Startup ideas Paul Graham wants to fund
Posted by Aaron Lovelace
I just caught an interesting post over at the EduFire blog which essentially says that Paul Graham would be interested [in investing] in their company. I really have no idea if he would be interested in EduFire, but their post did get me interested in checking Paul’s blog post on the topic.
Down at #13, he mentions “Online Learning”:
13. Online learning. US schools are often bad. A lot of parents realize it, and would be interested in ways for their kids to learn more. Till recently, schools, like newspapers, had geographical monopolies. But the web changes that. How can you teach kids now that you can reach them through the web? The possible answers are a lot more interesting than just putting books online.
One route would be to start with test prep services, for which there’s already demand, and then expand into teaching kids more than just how to score high on tests. Another would be to start with games and gradually make them more thoughtful. Another, particularly for younger kids, would be to let them learn by watching one another (anonymously) solve problems.
I would argue that Speekit fits nicely into this framework- e-learning as it stands now (with the exception of a few innovative new companies), is still stuck in version 1.0 where learning platforms mostly consist of texts copied onto some type “LMS” or Learning Management System. I envision Learning v2 as involving all of the media types that the web has to offer, not just text on a page.
Several new and innovative companies are attacking this head-on. EduFire, Tutor.com, GlobalScholar, and TutorVista are pairing tutors with learners in live video conference, LiveMocha is enabling students to teach each other, and Mango Languages is using an online flashcard approach. Software like Rosetta Stone and Instant Immersion are the 800 pound gorillas in the room as far as language training goes, but still offer a fairly outdated mode of delivery– primarily the CD-ROM.
What ALL of these companies lack, however, is a strong pedagogy. I would venture a guess that most of these companies are being built by by technophiles and business people with a flair for education. I wonder if they sought-out advice of field experts, in this case respected career educators and researchers, before jumping full-on into the education industry. If they did, in many cases, it is not apparent (especially for some of the currently hip ’social language learning’ sites).
Kevin and I realized when embarking on the current version of this project that while we have had experience tutoring and teaching others, we were far from experts in education. Because of this, we recruited a small team of internationally respected foreign language professors who we tasked with coming up with a strong pedagogy for our service.
The relationship has been working beautifully thus far, and we hope to share the fruits of our labors with you all soon. The teaching methods we have built into our service are based in science and have a proven track record as the most efficient way for students to acquire foreign languages. Not being a know-it-all has been proving very rewarding indeed!
What we’ve been up to lately
Posted by Aaron Lovelace
We’ve had a lot of momentum building for us lately. Kevin and I have been working on expanding our network of lesson designers / educators as well as building strong relationships with institutions that also recognize the potential for our exciting e-learning platform. We have some great institutions supporting us so far and we are working on gaining traction with more of them. If there is anything I have learned from the past, it is that support from established players or lack thereof can be the crucial element which can make or break a young company.
In terms of development, the platform is coming along at a steady pace as well. We plan to launch our initial service early this coming fall in Seattle. Stay tuned!
