Share the Knowledge Tour: SAP wants 1M students using its edtech software

Employees, students and professors from area universities including Villanova and Penn State welcomed “Around the World” biker, Max Peer, last month on his “Share the Knowledge Tour” stop at SAP‘s North America headquarters in Newtown Square.

SAP, the business software giant, is the lead supporter of the Interaction Design Foundation (IDF) and its “Share the Knowledge Tour” which aims to give every university student, designer and corporate employee free access to top-grade educational materials on improving technology design. Kicking off his journey at the SAPPHIRE Orlando business tech conference on May 13, Peer is biking and canoeing 35,000 miles in a four-year journey across the globe. During his six-month tour across North America, Peer is visiting universities and SAP offices to share the vision that education lifts people out of poverty and changes lives.

Greg McStravick, president of SAP US, welcomed Peer to campus and applauded the effort to put educational resources are accessible to everyone.

“We’re thrilled to cheer on Max the Biker and support him as he bikes through the Philadelphia area and across the country raising awareness for education,” he said. “Education is the single most powerful way to lift people out of poverty and change lives and it is one of our core values at SAP.”

SAP software is used in the classrooms of over 1,350 institutions across the globe, said Ann Rosenberg, head of SAP’s Global University Alliances

“SAP University Alliances believes everyone should learn, apply and share knowledge to build the next generation of industry professionals,” Rosenberg explained. “Our partnership with IDF helps us maximize our vision that technology resources should be readily available to anyone, no matter their circumstances.”

University Alliances already has nearly a quarter million students using SAP in their university coursework, and is nearing the goal of having one million students exposed to SAP software by the end of 2013.

During the event, Max shared the story of his journey and how SAP and the IDF are working together to transform lives through education.

“When IDF and I first sat together to discuss the concept of the ‘Share the Knowledge Tour’, we realized we had a joint personal mission: to ensure education is available to all,” he explained.

This isn’t the first time Max has supported a global cause to help support underprivileged populations. In fact, Max has cleared landmines from agricultural locations to create sustainable land for local farmers and distributed toys and educational materials to school children in need in Southeast Asia, to cite two examples. The tour, then, is an incredible opportunity for Peer, IDF and SAP to let people know quality educational materials on interactive design and Massive Open Online Courses are available at no cost via IDF and openSAP.

Follow Peer’s adventures and track his progress here.