Mission & history

Since 1999, IDEA has worked at the intersection of technology and education. Our nonprofit organization’s goal is to boost linguistic, scientific, and cultural literacy. Our programs often have a direct impact on learners, but we also aim to inspire and inform the work of other developers and educators with our innovative examples and implementations. 
In the late 1990s, that meant publishing interactive CDs about art conservation. In the 2000s, we created Web-based interactive museum exhibits and concept maps to explore information. Today, we’re developing free and affordable mobile apps and games that promote vocabulary expansion for learners of all ages.

Mobile apps for literacy

IDEA is currently focused on increasing the functional vocabularies of both readers and nonreaders through two engaging mobile apps:

OtherWordly, an arcade game that challenges the player to overcome obstacles and match related words with the help of trusty sidekicks.
In Other Words, an unabridged reference app that encourages users to explore 500,000+ terms, as well as usage examples from published written works.
Linguabase, an AI-enhanced R&D project to build a knowledge graph of English, enhanced with culture inclusivity and guidance of inappropriate word pairings.