Ideas on Education

An important element of this blog is the service for ideas and their growth. I have always thought that creating something from nothing sounded exciting, and later found out that was what entrepreneurship was. I watched my brother leave school, fail a few times, and then strike gold, so seeing the pros and cons of your own idea coming to life was valuable. And it still is. I have always qualified myself as a builder and not an idea-er. I feel (as well as many others in the world, I imagine) that if I just had a great idea I would be a successful entrepreneur or I would drop out and grow it or etc. etc. etc. You get the just. This can mark the turning of the page! I am now an idea-er who can build. This is the first step to brainstorming ideas to grow.

Education

The first area that I want to explore ideas for growth is within the education space. As mentioned in my foundation post (read here), I grew up with a librarian father and speech pathologist mother, both centered around helping others through knowledge and wisdom. I have always been interested in the same type of facilitation. Education is simply the distribution of ideas and information to others. It serves as a communication platform to help students of the world (both young and old) to learn about something they want to know. In the growing age of AI, knowing the facts of something is being commoditized, so we will start with some questions about education, where it is going, and where I think I can make an impact. Let's start there.

Questions

We will start with a list and filter down:

• How can education maintain the human element of learning from others?
• What can a robot/LLM/agent do that I can't do when teaching someone?
• What can a human do that a robot/LLM/agent can't do when teaching someone?
• How is self-learning done right?
• How is self-learning supposed to be done?
• Who has mastered self-learning?
• How do most people learn?
• What are most people studying for?
• Who is leading the education space right now?
• What customers are being overserviced and who is being underserved?
• Are most education products non-profits or for-profits?
• How is the public/private school ratio evolving across the United States?
• What markets across the world are developing as education hubs?

This was a quick brain spit and it may grow or shrink as I continue the research for this post. There are three themes that I see within these questions: (1) human to AI, what changes and what will be left behind, (2) learning styles & how people learn today, (3) the education market. OK, a good start for acclimation to the industry. I think the best way to proceed is to start with number three, diving into the market. Once we understand the market, answer the human to AI comparison, and finally learn more about learning. Make sense? I hope so.

The Education Market

There are four main groups within the education space: Early Childhood Education (ECE), K-12 Education, Post-Secondary Education, and Workforce/Talent Education. Each of these spaces is radically different in terms of revenue generation, funding access, and operational function. Typically, the amount of regulation increases working down the ladder, with workforce training having significantly less security barriers than ECE. Historically, growth and funding has funnelled into ECE and K-12 education from the government, accounting for >80% of overall business. Services have won over products with integration in the classroom in the U.S., but true education innovation has come outside the U.S. China is the clear winner right now.

Some example companies and what they do within the space:

• Codemao. This is the number one ranked education company at the moment, operating out of China. They use a gamified version of visual learning to connect with students with programming and AI development. Primarily serves ECE and K-12.
• Stepful. Primarily serves the workforce training market with some penetration into post-secondary education. Helps people access healthcare training programs and gain certifications for work.
• 10K Coffees. Primarily serves workforce markets. A mentorship website to help early talent and existing workers to feel community across the workplace.
• Clever. This is the infrastructure winner within education at the moment. They host materials and platforms for teachers across the world to communicate with students and operate within the classroom. Primarily serves K-12 with some ECE.
• Workera. A skill-measurement platform to validate online skill generation through certifications. A leader in the implementation of AI into the validation of workers' ability. Serves the workforce training market mostly.

With these few ideas, it is clear the type of companies that operate within this space. An important element of the education space has been the shift from the COVID funding (ESSER) boom to the current funding cuts. Schools and students across the U.S. overaccessed and overpurchased products in 2020-2022 and have been filtering out of them in the last few years. This has significantly impacted the development of the industry.

Learning Styles

There is no doubt that the way that people learn has changed dramatically. The coming of applications like TikTok and short form content in general has decreased attention spans for everyone, especially the younger K-12 crowd. More often than not, children younger than 5 can operate a video game menu/Instagram better than a book. Sad, but true. So the way to engage students across the board needs to be quicker and more gamified so it can capture the dopamine that is being distributed right now to their tablet or phone.

I also think that learning styles have moved from a strictly in-person, on paper style to one that heavily relies on systems. In college I used Canvas, high school Powerschool and Schoology, and before Google Classroom. Each system was set up in a similar format that students know how to easily use. There is a standardized "education" look online, and I feel a barbell distribution in where people think it will move forward. There is a group of parents and students that are advocating for a reversal of the current course, a focus on relying on the classics of paper and pen and the textbooks. Then there is the majority who see AI and the internet as a facilitation device perfect for students and teachers alike across the world. I'm not sure where I will land as of now. But, no doubt, a product would have to play into both of these.

Finally, I want to weave in a bit of my experience educating. I helped tutor students with ACT, SAT, PSAT, and AP tests throughout high school and learned a lot through it. I also help students in clubs & orgs at Ohio State with recruiting, specifically in consulting cases. In my experience, certain students just get things faster than others, but it is hard to pinpoint a specific trait or ability about those students. The ones that I have seen succeed the most have been the ones who can consistently show up, be willing to fail, and learn from those failures. If this system could be gamified correctly, someone could win the spaces, and probably already is.

Human v. AI

The final stop before summarizing this together is the difference in learning and education that has come from artificial intelligence. AI has the ability to synthesize information insanely fast and well, and can use that information to help make decisions. It is a great facilitation tool. I have used it to help in the world of finance, health, and emailing. But strictly within education, it is stripping students of the power of peer learning.

A classroom is a classroom because of the teacher-student relationship. That is a fact and that is the reason most schools exist. The indirect benefit of peer relationships and socialization, though, play a much larger role in the development of children across the nation. Companies such as Codemao who have found success in the virtualization of education find unique ways to include the human element, the peer element, in their style of teaching and learning. That is what is necessary, or students will regress rather than grow.

Another element is the degeneration of intelligence. Knowledge will continue to grow because questions can be answered in seconds with factual information. But wisdom and intelligence take crystallization and time. These more unique abilities fade when information is no longer valuable and the ability to find new information and disseminate it is reduced.

So humans can teach better because they have faces and eyes and can teach things with their "heart." But robots are so much better at personalization, matching teacher style, and creating plans that help students succeed. Is a combination a win-win? I wouldn't be so sure yet.

So What?

In summary, I have had the chance to discuss how to define education, explore the educational technology market and segments, chat over learning styles, and end with the historic robots versus humans debate. So why does any of that matter? Well, as said in the intro, I want to create something of value for others in this space. Something that fills a need in the market and we have found some of that today. Here are some ideas (and let me know your thoughts and if you think of any as well):

• "On the other side of the table." An application software that helps students going through recruiting to practice being the recruiter. Easily shows what to look for, how to perfect a "scorecard" and the ingenuity needed to be successful.
• "Test Prep Games." Gamified ACT/SAT/PSAT program that can be integrated into current tutoring plans that help students earn badges and points to redeem for rewards.
• "The Round One." A market sizing and basic case practice system for consulting interviews for students. Helps prepare using real case examples and case books.
• "Finding Stars." A platform for student organizations that allows them to have talent management and rank students based on selected traits and abilities. Uses raw ratings from models with a scoring system from the users.

Filtering through this is my rank table:

I am going to tinker away at Finding Stars. Like an HRM for student orgs sounds pretty legit given the current way that recruitment works. It is super messy, oftentimes has little structure, and little to no organization. Will update at the end of the month.