TC50: Unlocking Learning Through Videos And Games With Clasemovil

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Sep 14, 2009

Kids today with their YouTube and video games, how do they expect to learn anything? Alex Moctezuma has an idea. How about teaching them with games and videos. Moctezuma is the CEO of Mexican startup Clasemovil, which he just showed a demo of at TechCrunch50.

Clasemovil is a fun learning community aimed at K-12th grade across Latin America. It is filled with hundreds of interactive lessons in the guise of videos, games, and learning activities. Students pick a subject like math, history, language, or science. They are then presented with a menu of related activities. The site is self-directed. The students pick which activities to explore, much like they would on a regular entertainment site.

The students earn points for answering questions correctly. Each subject has its own page with a leaderboard of top-scoring students. The points can be converted into a virtual currency. Each student has a profile page where they can see how many points they’ve accumulated, send messages to other members, and make new friends.

Teachers and schools also get a view into student activity. They can monitor a specific student’s performance, or that of an entire class. If a student is struggling with science, Clasemovil acts as an early warning system.

The company is also launching a virtual world to teach kids about personal finance. Students can apply for a virtual credit card with which they can buy virtual goods. They get points for saving and paying off their debt.

Moctezuma plans to charge for premium memberships for students or bulk licensing for schools. The startup is backed by $500,000 from an angel investor.

Expert Panel Q&A

Ron Conway: How much has been invested in the company so far. It seems like millions.

Moctezuma: We have world two years to develop the videos and all the contenet. We are thinking to scale it so that teachers can

Conway: So is it $1 million

Moctezuma: Half million dollars.

Conway: You have accomplished a lot with half a million dollars

Don Dodge: I like it, I think it is a high quality presentation. You have a challenge. Your users are kids, the people who pay for it are the parents. You have to market to both.

Moctezuma: Yeah, and we have also seen that teachers are very important because they can recommend it.

Dodge: So you think the teachers will tell the students, the students will tell the parents and the parents will pay the money?

Calacanis: Is this a pass, a consider, an definite?

Conway: I would consider it but I would encourage the company to

Zachary: I applaud the effort, but this would be a pass for me. There is so much competition here. Partnerships I have , we were investors in Knowledge Adventure, that was nominal return. Getting awareness with parents is very hard, school boards are very political. A lot of greasing required.

Video:

Other Coverage:
TC50: ClaseMovil launches a virtual world for learning VentureBeat.
Clasemovil.com Wants To Educate Kids Using Videos, Games, And Learning Activities On The Web Pulse2.
ClaseMovil Makes You Learn Online – Damn #tc50 Techgeist.
ClaseMovil Hopes to Educate Latin America via Virtual Worlds Pixels and Policy.
TechCrunch50: Clasemovil Aims to Bring Video Games to the Classroom Trends Updates.

CrunchBase Information

CLASEMOVIL

Information provided by CrunchBase

Tom Kiley

I don’t see this working out. What about the lack of computers in the target market? Or the lack of money in the target markets?
João Brito

Lack of money, yes, it’s a problem, but lack of computers is not. I’m in Brazil and there’s millions of students who have access to the internet, both from their houses and schools. Not to mention lan houses, as we call them here. Unfortunately, it’s in Spanish, so it needs translation. But it sure looks promising.
http://cityenlinea.com manolo diaz

great idea, and the product is awesome, they are true, education in latin america sucks with all the burocracy and stuff, this can help, greetings!!!
João Brito

Yes, same here. It sucks great. Indeed, I see a very sad contradiction: while latin american kids are great users of the Internet they produce very little content. How many Brazilian flash games have you seen lately? Any?
Albert

This Moctezuma guy is totally right, the educational level in entire latinamerica really sucks, I’m mexican too so I can said that in my country the educational system is not really good, they provide you only the basics without the motivation of keep learning. But this proyect seems really nice because now there’s a lot of childs that search on internet their homeworks and have e-mail acounts even the little ones who barelly know how to read, so all of them are already active internet users. The question is What do we want our childs visit on internet?, sites with null educational content, a lot of violence or even worst stuff, or this great resource of teaching that in fact has nice animations and seems atractive specially for kids. Congreats to Moctezuma and all of his team!!! continue with this great idea.
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[...] Clasemovil (México): Esta startup busca mejorar la experiencia de educación en Latinoamérica para niños de entre 6 y 12 años, a través de tres plataformas: Estudiantes, Escuela, Mundo Virtual. Posibilitando con esto que los estudiantes de primaria puedan aprender, crecer e interactuar (videos, juegos y actividades) en una comunidad de aprendizaje online. Este proyecto también se presento durante la conferencia TechCrunch50. [...]