Rajeev Pathak, CEO of eDreams Edusoft, tells SANGEETA YADAV about the Funtoot platform that provides smart adaptive learning solutions
What is Funtoot aboutIJ
It is an intelligent and adaptive learning solution that helps children in smart learning in a highly personalised manner. It emphasises and takes into account individual characteristics of students like intelligence, speed of learning and other learning issues that the student faces. Then the content is designed through extensive pedagogic, technology and market research.
What is the purpose of it’s launchIJ
The learning in schools isn’t personalised. Given that each child learns at his own pace, parents often need to augment the school education with tuitions for their children.
There is often no control on the method of teaching and content that a child receives from this kind of supplementary education. Thus, Funtoot augments what the child learns at school and lets him learn at his own pace in a controlled environment where teachers and parents can monitor his progress.
What are the activities involved in thisIJ
At present we have only enabled Maths as a subject. Now, children can practice and learn Maths through our dynamically generated content. Funtoot also endeavours to remove monotony from Mathematics and makes learning fun.
How does this workIJ
Funtoot is installed in all schools. In some cases children can access this service at home as well. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing and speech processing form the core of our products.
We use this technology in hybrid cloud computing model where it can be used at school and also at home.
To what particular age group does Funtoot cater toIJ
It’s available from Class II to Class VIII.
Digital learning has become the need of the hour in India...
The earlier view of linear learning isn’t sufficient for today’s generation of students who want to learn at an individual pace. Digital learning is the catalyst to enable this kind of learning. From static infrastructure in classrooms to highly personalised content, digital learning is seeing a revolution of ideas fueled by technology.
Many parents are preferring private schools over public or Government for their children...
A new report for the India Institute, a think-tank, found that close to 65 per cent of children in an urban city like Patna, etc, go to private schools. This is fairly representative for other cities as well. Many people from the urban middle class want the best education for their children and aspire to get their wards admitted in private schools. This has led to a proliferation of private schools who’re using latest learning techniques to differentiate themselves.
Apart from digital education, what are the other ways of smart learningIJ
There has been a proliferation of good quality private schools in India and they’re using a lot of learning techniques like experiential learning, activity based and group learning to reduce the learning deficit in students. Some schools use theme-based learning as well and move away from the rote learning of yesteryears.
Where is funtoot currently runningIJ
Currently, schools across cities like Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Hubli and even Athani are using Funtoot.
Any collaboration as yetIJ
To leverage global experience and best practices in education, eDreams has established a strong advisory board with faculty and alumni from Stanford, IIM Bangalore, IIM Ahmedabad and University of Chicago. We’ve also formed an academic council of education experts.
What is the fee required for a single semesterIJ
We don’t disclose this, as our aim is to make Funtoot available to as many schools as possible across India. To that effect, it’s affordable in schools across tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 cities.