1) One key user segment -- who could demonstrate meaningful gains -- may be neurodivergent students, coming off 504 Plan / IEP (not available in college).
● During my MS.Ed, I had conceptualized a platform for ND students like my own teens* that would have elements like your product. I have a pretty good sense that ON should work for many ND students who are functional in general ed, without a lot of reprio to your feature list. I'll ask my son to try it out. He is good at giving user feedback.
● I'd recomm talking to Disability Resource Centers. They may be able to vet your tool and/or do a case study. (I wish there were a way for my son to work on this with you at his university.)
2) If you can somehow add a way to record and transcribe class lecture into notes, that may be even better. That's a key point where notes taking starts -- or fails, like, doesn't even happen or students can't keep up. And again, far worse situation for my ND students.
3) "— the real win is making something they can’t study or learn without." I get why you said this. But I do want you to think about this carefully. All EdTech (ask Alex Sarlin, Ben Kornell and other seasoned folks) should eventually *empower* students. When you've created a hard-dependency, you've taken away agency. My ND students may absolutely *need* ON. Or, students who take my executive function coaching may *need* that for sure. But as educators, our job is to empower them to be as independent as they can be. Just think on it. I'm sure you'll find the right balance of Sticky and Soul for Opennote.
[*If you find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kashifmali/, you'll see a blog about Neuron Labs, its origin and the path I instead concluded worked more authentically for me. Happy to chat if you'd like.]
I'm Christopher Kosman, creator of the 1000.software Substack newsletter focused on software development, technology trends, and the evolving landscape of tech creation. Your coverage of innovative edtech companies really resonates with me, especially your recent piece on Opennote's student-driven approach to building learning tools.
I've been following the intersection of technology and education closely, particularly how AI tools are transforming both software development workflows and educational methodologies. Your perspective on edtech innovation and startup ecosystems complements our coverage of how developers and organizations are adapting to AI-enhanced development processes.
I'd love to explore a collaboration opportunity with you:
1. **Guest Post Exchange**: I could contribute a piece for your audience on "How Software Development Practices Can Inform Educational Technology Implementation" or "AI Development Workflows That Educators Can Adapt for Classroom Innovation" (or suggest a topic that would specifically resonate with your community's focus on edtech innovation and student-centered design).
2. **Mutual Newsletter Recommendations**: We could cross-promote our newsletters to our respective audiences, as there's clear overlap between edtech leaders interested in AI tools and technologists working in education technology.
Your approach to showcasing student-driven innovation and the technical challenges in edtech aligns perfectly with our philosophy in software development. I believe our audiences would benefit from each other's perspectives on building technology that truly serves its users.
Would you be open to discussing this further? I'm happy to share more details about 1000.software and potential collaboration topics.
Loved this! A few thoughts in case it helps:
1) One key user segment -- who could demonstrate meaningful gains -- may be neurodivergent students, coming off 504 Plan / IEP (not available in college).
● During my MS.Ed, I had conceptualized a platform for ND students like my own teens* that would have elements like your product. I have a pretty good sense that ON should work for many ND students who are functional in general ed, without a lot of reprio to your feature list. I'll ask my son to try it out. He is good at giving user feedback.
● I'd recomm talking to Disability Resource Centers. They may be able to vet your tool and/or do a case study. (I wish there were a way for my son to work on this with you at his university.)
2) If you can somehow add a way to record and transcribe class lecture into notes, that may be even better. That's a key point where notes taking starts -- or fails, like, doesn't even happen or students can't keep up. And again, far worse situation for my ND students.
3) "— the real win is making something they can’t study or learn without." I get why you said this. But I do want you to think about this carefully. All EdTech (ask Alex Sarlin, Ben Kornell and other seasoned folks) should eventually *empower* students. When you've created a hard-dependency, you've taken away agency. My ND students may absolutely *need* ON. Or, students who take my executive function coaching may *need* that for sure. But as educators, our job is to empower them to be as independent as they can be. Just think on it. I'm sure you'll find the right balance of Sticky and Soul for Opennote.
[*If you find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kashifmali/, you'll see a blog about Neuron Labs, its origin and the path I instead concluded worked more authentically for me. Happy to chat if you'd like.]
Hi Alex, Ben, and the Edtech Insiders team,
I'm Christopher Kosman, creator of the 1000.software Substack newsletter focused on software development, technology trends, and the evolving landscape of tech creation. Your coverage of innovative edtech companies really resonates with me, especially your recent piece on Opennote's student-driven approach to building learning tools.
I've been following the intersection of technology and education closely, particularly how AI tools are transforming both software development workflows and educational methodologies. Your perspective on edtech innovation and startup ecosystems complements our coverage of how developers and organizations are adapting to AI-enhanced development processes.
I'd love to explore a collaboration opportunity with you:
1. **Guest Post Exchange**: I could contribute a piece for your audience on "How Software Development Practices Can Inform Educational Technology Implementation" or "AI Development Workflows That Educators Can Adapt for Classroom Innovation" (or suggest a topic that would specifically resonate with your community's focus on edtech innovation and student-centered design).
2. **Mutual Newsletter Recommendations**: We could cross-promote our newsletters to our respective audiences, as there's clear overlap between edtech leaders interested in AI tools and technologists working in education technology.
Your approach to showcasing student-driven innovation and the technical challenges in edtech aligns perfectly with our philosophy in software development. I believe our audiences would benefit from each other's perspectives on building technology that truly serves its users.
Would you be open to discussing this further? I'm happy to share more details about 1000.software and potential collaboration topics.
Best regards,
Christopher Kosman
1000.software Newsletter
https://1000software.substack.com/