Let’s change learning — an educational paradigm for Gen Alpha and beyond
The current U.S. educational system is truly a mess. With over $1.52 trillion in outstanding student loan debt, with teachers spending an average of $479 out of pocket each year on classroom supplies, and with nearly 1 in 2 students attending counseling for mental health concerns — this is a very difficult time to be either a student or teacher. As such, it has become overwhelmingly clear that the educational system needs a complete paradigm shift to better suit the job market and technological advances of the twenty-first century. But in making these changes, where do we even begin?
My name is Ryan; I’m a software engineer who has always loved teaching. During high school, I spent hundreds of hours helping classmates debug their Java and Python code for computer science class. Not only did this help me improve my own understanding of programming and software development, it gave me a very unique sense of joy and self-validation to hear how much people appreciated my knowledge and enthusiasm for their projects.
However, as I started to take on progressively more complex and challenging courses and started a website consulting business, I felt slightly envious of the people I was teaching because I never really found anyone who was this same type of mentor figure for my own entrepreneurial leanings.
There’s something extremely powerful about having the right teacher for the topic. We’ve all had plenty of mathematics teachers, but for me only Grant Sanderson (also known as 3Blue1Brown) can make concepts such as quaternions or the Fourier Transform seem so beautiful and intuitive (definitely check out his YouTube channel — I’ll remind you at the end of the post). It’s truly the best feeling in the world to learn from someone who genuinely understands how you think.
Anyways, back to reality. After recently watching billions of dollars disappear from U.S. public education funding, we are unlikely to see significant innovation from within the system itself. Student loan debt continues to rise, teachers spend progressively more of their salaries on classroom materials, and students have never been so dissatisfied with their education. Everything needs to change at some deep, fundamental level.
Platform Pure is my vision for a personal, efficient, and sustainable educational system.
Our web application is currently available as a peer-to-peer teaching marketplace that is entirely free to join. As our community grows, we are en route to becoming the first learning environment in which all of the following are guaranteed:
- Personalization. Platform Pure gives you the experience of having your favorite teacher for every subject. Upon joining the platform, you have the opportunity to add your personal interests and activities to tailor your search results and find people who really “click” with you. Beyond traditional academic subjects, anyone can apply to teach anything, making Platform Pure the best place to learn and teach specialized topics.
- Accessibility. Modern education shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all system. Platform Pure gives you the option of learning and teaching online or in person, or with integrated resources from fantastic sites such as Khan Academy. Our web application is optimized for both desktop and mobile, and if you want to make a bit of side cash or create a study group, signing up to teach a topic is easy and free via your Google account.
- Affordability. High-quality education should never, ever come at the cost of lifetime debt or financial uncertainty. Learning a skill or building an academic portfolio should be available to anyone, anywhere, anytime, with no strings attached. Made possible by our freemium business model, Platform Pure can be used 100% free for learning and teaching and collects absolutely zero fees. In addition, we provide a wide selection of free content and use a carefully designed badge certification system to highlight skilled teachers and students for any academic or professional subject.
- Engagement. Whenever my high school teachers asked the class to place our phones at the back of the classroom or in a cardboard box, I always thought about how much more interesting and effective the course could be with the full capabilities of Internet-era technology. Platform Pure strives to capture the experience of content discovery websites like YouTube or Reddit while focusing directly on educational content. You’ll have to try the site for yourself, but we’re quite proud of our state-of-the-art Progressive Web App design and fun, custom-built educational tools such as an interactive whiteboard and collaborative writing/coding environment.
- Decentralization. Platform Pure is one of the very first projects to leverage blockchain technology in the education industry. Behind the scenes, we utilize USD-tethered Pure Tokens on the Stellar blockchain to secure your funds on the platform. It is possible to withdraw these tokens to a personal wallet or even spend them at eligible stores to receive discounts. If you represent an educational organization and would be interested in accepting Pure Tokens, let’s get in touch.
Education is a complex and multifaceted problem; it will take years, if not generations, to make the changes we need. I’m very excited to be working on Platform Pure at the leading edge of this initiative. Please let us know your thoughts and suggestions as we continue to develop the platform, and make sure to give this article a few claps (or kindly share on social media) so we can reach more people who would benefit from this community.
Thank you for reading! 😊
My favorite math educator (as promised):
Further reading:
