What is Educational Entrepreneurship?

Kate Allison of First Focus
Demos the brain-wave copter!

How can small organizations create amazing learning environments?  That was the conversation Tech EdVentures had with Jim Connor of First Focus Learning Systems in Mountain View, CA.

First Focus is a very cool place.  They do things like teaching a whole year of reading skills in six months.  Or fast-tracking English language fluency for kids that are newly arrived to the US.  It's amazing stuff.  

Tech EdVentures and First Focus share some powerful core beliefs about how education should work.  For instance?

It's all about individual teaching.
Many schools are run for efficiency, teaching to the middle of the class or moving kids along at a pace which is manageable for 35 students at once.  We believe that the best learning experiences are custom-tailored to the needs of one student at at time.  Our vision puts kids at the center, and we individualize the learning experience for each and every student.

Exciting content motivates kids.
When kids engage in a hands-on activity, they are excited and motivated to work hard.  First Focus does this by incorporating some very neat high-tech toys which spark discussion, generate writing prompts and energize kids to achieve.  Similarly, Tech EdVentures builds every class session as a project-based learning experience, in which kids see, touch and interact with something that they built.  The result is excitement, motivation, curiosity and persistence in the face of challenges.  The results are incredible.

Kids need to move at their own pace.

Many kids who under-perform do so because their classes move too slowly!  By allowing kids to move on instead of waiting for the group, success builds upon success and kids maximize their learning.

One final idea is at the core of educational entrepreneurship:  

Small, nimble institutions will always teach better than large bureaucracies.  

I'll offer Tech EdVentures as an example.  Our most important focus is on the learning experience of individual students.  We update and modify our content and methods constantly.  And we are immediately responsive to the the feedback of our students.  

This kind of entrepreneurial approach to learning is the difference between good enough and best of class.  We applaud First Focus, and hope that others will join us in truly, boldly, teaching out of the box.

Allen