iSchool provides a web-page authoring system with collaboration tools

Internet Strategies for Education Markets: The Heller Report, Dec, 1999

ZebraWare Inc. (Ottawa, ONT) has launched iSchool, an authoring system that allows easy creation of web-based documents as well as collaborative interaction with documents. The server-based system is being piloted by schools now and will be available for licensing this spring. The software uses ZebraWare's own source code rather than HTML commands, and documents built with iSchool (idocuments) can currently only be viewed with the iSchool client. Zebraware will soon release a version that allows documents to be viewed from any browser. An idocument can include text, graphics, video or sound.

The collaborative features include the ability for teachers or other students to add notes and other annotations to documents. A button indicating the presence of an annotation can be placed anywhere on the document, and the teacher can indicate whether the student can erase the notation. Documents can be placed in a private area, distributed to the entire school network or distributed to a defined list.

Zebraware will license the product for $599 for 100 users, $749 for 250 users and $999 for 500 users. The company will negotiate larger licenses. All licenses allow use to extend to the home. Peter Steele, president, says the market is leading the launch of the product into a grade three through eight focus, but the application is appropriate for all grades and for post-secondary applications.

Steele is currently seeking channel distribution partners. He's also interested in bundling the product with hardware company offerings such as servers and telecom providers wanting Internet based solutions. The company is also bundling resources from content providers into iSchool. The product, for example, includes a library of photo clip art from Hemera.

The majority of pilots are in Canada, but Steele says the US is the primary, initial market. Also, says Steele, iSchool was built from the ground-up with the intention of localizing the product for international distribution. They are currently seeking international distribution opportunities and localization partners with early activity likely in India, Bangladesh and Ghana.

iSchool is the first product offered by ZebraWare. The company is self-financed and is currently in the process of putting out some private offerings.