Honeybird

A personalized development & education platform which leverages shared open resources to enhance education all across the world. Education of tomorrow has an abundance resources thus it's about finding & structuring the ideal resources for each individual based off interests, development goals and personalized tracking.

Honeybird is a children's development platform at its core; it functions as most digital Learning Management systems with an emphasis on the individualized development tracking. Our Observations module which incorporates various curriculums based on the education institutions academic requirements (currently covering EYFS & Montessori during the pilot, but planning to expand). These observations are the top layer of the more sophisticated skill development tracking which actually has elements within all the other traditional LMS modules, from even Assignment, Resource-sharing, Activity/Schedules. 

There are mechanisms in place to track a child's attitude towards certain subjects, methods of learning as well as their mood.  Such tracking thus allows a character profile to develop with an emphasis on understanding their interest and more importantly, the method of learning that they seem to be most responsive.  At the same time, resources are shared by educators/teachers for parents and students to engage in additional activities/assignments at home, which are then personalized based on the child.

The eventual goal is when enough education institutions are regularly using it, we will expand to the consumer facing (non-school required) access for parents and students who want to pursue an education in a new manner.  This roll out might be for those doing home schooling or don't have access to a formal education institution.  Based on their initial profile and interests, it will begin auto-recommending curriculum/assignments/resources for them to use/utilize based on similar student profiles and feedback.  Their feedback and usage will also continuously improve the system.

Traditional education has not changed much since the 19th century (for most institutions) despite many technological advances. Such 'factory-style' mass education models lack personalization of curriculum and assumes everyone has the same motivations and learning styles (the same problem exists in MOOCs). 

Honeybird allows educators to effortlessly personalize their learning curriculum through auto-assignment/recommendation of resources based on a student's optimal learning habits.  Once enough development data/resource sharing has occurred, we will evolve to allow even those that are homeschooling or with the lack of access to formal education to access similar 'personalized curriculum' based on interest and development.

Our initial pilots in various early education/nurseries in Dubai, UAE have had positive feedback, based on the current version of development tracking. The audits we have done within the nursery have recognized that some children are better suited for different methods of learning compared to their peers.

Based on the development profile created, we can assess the likelihood to better interact with a learning resource thus allowing us to adjust their personalized curriculum, while still maintaining they are on track with the developmental goals - they are just achieving them differently than their classmates.

First phase of impact, parents and educators of early years children will benefit by having access to developmental tracking and shared resources.

Second phase, it expands to parents in various environments (from home schooling to developing countries), but now based off the various curriculum and previous user activity/feedback and learnings to better improve their resource/recommendations.

Third phase, students have access when it expands into older age ranges as well as the developmental tracking and resource sharing has expanded into such categories (organic growth based off the academic fed data and individual feedback based on resources and developmental goal achieved).

Analytics Tracking and Organic Referral System for Parent Sign Ups (outside of school informing parents to use it) - 50,000 Parents Actively Using Honeybird a Few Times a Week

Analytics Tracking of School Activity - 100 Nursery & School Institutions Actively Using Honeybird Daily

Track the Resources as well as their usage in various Curriculums and Parent Access (outside of curriculum) - 10,000 Organic Resources Shared from Various School Institutions

By working with traditional education consultants to understand development curriculum of the past and integrating learnings from edutech trends.  Unlike other LMS platforms, the underlying architecture for the shared resource library / development tracking is where the solution proves to be innovative.  We don't want to be the owners of content, as content is not king in a world of abundance, context is king. Depending on your learning habits, persona interests, your developmental goals and progress, resources are contextually recommended.

Honeybird allows us to assist communities in which parents/children lack access to good educators & education. By leveraging all the learning and resource sharing that has come from other global education institutions - just giving someone access to YouTube or a MooC alone is not enough, we need to consider what is the best way for them to develop taking into account their interest, preferred learning method and if there is alternative resource to account for those elements.

Via the Internet (any web-enabled browser, desktop or mobile).  Some day via an offline app as well, however, it would be limited to preset resources (likely the most popular/highly recommended resources for a child’s goals).  When there is an active internet connection their recommended curriculum would update and new recommendations would show up in their feed.  The main goal is to create a continuous learning cycle.

There are two revenue source strategies.

1- SaaS revenue - an affordable subscription fee for education institutions who wish to use the full LMS software platform.  However always free for parents/students.

2- Partnership / Affiliate Deals - with localized vendors who are looking to supplement/enhance a Honeybird user's learning experience via their products or services.  The targeting of such users is based on their interests/developmental goals.  Reporting mechanisms are in place to identify abuse/spam by vendors, even though vendor partnerships are also vetted through application and review process to ensure the quality of their "product/service" and is relevant to the targeted group they wish to reach out to/inform about their educational product.

Growth - Capital Resources to grow at a much faster rate and expand into other countries/regions.  

Competition - other LMS exist in the market, although they don't do what HoneyBird does in totality, they tend to cover basic elements; some are even more expensive than ours. However the lack of media/press ("noise") around Honeybird makes it less likely for them to want to convert, so, for now, we are focusing on new institutions and those we are willing to work with to accommodate with custom modifications.  

https://honeybird.me/why-honeybird/

https://honeybird.me/features/

https://honeybird.me/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Honeybird-v1.pdf

We wish to work with the Solve community to improve the platform, by piloting Honeybird in more education institutions around the world, contributing to how the resource sharing library works and working with more education consultants on how to re-think the current education system in place.

We hope the Solve community can empower us with a network and feedback to improve the Honeybird platform to maximize it's impact on children at an early age.  Instilling the right educational mindset at an early stage matters as it sets the foundation to their outlook on the purpose and utility of education. 

We are currently partnering with four early learning institutions that have their own hybrid curriculum which utilize a mix of EYFS and Montessori curriculums.   The partnership allows us to work with their educational consultants and administrators to fine-tune and acquire feedback from staff and parents at all their branches.

Edmodo, Class Dojo, RedCritter, BrightWheel