Check out my friends over at Education Revolution. Like us, they are planting the seeds of Learning 2.0 and, like us, they want to share their experiences as a start-up. There is a sea change occurring in the world of learning. Watch Out!

I tend to look at these guys like a sister company. They are taking a Microsoft approach to the same problem that we are taking an Apple approach to. Looks like I won’t be starting any $50B Charitable Foundations any time soon.

I recommend getting in early on their IPO. I know we will. Hear that Jon and Kareem? Where’s our piece?!?

Between Kramer and Don Imus, the world is abuzz with the tension of "racialism". Everyone from Al Sharpton to Jesse Jackson to Barack Obama to Hillary Clinton to John McCain has commented. (I guess if you’re running or have run for President, it’s very important that we hear your opinion on these matters.)

Well here at Grockit we are going to chime in too. Who knows, we may run for President someday. We could be the first organization elected President.

Humans are groupists. We are not necessarily ‘Negatively Discriminatory Groupists’, but our brains are hard-wired to group things. We group/compartmentalize everything we come across. It’s one of the joys and tribulations of having thought and language. Even if we are left with only our feelings, we still lump things into either ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

Problems arise when our ‘grouping’ tendency creates a negative outcome. Groups are great in an excel spreadsheet breaking down your business model for investors interested in your business. Groups are not so great when you categorize people based on a color chart.

The difficulty I have is with the language and efforts of those who seek to eradicate ‘racialism’. I have yet to hear any constructive techniques or methods to reduce ‘racialism’. All I’ve heard is that it is ‘unacceptable’ and that people who offend others through ‘groupist’ remarks should be fired and ostracized from society. While this very definitive and non-helpful position may be useful as a sound bite when you are running for President, it does nothing to teach the world how to change. Also, marginalizing people with un-healthy mental models generally results in fostering more animosity and extremism.

As a learning organization, here is how we propose ‘learning’ people something good.

Racism comes from groupism. You can’t eradicate the human tendency towards ‘grouping’ things. You can, however, change what people view as a group. We can do this with the language we use and the thoughts that we ask people to mentally attend to.

Here it is. Ready?

There is no such group as "African Americans" or "Asian Americans" or "Black" people or "White" people. There is no group of "Latinos" there is no "Eskimo" there is no "Inuit". Race AS A MATTER OF FACT does not exist. The genetic difference among "Black" people is greater than the genetic difference between "Black" people and "White" people. There is more genetic variation within any "group" than between that group and any other group. This is what I would like to hear Barack Obama repeating over and over. This is what I would like to hear Al Sharpton repeating over and over. Remind people, repeatedly, that viewing groups based on race is not logical. We all know it’s ‘wrong’ you’re not bringing anything new to the equation by yelling about how ‘wrong’ it is. Change how people think. You do this by repeatedly appealing to logic and thought.

Show people a new way to see the world. Give them a new world view that they can take a hold of. Show them that if you ‘think’ the right way, you can ‘be’ the right way and you can ‘talk’ the right way. Wait a second, that’s what Zoroastrians say. Too bad that religion is all but gone. Before we go we’ll learn you one more thing. Zoroaster named the creating force of the universe Ahura Mazda. The car company Mazda is named after Ahura Mazda. I just sold my brand new Mazda3 to pay for the development of Grockit’s P2P learning game. Wow, where does Kevin Bacon fit in I wonder?

Here is a George Santayana quotation. What does it mean to you?

"The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas."

David Warlick over at 2cents posted about the Dept of Education’s recent study indicating that
learning software in classrooms does not increase student achievement scores. Here is the quoted text from the study.

"Test scores were not significantly higher in classrooms using the
reading and mathematics software products than those in control
classrooms. In each of the four groups of products-reading in first
grade and in fourth grade, mathematics in sixth grade, and high school
algebra-the evaluation found no significant differences in student
achievement between the classrooms that used the technology products
and classrooms that did not."

Apparently, this report has led to controversy. Opponents claim that the study is flawed while its creators claim there are no flaws in the study. I would add that the flaw in the study is irrelevant  compared to the fact that any assessment of the use of learning software would end up this dismal. Web apps have made project management, time tracking, expenses and just about everything else a much more productive proposition. I would like to think that the positive influence of software and technology in learning would be SO powerful as to still be evident in even a ‘flawed’ study.

I remember using learning software in school. Well, mostly I remember playing a lot of Oregon Trail. Is the Dept of Ed. saying that I didn’t learn anything from Oregon Trail? Where else would I learn about fording rivers?

We think it’s time for things to change. Hopefully our P2P learning game will be a new leaf in the world of learning software. Stay tuned for its launch and while you’re waiting, share some of your favorite school learning software and technology experiences. Did you successfully ford the river?

This was an automated response out of the teachers I had during my Catholic school education growing up.   When I was 9, it didn’t make sense.   I would ask, "Can I go to the bathroom?" and the angry nuns would say, "I don’t know… CAN you go to the bathroom?  I would hope you could after 9 years of life."    Wanting to avoid conflict and just win the permission to use the bathroom I would come back with a very confused, "What?"  This prompted the automated response, "Ask a Silly Question… Get a Silly Answer."

The problem is I didn’t ask a silly question.   I just didn’t ask the question the way she wanted.   Had I used, "May I go to the bathroom" I would have been rewarded, but this was never passed on.   It took me years to figure out how to correctly ask.   Every time I asked, "Can I…."  I was given the automated response that did nothing to help me.    Businesses have used this automated response to reduce customer service costs and to streamline the customer service process.   The problem is nothing is solved and issues are not resolved this way.    I am not sure which feels worse.   Being nine and having to pee so badly you are contemplating making a deal with the devil in exchange for a bathroom pass (deals with the devil are frowned upon in Catholic School.) or being a customer who needs help but isn’t respected enough to be given an actual answer.     It doesn’t matter which feels worse, both are awful, not necessary experiences and avoidable

Coming to join the team at Grockit was a no brainer, but what made it so much easier was the way that Grockit approaches helping it’s customers.   Grockit believes in taking care of our customers during their GMAT Test Prep experience.   When a customer has a question, we answer it.    When a customer has a problem, we want to solve it.   Even on the busiest days, when our days are packed with meetings, we still take time to make sure our customers questions are answered.   Are we perfect?  Not even close.  Do we have the right answers every time?  Not yet.   It is are approach that we believe in.  You can not automate customer service.  You can not automate the desire to care for your customer.     The desire to help your customers is what stops you from putting in an automated response.   Technology can just as easily destroy your business as much as it can help your business.   If the best use of technology is to make your business more efficient, it has to be weighed against the costs of losing personal touch and genuine customer care.

I  can not echo Seth Godin’s sentiments better, "Permission has never meant ‘access to my email.’ It’s a privilege, one that you earn or lose."    I see this as a two way street.   I want to be able to contact my customers and ask them for help in growing my business.   I want to be able to ask them what made them choose Grockit over other test prep companies.   I want to be able to ask for a referral from my customers.    How would I feel if I wrote to a happy and satisfied customer asking for help and I got an automated response from them?   "Thanks for emailing me, I have your email.  Don’t write back, I won’t read your response to this email and I didn’t read the last one either.  HAVE A GREAT DAY!"     It wouldn’t just be  surreal, it would be absurd.  I would be pissed.

Written by David Marino

We are very happy to announce that our start-up family has grown. We launched Grockit in December with a Founder and a few key Advisors. In the past couple weeks, our team has grown to include…

1. Jorge A. del Calvo - General Counsel – Mr. del Calvo is a Partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and has been recognized multiple time as one of the best lawyers in America in the area of Corporate Law. …read more about Mr. del Calvo
2. Michael Buffington - Lead Developer - Michael is making our P2P learning game a reality with his coding and web development savvy. Michael’s last work was recognized at SXSW. …read more about Michael
3. David Marino – Operations – David brings his start-up and business development experience to Grockit. His ability to participate in everything from customer service to marketing and corporate development is invaluable at a start-up like ours.

We are excited to be working with this caliber of people. We wish them best and welcome them to the Grockit family!

My favorite Marketeer himself, Seth Godin, has started his own Business School. You can read all the details in his blog post. I particularly like the part about what successful people are doing…

"Ask people who are thriving
in today’s economy to name five things that helped them succeed, and
they’ll probably come up with a list like this one.

1. Finding, hiring, and managing supergreat people

2. Embracing change and moving quickly

3. Understanding and excelling at business development and at making deals with other companies

4. Prioritizing tasks in a job that changes every day

5. Selling — to people, to companies, and to markets"

and the part about….

"Instead of looking for people who are working two mind-numbing years at
a bank while waiting to get into a top institution, schools ought to
seek out entrepreneurs who are champing at the bit to get their
businesses started."

One gets the impression that Seth is not a big fan of B-Schools. Maybe the problem is that there aren’t any B-Schools that were founded by successful entrepreneurs. In fact, are today’s business schools run by academicians or successful entrepreneurs? From what I gathered from their bios, the current Deans of Harvard, MIT and Stanford Business Schools were never entrepreneurs. When you consider that most businesses are started by…well…entrepreneurs, you can understand a bit of what Seth’s trying to say

As an entrepreneur, I agree whole-heartedly with Seth’s 5-Points. As I haven’t been through any MBA programs, I can’t speak to his points there. If you have, leave a comment with your thoughts.

There is a growing movement in Eduction that seeks to de-emphasize grades and emphasize learning. Here are a couple of examples and let us know of any other progressive schools or learning organizations that you know about.

1) Wildwood School in Los Angeles – Wildwood is a school without grades that also prepares its students for the SAT and ACT exams. They can convert a student’s thesis work into a GPA for colleges and universities.

2) The F.M. Duffy Group – Duffy and his organization help school districts make systemic changes and improvements by supporting the work of change leaders.

Click on the links to learn more about people and organizations that are leading a growing effort to revolutionize and improve education. We’d love to hear your thoughts.