GeekStack is recruiting playtesters for our online trading card game with a science and technology theme. If you're interested, sign up here. Thanks!
Indian Math Online Helps You Study Like Its Bangalore!
Posted on | November 4, 2008 | 4 Comments
I’ve already mentioned 2 Million Minutes, and today I found out that Bob Compton, father of 2MM, has a startup called Indian Math Online. He had mentioned earlier that he found a tutor in India to work with his daughters but I had not idea it turned into a startup. Here’s the official blurb:
Indian Math Online is a web-based learning system developed with the principles of mathematics as practiced throughout the education system in India.
Well, like OHSU, the official blurb leaves something to be desired (unless you’re already familiar with the Indian educational system, in which case this is ’nuff said). The New York Times explained IMO a little more clearly:
The site’s curriculum is based on some key differences between math education in India and the United States, Mr. Compton said. Math homework in India consists of math problems that students work through, as opposed to the United States, where homework is heavy on reading about math topics in a textbook. Math teachers in India have college or graduate degrees in the topic…
Indian Math Online gives students a diagnostic test for their grade level and then breaks down the results by topic area, such as factors or prime numbers. It sends parents a report showing the topics in which their children are strong and weak and sends students learning modules full of practice problems. It will soon add online chat and live tutoring from math teachers in India for an extra fee.
By testing specific subject areas, Indian Math Online picks up weaknesses that a typical school test would miss…
I haven’t used it yet (my older daughter just turned 3 and the site starts at 1st grade) but I know from 2MM that Bob Compton cares about education and has seen a better way. I already had one eye on him, now I have two 
I think that just as marketing is moving from mass to personal, education will make a similar shift over the next couple of decades. Pre-Internet, anyone wealthy enough to hire private tutors, pay private or boarding school tuition, and live in the best school districts could give their kids a good education. With projects like Indian Math Online, Wikipedia, GeekStack (of course), and others that I hope to uncover and partner with over time, the limiting factor won’t be money but interest. If a parent or child (or adult, let’s not discriminate!) wants to educate themself, I want them to be able to cheaply and easily be able to do so.
So thank you Bob Compton!
UPDATE: After rereading the NYT article and looking at the IMO site, I think the value is not necessarily in the Indian method of teaching, but rather in the customized, personalized lessons with fine-grained feedback. This allows deliberate practice, something that is hard to get in a mass produced, high student-teacher ratio education system. That is a lot more important than whether it is Indian, Chinese, Brazillian, or Russian.
Comments
4 Responses to “Indian Math Online Helps You Study Like Its Bangalore!”
Leave a Reply
November 8th, 2008 @ 8:19 am
Great ideas – good luck to you!
Please make the text size on this page larger. It’s difficult for me to read and I couldn’t increase its size in my IE ver 7.0.5 browser.
Thanks,
Sneezee
November 12th, 2008 @ 3:56 am
Why is there such a resistance to the “Indian” in the title.
Most classical math was invented there so the epithet is justified.
Walk like an Egyptian…..Math like an Indian……..works, doesnt it!
November 12th, 2008 @ 8:52 am
Anoop, I don’t have a problem with it being Indian. I’m impressed with India’s culture of education, particularly in math, science, and engineering.
In the article it says “children of Indian and Chinese parents use the site consistently, but American children often lose interest after a couple months”. I think that explicitly branding it as “Indian” makes it an easier sell for South Asian and East Asian families in America, it is distracting to people who don’t understand how Indian education works.
June 28th, 2009 @ 11:59 am
I just come across this posting. I share the belief that math education is very critical for our children. It provides basic training for critical thinking, logical thinking and problem solving. Similar to Bob, i grew up in China and was educated there and came to the U.S. for my ph.d. in physics as Berkeley. Seeing so little practice my kids get on math, my husband and I started to create our own worksheets for our kids and we see how much these worksheets helped our kids master the basic math concepts and reduce careless errors. To help other kids, we started a website site http://www.goldstudent.com. It is an online math training program. Through an assessment test, we develop personalized study program for each student. The students can go at their own pace. Parents receive a notification email for each worksheet the student completes with detailed results. We have many parents and students using the service. If you are looking for supplemental math programs to help your kids, check out http://www.goldstudent.com.