Ben Mangan
03/05/2014
As markets get frothy and the Nasdaq marches toward 5,000, I would understand if you believed that we’re on the road to a painful burst of yet another bubble. That road – littered with the ruins of a new generation of Pets.com-like business models – may certainly be in our future.
But pause for a moment before you let cynicism, and the past, unduly shape your view of the future. It is also possible that our economy is shifting fundamentally, to include new business models and new ways of creating value that translate into palpable economic and social progress.
I believe that teaching children how to code is one of the ways these new models of value creation and social progress will emerge. Wanting to learn more about this space, my network led me to Krishna Vedati, Founder and CEO of Tynker. I reached out to Krishna to learn more about Tynker and came away a believer in his vision for how Tynker can lead society and the economy in the right direction.
1) What do you believe are the greatest challenges facing elementary education in the US?
Let me approach this from a technology perspective. Teachers and schools have worked extremely hard in their attempt to raise achievement, yet the world around our children is technologically changing. Preparing the kids of today to become the innovators of tomorrow requires a rethink of the skills taught in schools.
2) What was the inspiration for creating Tynker?
My own kids, and those of my co-founders, were the inspiration behind Tynker. Their world revolves around interacting/using technology — seemingly all the time. What we noticed was that kids, including our own, were becoming constant and passive consumers of content vs. becoming creators… and we weren’t happy with that. It inspired us to develop a computing platform that would help kids learn how to code in a fun, intuitive and creative way. We think it’s important for kids to not only understand and appreciate what goes into making the technological devices they use everyday; we also want them to apply this knowledge in creating their own projects — games, animated stories, puzzles, and real-world applications.
3) Why do you think Tynker’s mission matters so much right now?
Technology is reshaping all areas of human life. Our mission at Tynker is to give the kids of today “Maker skills,” such as design thinking, prototyping, and programming — while leveraging their imaginations and creativity. We believe that these skills are vital for them to become innovators, no matter what discipline they choose to pursue. For example, ten years from now, doctors will have to analyze personal sensor data before diagnosing a patient. Computational thinking will soon permeate every field, so understanding computational logic and learning how to program at an early age will arm kids with the tools they’ll need to succeed in the not-so-distant future.
4) From my perspective, this space is starting to get significantly more crowded. How do companies like Tynker differentiate themselves to continue adding value – societally and to investors?
Societally, we at Tynker want to give all kids the opportunity to develop programming skills — regardless of their socio-economic status. This is one reason we offer our software for free to schools. We also offer a paid subscription model for schools who want to take advantage of the advanced tools and curricula that we have developed. And we have seen first-hard that parents will pay for immersive, “gamified” courses for their children to learn programming in a fun way.
There are several key areas of differentiation for Tynker:
First and foremost, we focus on game-like experiences to teach programming, which caters to students’ personal interests and makes the learning process both fun and engaging. We have been pleasantly surprised to see how popular Tynker is among girls, and we think it’s due at least in part, to our approach.
With Tynker, kids can learn the basics of logic as early as 1st grade via mobile devices, and then progress to making applications, such as games and animated stories, from grades 3 to 6. Third graders who use Tynker can create actual mobile applications. Once students have become skilled at the intermediate programming level, our platform empowers them to create real-world applications, such as weather apps and web-services based mashups. And finally, those who have mastered programming concepts can use Tynker’s software to create applications in Javascript.
Another area of differentiation for us: we have developed a number of unique technologies and curricula that support self-paced learning. Our software tests students’ understanding of programming using fun and encouraging techniques, like puzzles, to ensure that a given skill has been mastered before allowing them to move on to the next concept.
Finally, we provide a complete K-12 curriculum that integrates with math, science and arts in schools to promote project-based learning. Tynker for schools is extremely easy to use, even for teachers with no prior coding experience. They can easily incorporate Tynker into their existing plans, and their students produce amazing creations. Link to: http://www.tynker.com/programming-for-kids/explore/projects.htmlfor examples of these projects.
5) There’s a great deal of national soul-searching going on about income inequality in the US – including the role of education in economic disparities. How do you think companies like Tynker will shape economic trends for future generations?
Technology education has been labeled “the great equalizer.” I’m a firm believer that technology will continue to be a disruptive force in education. We at Tynker believe that we can enable kids to change their economic trajectory, by providing them with the skills that will one day help them in acquiring the best tech jobs possible.
Beyond the rhetoric on this topic, I know from personal experience how technology education can change one’s economic circumstances. I was born in a rural part of India, where agriculture was and is still the primary means of subsistence. I was fortunate — although my parents had very little in the way of formal educational opportunities themselves, they believed strongly in the value of education. So, my brothers and I were always encouraged to study hard, particularly in subjects like math and science. Until I went to college, I had very little exposure to technology — computers in India were a rarity in the late 1980s. But once I learned to use a computer, I was hooked. I elected to major in computer science, a path that eventually brought me to the U.S. and allowed me to become an entrepreneur. In fact, Tynker is the third company I’ve co-founded. So, do I believe that companies like Tynker can help positively impact economic trends for future generations? Absolutely. I’m living proof of it.
6) Do you see schools embracing coding as an educational tool without the help of companies like Tynker?
Adoption of coding as an educational tool would be a lot slower without the help of companies like Tynker. Today, over 8000 schools use our platform. We started with just 60 schools in Jan. 2013, so we grew 130-fold in just one year, proving that the demand exists for solutions like ours.
Whether or not schools want to embrace it, the fact is that learning how to code is increasingly being demanded by governments, corporations and parents alike, to meet the forecasted education and skill set demands of the market. For example, this September, computer programming will become a compulsory part of the curriculum for every child over age five in the UK. Executives from leading technology firms want to require U.S. schools to teach computer science, so they don’t have to rely on foreign workers to fill future programming and engineering positions. And a large portion of Tynker’s consumer purchases come from parents in more remote areas of the country, which proves that there’s demand for this type of curriculum outside of metropolitan areas and centers of innovation.
In my many discussions with school administrators, it’s become clear that educators generally want to include programming as a part of their curriculum. But, they’re intimidated by technology. Many of them don’t themselves know how to code, so they don’t even know how to get started. On top of this, we know that teachers are really strapped for time, which makes adding programming to their curriculum that much more daunting. We developed Tynker for schools to address these very challenges:
With Tynker, no prior computer programming experience is required (for teachers OR students). In fact, most of the teachers successfully using our software today are not technical (some could even be characterized as technophobic). Our “ready-made” curriculum and tools make it very easy for teachers to get started, and our visual programming language makes it easy and enjoyable to learn how to code. And, as I mentioned earlier, Tynker can easily be integrated into a teacher’s existing curriculum, enhancing project-based learning initiatives. Finally, teachers who use Tynker get access to dashboards and reports, which allows them to quickly track progress of their classes and individual students.
7) What would the world look like if you reached and surpassed all of Tynker’s long term goals?
It’s my sincere hope that, one day, the majority of kids will know how to create content for the mediums from which they consume content. My greatest aspiration would be for kids everywhere to be able to use Tynker to acquire the necessary skills to enable them to become tomorrow’s “Makers,” creative problem-solvers and innovators… perhaps our platform could provide the spark of inspiration in young minds to help generate much-needed breakthroughs in areas that still don’t have solutions: eliminating child poverty, eradicating infectious disease, controlling pollution, ending global warming, curing cancer, etc. That would be a dream come true.