Date: Jul 19, 2014 Source: EdTech Women (
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We are thrilled to announce that Teachley, an edtech startup founded by three women, has won a prestigious Apple Design Award 2014 honoring outstanding design and innovation for its first educational iPad app, Addimal Adventure.
Teachley's Learning Analytics Platform uses students' gameplay data to give teachers actionable insight rather than just a score. We help K-8 teachers track student performance, target intervention, and differentiate instruction. Our research-based games focus on teaching high-need skills, scaffolding deep learning by promoting conceptual understanding. Teachley was founded by three former teachers who met while pursuing doctorates in Cognition and Learning at Teachers College, Columbia University: Dana Pagar, PhD, Kara Carpenter, PhD, and Rachael Labrecque. Together, they have over 30 years of experience in education, working with kids (and adults) of all ages and are passionate about transforming education.
To celebrate their success, EdTechWomen interviewed co-founders Kara Carpenter, Dana Pagar, and Rachael Labreque via e-mail to share the news!
What is the number one piece of advice would give to others to aid their journey to success in our field?
Value teacher and student voices. For student-facing tools, that means rigorously testing your products with students, evaluating whether they truly lead to greater learning outcomes. If not, take the time to go back to the drawing board. For teacher-facing tools, it means talking with teachers, understanding their greatest pain points and developing user-friendly, accessible products. Teachers have so much to do, they shouldn't also need to spend a lot of time learning how to use your product, especially if it doesn't meet their needs.
What was the greatest challenge you faced over the last two years as an entrepreneur and what did you do to overcome this challenge?
Shifting from academia to industry meant we needed to focus more on product-market fit. Teachers quickly told us they loved our apps, but because of school barriers (especially low budgets), they couldn't download them. So we made them free. While this helped build love with teachers, free is not sustainable, and traditional revenue models including in-app purchases and ads are not appropriate for education. Keeping our apps free and charging districts and schools (not teachers) for the advanced learning analytics, we've found a revenue model that supports our larger vision.
What can others do to get involved with your work or your product?
If you are an educator, check out our free iPad apps: bit.ly/TeachleyApps and please share your feedback with us! How are our apps or Learning Analytics Platform working in your classroom? How can we better support you? Email us anytime at info@teachley.com or call 1-800-651-2904. We look forward to hearing from you!
If you are a fellow developer, build great and effective tools for students and teachers that truly address problems they face. If you are interested in joining our team, reach out and let us know!
In your opinion what is the greatest challenge facing the edtech industry right now and what must we do as a community to overcome it?
Teachers are constantly asked to do more; teach more content, increase student performance, personalize learning, etc. Technology has great potential, but too much software mimics existing textbook practices, simply dressing up worksheets and flashcards, rather than being truly innovative. To fundamentally help teachers, and thereby help students, we need to develop tools that are more effective than traditional curricula and support teachers' efforts to individualize instruction. To do that means engaging in conversations with teachers and valuing their feedback, incorporating academic research, and rigorously evaluating outcomes.
