Players in the EdTech Market on Language Learning
While I have previously discussed the more general EdTech industry overall, I feel that it is time to narrow the focus to a few apps, specifically those geared towards improving language skills, notably reading and writing, which are the most important building blocks for future education.
About 60% of failure at school down the line can be attributed to a lack of proficiency in reading and writing. This more than ever screams to the need to fortify a strong base in these subjects in order to reach the higher levels and inevitably be successful in whichever field one chooses.
Currently in the EdTech market, there are countless platforms for higher levels of education and online courses, but few apps have narrowed their focus to specific education of young children who are just waiting to be mesmerized by a service that is so great, they might not even realize they are learning. Apps of this nature have had their success stories as parents and children alike are always in search of an original way to learn and enjoy themselves in a personalized way.
In the past few years a few companies stick out as building from the ground up and becoming powerhouses in the industry. Regardless, it is important to note that the majority of these companies started from the ground up and have taken the sector by storm, something that myABCKit will be sure to do in the near future.
The goal: to end illiteracy and any sort of impediments to future advancement, ensuring all children have equal opportunity to learn and thrive in school and beyond.
Yogome
A younger company to take a look at is Yogome, a Mexico-based education game developer, which raised $6.6 million in Series A funding very recently. The model for the app is thorough and filled with various activities for kids (ages 6–11) to play with to try and improve their “Yogotars” or characters in the app, while defeating enemies through games and gaining power through knowledge, The concept is involves creating a direct goal that children can achieve through doing the activities.
Parents also can keep track of progress and make sure the learning is personalized for their child, monitoring them following activities. The app covers a range of subjects, with some options for reading and writing, but a wider focus on many school topics. The emphasis is on trying to maximize the amount of material to give students a variety of information while giving parents an opportunity to teach their children another language growing up and create a strong foundation through learning in many subjects.
Lingokids
An example of a more formed EdTech education company is Lingokids. This english based learning service has been around for a few years and gained a strong foothold in the english learning EdTech sector. The app offers lessons for young kids with over 3,000 words grouped in by parts of speech and word function placed strategically into interactive games. The model is once again having the app guide the kids through various personalized activities based on the previous lessons and their interests. It also includes the feature that allows parents to track the progress of their child on the paid version. The direct content of the game is supposed to be extremely familiar to kids and provide them with comfort working with the characters and animations. The company has been able to gain precedence in the last few years through investment and has grown substantially in the English language learning market.
Duolingo
To continue on the current trajectory, the most established EdTech app for language learning and reinforcement to date has to be Duolingo. This app currently graces one of the top spots on the iTunes app store and was awarded Apple iPhone’s top app of the year in 2013, along with winning techcrunch’s best startup of the year award in 2014. This app is fully entrenched in the market for helping anyone who wants learn another language. The app includes more than 20 different languages for its users and takes the same game based approach although it is not geared directly towards young children, but for people of all ages. It has also moved recently into classrooms as well, helping students pick up and learn a language. The sheer volume of material makes it a trendsetter in the personalized learning department, something that is its hallmark, keeping the app focused on the learning and entertainment of the user. While it does help one learn a new language, the main goal does not extend to reinforcing the skills and abilities of a language one already knows. This app can most definitely help one gain a level of literacy in a variety of language, but its strength does not lie in helping a 2nd grader with their reading level.
NoRedInk:
A lesser known app called NoRedInk aligns somewhat with myABCKit’s focus of improving overall literacy. Created by a former teacher, it strives to improve the grammar of students through practice with assignments, quizzes, and games that strive to keep students interested. The app’s bottom line is to try and empower kids to attach their own interest to the otherwise dull grammatical exercises common in schools. Many teachers employ the service to spice up their own grammatical lessons with the common goal of improving student literacy through grammar. One of the more difficult topics to teach in the English language is grammar and the service tries to couple this subject with topics like pop culture to keep students working. The site does however have a similar idea for enhancing literacy through reinforcement of material, but is much more methodical and classroom based, not exactly what kids want. The goal is to have kids learn and improve literacy, but the best way to do that is to keep them thoroughly entertained almost to the point where they forget they are learning.
While all of these examples do pose great solutions for user, they do not solve the same exact problem myABCKit pledges to work towards. In essence, if these companies platforms have been successful in achieving their own specific goals, we, at myABCKit are on the path to take improving children’s literacy to the next level. myABCKit includes great activities for students most formidably meant for reinforcing and enhancing a child’s ability in their own language. Our goal is to create an extremely strong baseline for literacy to make sure all students have the ability to extend their education further. When combining valuable material and personalized content, it is easy to see how parents and both kids alike are both very interested in myABCKit.
