<p>Bangalore-based eDreams Edusoft, has been riding on a wave ever since it bagged a funding project for its latest innovation. The company has built an adaptive personal tutor for primary school education. <br /><br /></p>.<p>Having termed it as an “almost human-like clone of a teacher”, scientists at eDreams have developed a software that promises to offer one-on-one attention and guidance for students. Wanting to fix the learning deficits that arise from the homogeneous nature of a classroom, the core team of eDream Edusoft spent months creating a learning tool that is based on artificial intelligence technology. <br /><br />The product, ‘FunToot’, is personalised to understand and gauge each student’s IQ. It also catalogues their performance on a daily basis. This can be accessed by teachers through a programme called ‘report and analytics’. The assignments posted to students are customised to suit the student’s likes and dislikes. <br /><br />FunToot is used outside the classroom, in a computer lab and covers national and international syllabi. The technology is installed into school servers/ end-user PCs and accessed by students, parents and teachers. So far, it can support study content from Class 2 to 8. Subjects covered include Math, Science and English. The pilot was launched in Rashtothana Vidya Kendra School in Mysore in 2011.<br /><br />Note: There is no actual grading or marks allocated for completing an assignment on FunToot. Students win ‘fundaas’ or reward points to engage in learning activities online. <br /><br />FunToot strives to observe, assess, diagnose, interact, encourage and help students based on their characteristics in a manner that a classroom teacher can offer a single student. This software is ideal for those who need after-school help with lessons and the attention and guidance of a teacher from a young age itself. <br /><br />Says Kavitha Jain, VP, Edify Education, “We’ve had this software installed in 10 schools under the DRS-Edify Group umbrella. It is such a boon for teachers. It lessens their load drastically. Plus, students love anything that involves working on a computer. It takes them away from the monotony of a classroom and it is highly engaging. We are waiting for the end of the year to see results. But we are positive.” <br /><br />These are the highlights of this software:<br /><br />Discovery: FunToot can discover the various characteristics of each student and adapts itself (questions and suggestions are framed based on these observations) uniquely to each student.<br />Observation: It observes and assesses each student in the same manner a human would do, while the student solves problems or does his work.<br /><br />Interaction: It interacts with each student in an unique manner on the issues that students face through voice and messages.<br /><br />Assistance: Unique assistance to each student through video and text messaging<br />Teacher’s View: The teacher can view various reports for students, classes in progress, issues, etc.<br /><br />Parent View: Parents can view close to 12 different reports for their kids on their progress, issues, weak areas, etc.<br /><br />Rajeev Pathak, CEO, eDreams Edusoft, says, “The implementation so far indicates an improvement of 25 per cent in grades across the spectrum of schools we have been involved with.”<br /><br />Through FunToot, eDreams hopes to create a new paradigm that offers one-on-one attention to each child. “It is almost like providing one assistant teacher to each child, only in the virtual form. <br /><br />While the aim is to improve grades significantly, each of these virtual assistant teachers also ropes in the class teacher and parent too,” adds Rajeev. <br /><br />This Bangalore-based company began work on the learning software two years ago and is still patent pending. Rajeev Pathak and his team of innovators recently received a Rs 5-crore funding from ‘Mumbai Angels’, a business reality show. <br /><br />Here’s where the software wins: It offers to not just lighten a teacher’s load by organising a student’s report card into several areas such as score card, positive, negative, feedback, areas of interest, etc, but it also does the following:<br /><br />Pre study: Teachers can engage students in a pre-study programme using a topic from the software, prior to the lessons taught in class.<br /><br />Adaptive learning: Teachers may ask students to learn topics on FunToot as per the lesson plan/schedule of the school. Funtoot adapts itself based on a child’s feedback and performance. <br /><br />Teachers also automate and schedule homework through FunToot. This helps the teacher keep track of work that has been assigned and understand the areas that need work. <br /></p>
<p>Bangalore-based eDreams Edusoft, has been riding on a wave ever since it bagged a funding project for its latest innovation. The company has built an adaptive personal tutor for primary school education. <br /><br /></p>.<p>Having termed it as an “almost human-like clone of a teacher”, scientists at eDreams have developed a software that promises to offer one-on-one attention and guidance for students. Wanting to fix the learning deficits that arise from the homogeneous nature of a classroom, the core team of eDream Edusoft spent months creating a learning tool that is based on artificial intelligence technology. <br /><br />The product, ‘FunToot’, is personalised to understand and gauge each student’s IQ. It also catalogues their performance on a daily basis. This can be accessed by teachers through a programme called ‘report and analytics’. The assignments posted to students are customised to suit the student’s likes and dislikes. <br /><br />FunToot is used outside the classroom, in a computer lab and covers national and international syllabi. The technology is installed into school servers/ end-user PCs and accessed by students, parents and teachers. So far, it can support study content from Class 2 to 8. Subjects covered include Math, Science and English. The pilot was launched in Rashtothana Vidya Kendra School in Mysore in 2011.<br /><br />Note: There is no actual grading or marks allocated for completing an assignment on FunToot. Students win ‘fundaas’ or reward points to engage in learning activities online. <br /><br />FunToot strives to observe, assess, diagnose, interact, encourage and help students based on their characteristics in a manner that a classroom teacher can offer a single student. This software is ideal for those who need after-school help with lessons and the attention and guidance of a teacher from a young age itself. <br /><br />Says Kavitha Jain, VP, Edify Education, “We’ve had this software installed in 10 schools under the DRS-Edify Group umbrella. It is such a boon for teachers. It lessens their load drastically. Plus, students love anything that involves working on a computer. It takes them away from the monotony of a classroom and it is highly engaging. We are waiting for the end of the year to see results. But we are positive.” <br /><br />These are the highlights of this software:<br /><br />Discovery: FunToot can discover the various characteristics of each student and adapts itself (questions and suggestions are framed based on these observations) uniquely to each student.<br />Observation: It observes and assesses each student in the same manner a human would do, while the student solves problems or does his work.<br /><br />Interaction: It interacts with each student in an unique manner on the issues that students face through voice and messages.<br /><br />Assistance: Unique assistance to each student through video and text messaging<br />Teacher’s View: The teacher can view various reports for students, classes in progress, issues, etc.<br /><br />Parent View: Parents can view close to 12 different reports for their kids on their progress, issues, weak areas, etc.<br /><br />Rajeev Pathak, CEO, eDreams Edusoft, says, “The implementation so far indicates an improvement of 25 per cent in grades across the spectrum of schools we have been involved with.”<br /><br />Through FunToot, eDreams hopes to create a new paradigm that offers one-on-one attention to each child. “It is almost like providing one assistant teacher to each child, only in the virtual form. <br /><br />While the aim is to improve grades significantly, each of these virtual assistant teachers also ropes in the class teacher and parent too,” adds Rajeev. <br /><br />This Bangalore-based company began work on the learning software two years ago and is still patent pending. Rajeev Pathak and his team of innovators recently received a Rs 5-crore funding from ‘Mumbai Angels’, a business reality show. <br /><br />Here’s where the software wins: It offers to not just lighten a teacher’s load by organising a student’s report card into several areas such as score card, positive, negative, feedback, areas of interest, etc, but it also does the following:<br /><br />Pre study: Teachers can engage students in a pre-study programme using a topic from the software, prior to the lessons taught in class.<br /><br />Adaptive learning: Teachers may ask students to learn topics on FunToot as per the lesson plan/schedule of the school. Funtoot adapts itself based on a child’s feedback and performance. <br /><br />Teachers also automate and schedule homework through FunToot. This helps the teacher keep track of work that has been assigned and understand the areas that need work. <br /></p>
