Today’s typical classroom really is “old school”: a teacher at the front, students in desks, notes on the board. It’s a stereotype that is ripe for the innovation that edtech enterprise can offer.
In Ontario, provincial education spending tops $29 billion annually. It’s a big pie, and three members of the 2017 cohort of the Communitech ODX Ventures program want a slice of it.
ApplyBoard simplifies the process of gaining admission to post-secondary institutes; Flyte Studios uses gamified learning as a classroom tool to engage students; and Knowledgehook improves student outcomes through predictive analysis.
All three earned up to $50,000 in support from the ODX Ventures program, a national initiative co-founded by Communitech. Since 2016, 18 startups have shared nearly $1 million through the program, as they explore open datasets released by all levels of government.
The edtech landscape is huge, says Shaun Iles, CEO of Flyte Studios, with “many innovative startups in the education market with fresh approaches to education that will have a great role to play in the futures of Canadian students.”
The Hamilton-based startup has created the UnderstudyEdu platform, with its educational games and interactive worksheets, so educators may identify students who are excelling or who are at risk.
Iles says there are some obstacles to tech solutions in schools. For example, some educators “are using multiple learning platforms in the same school, and not properly investing funds where it counts.” He believes a new wave of tech-savvy educators will transform “outdated” approaches and speed adoption of new technologies.
Educators will gain greater insights once “Canadian provinces and school boards begin to realize the benefits that edtech brings to classroom performance and student competency.”
Kitchener-based Knowledgehook specifically targets teachers and students who will be key to Canada’s tech success: the mathies. Knowledgehook uses open source data to guide teachers to prepare their students for better math outcomes, by assessing common deficiencies and gaps in instruction, based on previous standardized assessments.
Knowledgehook frees teaching staff from the laborious analysis of past outcomes by using open data about provincial standards and historical results, and offers an assessment of best practices that are classroom-ready. Knowledgehook has already partnered with school boards in Toronto, Mississauga, Waterloo Region and London.
Kitchener-based ApplyBoard steps beyond the classroom, to expedite the process of applying to post-secondary institutions in the U.S. and Canada with a one-stop application portal. ApplyBoard, with offices in Nepal, China, India and Vietnam, has partnered with more than 1,000 North American post-secondary institutions, to expedite international student applications.
Canada’s reputation for top universities makes it a major destination for international students, says Mitra Ghiyasian, Business Strategist with ApplyBoard. But Canadian institutions, to attract the best candidates, need edtech solutions to be competitive.
Ghiyasian agrees with Shaun Iles that much could be done to innovate the education sector: “Education is an old industry that hasn’t seen as many technological changes as many other industries have . . . Canada has the right mentality and the drive to make education accessible.”
Ghiyasian says the ODX Ventures program helped ApplyBoard to access datasets to mature its platform: “ODX has contributed to ApplyBoard immensely by allowing the company to launch a new project, in turn making the company’s platform significantly more efficient and thus more impactful.”
Iles says Communitech ODX funding helped Flyte Studios “reach the Canadian French market a few years earlier than we expected. Since we completed our project, we are already in talks with French immersion schools in Ontario.”
Open data is at the core of innovation for these edtech companies, opening opportunities by offering insights. And this portal to the open data landscape is waiting for the next big idea at Communitech. Visit communitech.ca/data to learn more.
