deeds. - Lao Tzu