
'Edutainment' Needs Entrepreneurs - peter123
http://www.forbes.com/enterprisetech/2008/12/18/mitra-edutainment-entrepreneur-tech-enter-cx_sm_1219mitra.html
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russell
The article starts off with the premise that good edutainment software is
needed to augment the abilities of intellectually challenged teachers. It then
wanders off into promoting the cellphone as a delivery mechanism for third
world countries. As a whole, I don't think the article says anything.
Inexpensive laptops are a far better delivery mechanism, and if we look at our
own educational problems, nearly everyone has a computer available.

However, the premise that there is an opportunity to provide supplemental
educational materials is valid. If you have looked at your kids textbooks,
they are mostly complete junk, almost comic books in content. What I see as
needed are textbook supplements/replacements. For example, instead of a one
page description of the Roman Forum with a couple of pictures, how about a 15
to 30 minute interactive video game that would allow the kid to explore the
forum and its time, environs, and culture. Accompany it with a Wikipedia-like
text that would allow deeper exploration of the topics.

I see entrepreneurial opportunities, but also a place for a collaborative
effort like Wikipedia. If the initial efforts have to be monetized, a
subscription plan for parents would be a good place to start.

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gsaines
I'm starting a educational software company right now, and while I think she's
on track with her criticisms of educational effectiveness (let's face it, I
went to public schools and learned veritably nothing), it seems like a
supremely silly way to go about proving the market need. Who is going to buy
these educational products again? Parents? And who do parents listen to? In
our experience, parents listen to the teachers. So it doesn't look like a
valid marketing strategy to start and educational company by saying "teachers
are stupid and can't teach." Our goal in marketing ourselves is to give
teachers some degree of control, but avoid the stultifying effects of "fun
classroom technology" by mainly targeting self-motivated learners. Who knows
if we'll make it to profitability, but having just attended a conference with
over 500 teachers, pitching on the basis of teacher stupidity wouldn't have
made any sales.

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russell
I don't think you should overlook parents. Professional parents are always
looking for things to help their children. My son was very intelligent but had
ADD, so it was very difficult to keep him engaged with standard materials.
Administrators often tried to put him in the slower classes instead of
challenging him. I would certainly have subscribed to a service that engaged
him.

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sdurkin
" Professional parents are always looking for things to help their children.
My son was very intelligent but had ADD, so it was very difficult to keep him
engaged with standard materials."

"The problem comes when parents use direct methods: when they are able to use
their own wealth or power as a substitute for their children's qualities.

Parents will tend to do this when they can. Parents will die for their kids,
so it's not surprising to find they'll also push their scruples to the limits
for them. Especially if other parents are doing it." - PG, After Credentials

This is why the Princeton Review, Kaplan, etc. make fortunes. Test prep is
probably the easiest to make, most profitable type of education software.

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tokenadult
One example of edutainment entrepreneurship from an earlier era is the Blaster
series of products by Davidson Associates.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Math_Blaster>

The founders of that company cashed out at just the right moment and now fund
a foundation promoting better education for gifted children.

<http://www.davidsongifted.org/>

Now that software has developed technologically a lot since that era, there
are presumably new opportunities that would be similarly lucrative for a
start-up.

~~~
DaniFong
Grockit has been championing this idea of massively multiplayer online
learning. I think it's pretty interesting: the idea is that you're encouraged
to help teach your peers. But I think the implementation is totally off: right
now it's just about studying for the GMAT. What a waste.

By contrast, the communities of Wikipedia, Flickr, TopCoder, FOSS, DeviantArt
and a fair number of forums, all encourage participation in a _genuine sense,_
and the communities produce quite a lot of encouragement just by themselves.
People get very, very good there.

~~~
dhimes
_it's just about studying for the GMAT_

It might be a good place to start and then build out. Teaching smarter kids is
more forgiving, in that the smarter they are, the more they can recover from
your mistakes.

It is also helpful to have a concrete, measurable goal. Aiming for the score
on a standardized test keeps it simple. They don't have to worry about the
more 'fuzzy' aspects of learning, such as conceptual models of the material.

So it may make some sense.

[edit: fixed a typo]

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Prrometheus
>"The challenge in this case would be to deliver educational software on very
low-end cellphones that cost $10 to $25.

Challenge of course presents opportunities. The challenge is to understand the
nature of addictive games, and the opportunity is to create educational games
using that knowledge. "

There are no addictive games for low end cell phones.

