Kai Frazier is a Black educator turned entrepreneur.
Motivated by her experience of homelessness as a teen, as well as her time as a teacher, Frazier aims to close the educational opportunity and technology gaps for students in under-resourced communities. Her company, Kai XR, offers a learning platform that integrates metaverse technologies like AI and VR into the classroom in a safe way.
The platform is being used by kids in grades 5-8 in schools and in juvenile detention centers, to take virtual college tours, learn about advances in science like CRISPR, and teach kids about historical figures like the late Dr. Huey P. Newton of the Black Panther Party.
“Kai XR brings the future of education to today’s classrooms, “said Frazier. “Our mission is to narrow the digital divide by giving students hands-on opportunities to in-demand technologies, preparing them for future careers.”
Before creating Kai XR, Frazier worked with several museums such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as well as the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, specializing in digital strategy and content creation. Kai has served as an entrepreneur in residence at the Kapor Center for Social Impact Techstars’ Social Impact cohort sponsored by Cox Enterprises, and T-Mobile’s Immersive Accelerator. Her work has been featured by Forbes, The U.S Department of Education, NBC, the Steve Harvey Show &
Fraser channeled her experience as a middle school history teacher, citing the life-changing and positive impact her teachers had on her as the catalyst for her own teaching career to create the revolutionary tech teaching platform Kai XR.
Teaching vulnerable kids, Fraser became acutely aware of the funding and opportunities gap facing kids across America. Since 2010, 50% of schools have stopped taking field trips, mostly due to a lack of funding. Fraser began exploring the possibilities of using VR to expand classroom opportunities and close the educational opportunity and technology gaps for students in under-resourced communities.
Transparent about her lack of technology background and the difficulties this has entailed in building Kai XR, Fraser sold her house and car and moved from D.C. to the San Francisco area to learn everything she could about tech while building her company.
Kai XR, the online learning platform, integrates metaverse technologies like AI and VR into the classroom in a safe way. It’s being used by kids in grades 5-8 in schools, as well as juvenile detention centers, to take virtual college tours, learn about advances in science like CRISPR, and teach kids about historical figures like the late Dr. Huey P. Newton of the Black Panther Party.
In the app’s January 2024 learning activities, kids can discover Martin Luther King Jr Day, uncovering his iconic speeches, significant milestones and the importance of his vision for equality, as well as celebrate First Lady Michelle Obama’s Birthday by exploring the Obama portraits in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
As STEM and STEAM professions are projected to grow two times faster than all other sectors in coming years, it is often students in under-resourced communities who end up unprepared for these opportunities. Kai XR is changing this. Working with students in underserved communities, the educational system improves technical literacy while addressing access and infrastructure barriers. Kai XR works on any network, allowing kids with limited or no Wi-Fi access at home to use its program.
In the classroom, Kai XR can be used by teachers to take kids on virtual field trips and give kids the autonomy to create their own worlds, be it a planetary system or an underwater scene, in the virtual maker space. In 2024, the app will introduce collaborative maker spaces, allowing students to work together on virtual projects.
Before creating Kai XR, Fraser worked with several museums, such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, specializing in digital strategy and content creation. Fraser served as an entrepreneur in residence at the Kapor Center for Social Impact Techstars’ Social Impact cohort sponsored by Cox Enterprises and T-Mobile’s Immersive Accelerator. Her work has been featured by Forbes, The U.S Department of Education, NBC, the Steve Harvey Show & more. She currently serves as a global child safety and education advisor at the XR Safety Initiative.
Kai XR’s partners already include the Smithsonian, Oculus, the Department of Education, and Samsung Next, as well as a partnership in Texas with T-Mobile and juvenile detention centers across the state. Students in the centers are using Kai XR to improve their technical literacy, while also learning about their possible career pathways.
Kai XR has a large partnership with Birmingham City Schools, and following talks with Atlanta Public Schools, the platform is looking to expand into Atlanta this year. Fraser spoke at Dekalb County School District’s Tech Symposium over the summer.
