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An Apple for the iPad? Technology & Education Start-Ups

This article is more than 10 years old.

Transformational is how some describe edX, an online education platform that will make Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) courses available to everyone. Inevitable is probably a better term. As textbooks go digital, more testing is conducted on-line and mobile applications democratize education tools, education start-ups are on the rise. With billions at stake, venture capitalists will tell you, that’s no surprise. “Education is definitely a space we’re actively looking at,” says RTP Ventures managing director Jalak Jobanputra.

iPads can be a distraction to learning (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That’s good news for Slader, a New York-based education start-up that is focused on helping teens with math and science homework. The site provides answers and explanations to problems in over 285 textbooks used in American classrooms. Interestingly, other students supply all answers and explanations. It’s “study hall on-line,” says Slader Co-Founder Kyle Gerrity.

He and pal Scott Kolb conceived of Slader in 2010, after reminiscing about their high school days in San Diego when they struggled with math homework. They recalled how a favorite teacher felt frustrated when a student struggled with homework. “There had to be a way where students could access the problems and solutions at home,” Gerrity says.

Noticing how actively kids were sharing photos and updates on Facebook and Twitter, Gerrity and Kolb “wondered why education hadn’t caught up with this technology with this level of communication.” The two created Slader to be a platform where students convene to help one another by asking and providing solutions. They launched the site in 2011. Gerrity and Kolb's team ensure quality and oversight. Users vote on content that has been submitted and Slader-approved. “It’s the first crowd-sourced approach to education on-line,” says Slader’s site, offering “an alternative to expensive tutors and costly after-school programs.”

That Slader is free makes it attractive for users. As a for-profit company that is eyeing investor capital - not so much. Slader has chosen to veer away from the traditional non-profit course education start-ups tread. It has bootstrapped from friends and family. It is considering how to integrate a revenue model that will continue to allow the site to be free, but also put the enterprise in the black. When it first launched, it employed a freemium model that charged a modest monthly sum between $2 and $4 for viewing more than two solutions a day. Yet, not satisfied that the site wasn’t seeing the number of repeat users desired, they dropped it – and the obsessive focus on numbers. Today, the site is entirely free.

Since January 2012, Gerrity and Kolb have been focused on increasing users and creating “stickiness” – getting students to come back. Currently Slader has 68,000 users. It’s generating modest earnings through “bounties” that allow Slader users to offer monetary rewards for help with a particular problem. The site is also experimenting with pay-per-use “live” tutoring. This Gerrity and Kolb found has provided them greater insight into the “psychology” of students – where they’re struggling and what their learning habits are. This data, Jobanputra points out (not about Slader but in general), is where the value lies.

As e-learning becomes mainstream, managing partner at California-based Velocity Venture Capital Jack Crawford notes that schools and, in particular, universities are pouring tremendous resources into technology. He notes that the rate of adoption of mobile devices in particular has sparked a huge “growth market opportunity,” that schools – and the companies creating those devices can no longer ignore. Crawford believes that the value of education start-ups lies in licensing and partnerships. No single business model has emerged in the space that still prefers to rely on government and foundation grants. Slader, along with Coursera, Tutor, Flatworld Knowledge, is one of several education start-ups experimenting on the for-profit side.

Whether their respective experiments will yield results remains to be seen. What is clear is that these educational start-ups are transforming the education space. As students flock to sites like Slader where they can learn, as one student from Mt. Zion Christian Schools in Manchester, NH told me, “at my own time and pace,” teaching has shifted from classroom to cyberspace. No longer is the teacher the go-to or ultimate source. Among iPads, smartphones and the Web, they’ve become maestro, working with instruments to school. Some see this as a threat, while others don’t see it as a change. Eric Clark, CEO of Quincy Tutoring, notes that iPads and smartphones are still tools in the same way textbooks are. “Tools are useful if used correctly and have meaning behind it,” he says.  “Teachers give students that meaning.”

As we kick off National Teacher Appreciation Week today, that’s an appropriate conclusion, and one that is not emphasized enough. iPads and iPhones are definitely cool and, more than likely, will bring big returns. But the human touch the teacher, whomever that may be – mother, father, or in my case Mrs. Weiner from the third grade, remain invaluable. Teachers rule.