Ignite! builds an online alternative to the textbook

Internet Strategies for Education Markets: The Heller Report, Sept, 2001

Neil Bush, ceo of start-up Ignite! Learning (Austin, TX, www.ignitelearning.com), positions the company's middle school product as an alternative to a textbook. Just two years ago, web-based content companies shied away from a one on one with textbooks. Bush, however, is willing to state that textbooks are boring and that he believes Ignite!'s broadband multimedia alternative is superior. He also expects competition. While he hopes Ignite! will set a standard, he anticipates that a growing number of electronic alternatives to textbooks will strengthen his business.

Bush adds that he is not igniting a giant textbook burning party. Those traditional tools can have a place in the classroom, and, indeed, discovering just what kind of learning is best for a student is key to Ignite!'s offering.

Ignite!, a broadband product, covers all the content of a textbook using images, video and sound instead of just text. Based on the premise that people learn best by doing, students respond to the information with on-computer exercises that require them to take a point of view, solve a problem, meet a basic need or build something. For example, the American history pilot program has a project in which a student is asked to pick a point of view to discuss the early land division of America.

These projects have pop-quiz gateways and end-of-chapter tests that a student must pass to continue. When a question is missed, the program brings students back to the media presentation that has the information. Ignite! envisions their product being used, perhaps, two days a week in support of other classroom activities.

Product design does not pursue the popular trend of tracking performance and delivering appropriate modules to students. It will, however, track learning preferences and deliver content based on a child's learning strengths and style. This task is accomplished with Ignite!'s patent-pending Adaptive Learning Engine (ALE) technology. "The ALE," according to company materials "continually assesses each student's learning choices and progress, creates a learner profile, and dynamically adapts media-rich content to fit the way he or she learns best." The ability will be key to the offering, but Bush does not intend to emphasize this element of the offering until it is further developed.

The curriculum, says Bush, could go to market today, but sales would be limited to the early adopter audience. He prefers to wait until the offering is refined into something easy and desirable to use by every teacher. He expects to reach that point in the Fall of 2002. The "soft" launch will be in November, 2001; pre-selling will start in January 2002; and the official launch is at FETC in March 2002.

Partnership Opportunities

Until then, Ignite! will be adding additional content and features. Company materials suggest that they intend to add a suite of data management and communication tools such as school and class scheduling, attendance and grade reporting, and e-mail. Bush clearly expects to assemble a range of complementary products and services sold as a package, some through partnerships and others through acquisition.

Broadband partners will be important, because Ignite! requires broadband, and not a degraded high-speed line shared throughout the network. Currently, schools must install a server.

The distribution strategy includes partnerships with educational IT consulting organizations such as IBM, Sun, Dell and Broadwing IT.

Bush says the company is currently evaluating what kind of partners they want. He adds that the right partners are essential to winning the confidence of school buyers who have been spooked by failed Internet companies, and even more so by companies that have failed to deliver adequate customer support.

The Company

Bush explains that Ignite! was formed two and half years ago to meet two urgent needs in the marketplace: one, a clear need for improved education and two, a need for schools to see a return on their substantial technology investment. An initial founders' round of family and friends raised $450,000. In May of 2000, Ignite! closed a series A round for $5.6 million, and the company is now in the process of closing a series B round for what could be twice that amount. That funding, says Bush will get Ignite! down the beta road.

Ignite!'s development efforts include running pilots in 14 schools across the country. Use varies, including use in computer labs, with wireless carts and with computers in the back of the class. In some cases, teachers will also have projectors. In all schools, students arrive at the computer to find an assignment by the teacher. Projects, called "challenges" in the system, can be selected by the teacher or student.

Responding to the Market Need for Testing

Given that Neil Bush is brother to President Bush, it is difficult not to look for synergies between his product and mandates for high-stakes tests. "This obsession with tests forces anyone who wants to be successful in the marketplace to prepare kids for tests," says Neil Bush. Ignite! addresses this need with the quizzes and tests that serve as gateways to the products. While Bush is not displeased with the feature, the testing trend alarms him. "The reliance on pencil and paper tests measuring a kid's ability to memorize and regurgitate fact threatens to institutionalize bad practices in the classroom," states Bush. He also emphasizes that he is not in disagreement with his presidential brother. Both the President and the Secretary of Education, says Bush are open to assessments of the whole child.